Every now and then, I play something that catches me off guard. State of Decay, a zombie-survival open world XBLA title, is one of those games.

Created by Undead Labs, a relatively small development house created by industry veteran, Jeff Strain, State of Decay hasn't really had any advertising or PR, and I can't even tell you when or where I first heard of it, but I'm glad I did.

And before you say it... yes, more zombies.  I realise zombies have been done to death recently (pun intended) but, in my opinion, this shouldn't be an issue if the game is good enough.  It's normally only when some developers start churning out stale cash-in games that it becomes an issue.

Set within Trumbull County, the game opens with you playing Marcus Campbell, returning from a fishing trip with his friend Ed Jones, only to get attacked by a group of hungry zombies.  Through this opening section, the game gently guides you through the basics of combat, stealth and your journal without it feeling like too much of a tutorial. Shortly before you reach the end of this section, you'll meet your first new playable character, Maya Torres.

It's not long before you've left the trees of Mount Trumbull and heading for the nearest town where life isn't much better, but there are plenty of resources around.  After joining a small community of survivors who have set up camp inside a church, you start to learn about base management and resource gathering.  From this point on, the game really starts to open out.  With multiple characters available for you to play as, and control over what facilities to build or upgrade, it's unlike that any two games are likely to be the same.  Characters you aren't playing will travel out into the world to collect resources or provide missions.  Those missions can vary, but will normally revolve around you assisting another character destroy an infestation of zombies, a freak (a more powerful zombie, see below) or rescuing another character from the zombies (I've lost track of the number of times I've had to rescue Sawyer).

The key to the appeal and the success of the whole game is the mechanics behind it and how they work almost independently from everything else.  Characters, for example: Other than the initial Cardio, Wits, Melee Weapons and Shooting skills, all characters have traits that affect how they act or progress.  For example, the trait 'Bum Knee' will prevent that character from recovering stamina while crouched; this may not seem like much on the surface, it can make a real difference to how you develop that character... no hiding in bushes to recover your stamina between fights with the zombies, so you may choose to develop their shooting skills instead.  But this is just one example of one specific mechanic.  Take away the story elements and you still have a complete game with characters going about their business, buildings generate resources and zombies show up all over the place attempting to spoil the party.  The end result is genius and gives the game almost endless replayability.  What if I make Marcus a pistol expert? Or setup my home base in the local fast food restaurant instead of the trucking company? Or I decide to help those nasty Wilkerson's?

Skills for each character also only improve with use.  Running improves your cardio, searching improves your wits, shooting improves your... um... shooting and bashing zombies violently in the head improves your mood (and your melee weapon skill).  Increasing these skills not only improves your ability, it also unlocks extra moves or skills allowing you to specialise in specific types of weapon.  This adds to the variety as you'll want to improve the skills of all of the playable characters... leaving a character with low skills is a good way to ensure that they damage the moral of your community by misfiring guns or getting themselves trapped by zombies (again... Saywer).

With money having little worth in this new world, influence is your primary currency.  Complete missions, collect resources and help people out to gain influence that can then be used to 'buy' outposts or call in favours from people you've helped in the past.  This proved particularly useful when I found myself stuck on top of a water tower with no ammo, at night, with two zombie hoards running round the bottom waiting for me to climb down.  A quick radio message called in a friendly NPC with a rifle who pick off enough of the zombies to give me an opportunity to make a run for my car. Tense, stupid (on my part) but ultimately fun!

The world is filled with a variety of different weapons, from table legs and golf clubs through to assault rifles and anti-personal mines; each with a different level of effectiveness. Melee weapons are definitely the best to go with at first.  This does mean getting up close and personal with the zombies but they don't make as much noise (which tends to bring even more zombies running) and they aren't as reliant on you being able to pull off accurate head shots (which can be quite difficult... some of those zombies are damn quick).

Life is made a little more complicated with the freak zombies that tend to turn up with zombie hoards or stumbling into your path at just the wrong moment.  Like Left 4 Dead, there are only a few freaks, but they can prove deadly: the slightly armoured SWAT zombie that is almost impossible to shoot, through; the Screamer stumbles around stopping only to make an ear-piercing scream that staggers your character; the Bloater explodes creating a cloud of toxic gas which is particularly deadly if you hit him with a car.  The two worse freaks are most definitely the Feral zombie, which is like a super-charged version of Left 4 Dead's stalker and the Big 'Un, or Juggernaut... this guy is so tough that if you hit him with a car, even a truck, you'll come off worse.  Don't try and take him on with melee weapons as he'll destroy you (I tried)... take guns, and friends with guns... and a LOT of ammo.

The story itself seems to have multiple threads involving local groups and the army, each with a different agenda.  I won't go into it to avoid any potential spoilers but your decisions do have an effect on the world around you and the moral of your community.

Given that it's an XBLA title, for just 1600 Microsoft Points (something I never thought I'd ever say), it's an amazing achievement.  The game looks and plays great.  It's not without it's occasional glitch, however, with zombies spawning in odd locations (like under the floor) and the rather enthusiastic physics used on the cars which can often see you flipping a car into the air after clipping a stone by the side of the road.  But the developers have been quick to respond, acknowledge and, more importantly address those issues... a real bonus in my eyes.  I'm always a little more tolerant of a game's issues if the developer appears to be honestly trying to do their best to get things sorted.

This game isn't for everyone.  If you're the sort of person that just wants to run round smashing zombies to bits with your weapon of choice, you may find that this game is just a little too 'busy' for you with the constant radio requests and base management.  If, however, you're one of those people that realise that the zombie bashing is just part of the journey, not the destination, then State of Decay has you covered.

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~ Naiboss