NOW
PLAYING
Undead Labs’
sequel is one of
my favourite ever
zombie games. It
was a bit buggy
at first, but once
those floating
zombies got sorted, it has settled into
being a memorable and immersive
survival sim, responsible for some of
my most gut-wrenchingly affective
Xbox experiences.
I was on my second playthrough
when last I logged into it, but it’s
been a while. So I decided now would
be a good time to revisit my second
community, which, as I recall, I had left
in a healthy, happy state. Hello again,
Gracie, Ron, Nikki, Dedéia, Trevoli and
Charlie. How’s it going at the old police
station at Drover’s Bend? Great, let’s
destroy some infestations!
Oh dear. I’d forgotten how
unforgiving of mistakes this game can
be, and within an hour, Trevoli and
Charlie are dead, and poor Dedéia is
literally ripped in two by a Juggernaut.
I liked her. She had skills, leadership
potential, and all the guns. Now I have
to send Nikki out to retrieve her stuff,
from her corpse which is lying, in two
parts, on a bend in the road.
Team morale is down, so I send
Nikki out to find vinyl records
so she can cheer everyone
up with her DJ-ing skills. I
send her alone, because
I daren’t risk losing any
more people. Within 20
minutes, Nikki is dead.
Her last conversation
was about how she loved
to dance; now she’s doing
a zombie shuffle.
Time for Ron to take charge.
Ron’s best trait is that he is described
as a ‘massive jerk’. Perfect leadership
qualities. It’s now just down to him
and Gracie, who looks like she was
just in an urban riot, kicks ass and
bakes cakes. Things are looking up
when Ron bravely hikes off on foot and
grabs some more wheels (the two cars
I had an hour ago are burning husks
littered across Whitney Junction).
Along the way Ron manages torecruitCheon,AdamandColbytothe
community. Happy days! Time to take
back Meagher Valley for humanity!Let them eat cake
Despite Gracie wanting to bake a
cake, the mood is still sombre on
account of all the zombies, so
Cheon and Colby head out
and manage to lower the
infestation level a little,
before Colby succumbs
to the blood plague
and Cheon, lacking
any cure, has to shoot
him in the head. Cheon’s
bad day is compounded
when the truck he is driving
runs out of fuel and has to sprint
to the nearest gas station where
he is overwhelmed and brutally
dismembered. Poor Cheon, he’ll never
paint again, although he’s made an
impression on the gas station’s wall.
Back at the base, Ron’s being a
massive jerk and starting fights. Adam
goes out alone to destroy a plague
heart, which calms Ron down. Buoyed
by this success, I take plucky Adam
out again, armed with Molotovs. Butthistimehejustsetshimselfonfire
and dies screaming along with the
plague heart. Good work, Adam. RIP.
Ron and Gracie badly need to turn
those frowns upside down, so I take
control of Gracie and her mission to
get the ingredients for a really yummy
cake. Ten minutes later she’s dead by
the roadside, still clutching the honey
she’d scavenged from a zombie-filled
supermarket. She never got to bake
that cake, and now she’s been iced.
At the time of going to press, Ron
is still alive, alone and still a massive
jerk. While I’m away from the game
again, I just imagine him weeping in a
corner of Drover’s Bend police station,
wondering where it all went wrong. Qextra
“Nikki is dead. Her last conversation
was about how she loved to dance
now she’s doin a zombie shuffle”
Keeping up with the plague zombies in the Xbox exclusive
survival sim, State Of Decay 2 CHRIS BURKE
PUBLISHER MICROSOFT STUDIOS / DEVELOPER UNDEAD LABS / FORMAT XBOX ONE / RELEASE DATE MAY 2018WHAT IS IT?
An Xbox-exclusive
zombie survival sim with
online co-op gameplay.
It has roguelike
qualities, where dead
means dead, or often
undead.More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 099