Last week, during the Xbox Games Showcase, State of Decay 3 was announced. This is the third game in the series, if the name didn’t suggest that already, and it looks to really shake things up. The first two games put you in the shoes of survivors in fairly built up areas, but this one looks like it plonks you in the middle of nowhere on your own. Oh, and zombie deer.
The traditional loop for a State of Decay game is to begin as a lone survivor, or with a small group. You’ll quickly come together with more survivors, build up a base, and then move on to create bigger and better bases around the world. There is a story, but the games put much more emphasis on surviving and putting your group together than actually following the quests that are there.
State of Decay 3 looks to keep things simple, focusing on your survival, but it also looks like survival is going to be much harder in this game. We don’t see any other survivors in the trailer, just this one hunter. Of course there are also zombie animals, a first for the series, which might indicate that the virus is getting stronger over the course of time.
I think that a State of Decay game that puts you in the shows of a sole survivor would be incredible. I’d definitely like the option to work with a community as well, but the sole survivor aspect feels like it would push me to my limits. Part of this series is knowing your limits, and knowing when your character needs to rest. The survival elements would make it so that you can only travel so far in a day before needing to return. The progressions system could see you get stronger as time goes on, and you explore more. You could even build your own small camp, and have to defend it from zombies and humans like.
I can’t wait to see more of State of Decay 3. I think that the game is leaning much more on survival horror than the others have, and that can only be an interesting direction for a series starring a zombie virus.