A new dawn rises in State of Decay 2 [review]

You've seen Dawn of the Dead? The original? This is like that, but a game.


This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2018/05/24/a-new-dawn-rises-in-state-of-decay-2/

Based on your reaction on stream, I think the muscle car was worth two of those stars all on its own.

Lovely review.

Right now, each night I’m too busy to game for one reason or another. I’m waiting for a clear night in my schedule so I can dig into this. Then I’ll activate the free month of Game Pass generously donated by @Wendelius, and dig into this game.

In the original game, I think what was always my downfall was that I never learned to manage my stamina levels well. I always felt like everything was under control, until suddenly it wasn’t, and I was out of stamina, and things spiraled really fast, and my character died. And then the next character I cultivated started doing well, but then suddenly, I’d be out of stamina and that character would die. And so on, until I couldn’t play anymore.

I need to learn better stamina management, or get better at combat maybe, when it comes time to tackle the sequel. The first game always felt like it was so easy, until very suddenly, it wasn’t.

Well, reading this made me watch Dawn of the Dead for the first time. I preferred the first State of Decay though.

“All that information about characters, but I can’t find out where in the base a character is standing if I need to talk to him?” Oh that’s a bummer, always annoyed me in the first game. Maybe they’ll find a way to drop a marker over their head?

Also, it’s probably heresy in zombie fandom to say so but I think Dawn of the Dead is my least favorite Romero, at least of the original trilogy. We don’t need to get into Diary of the Dead do we? Anyway, I can get why folks like it, as kind of a slice of life from some folks just getting by in the new reality, but having seen it so many times it just feels like “this happens and then this happens and then that happens” without a lot of structure or purpose.

Night will always be my favorite because of how raw it was. The production values and all help to make a better movie, technically, but Night of the Living Dead is true horror.

I think State of Decay 2 is great, though.

Well okay then, that’s a lot more positive than RPS’ review.

Since it’s only on Windows 10 and Xbone, I’m not going to play this for a long while, though.

Speaking of Night, I love the lack of light in the nighttime in this game.

yeah, it’s enough to make me reconsider leaving my base if I don’t need something after dark.

I figured this was getting 5 stars, no one streams a game for a whole week if they aren’t having F-U-N. ;)

Great write up as always Tom, I’ll be waiting for the inevitable Steam release.

Nice review, this game is great and is pure fun. I hope they improve the coop modes like you said in future updates. we really need a pure coop mode where the players are part of the host group.

Forget Romero and just watch this:

Zombies…whatevs…

Body Snatchers, really? That’s a movie for people who were traumatized by mommy making them eat all their vegetables before leaving the table.

Romero is for DIYers in a mall. “Genre” my ass. Back at you, Sir!

You say that like it’s a bad thing! Dawn showed us that hey, maybe you can survive a zombie apocalypse. Go find a place you can barricade, make sure you have food and water, maybe some buddies to hang out with, and as long as bikers wielding pies don’t show up, you’re golden!

What does Body Snatchers tell us? Nope, give up, you stand no chance against your pea pod overlords. In fact, you’re so boring, people wouldn’t even notice if you were replaced with a vegetable! Not exactly life affirming.

If you want life affirming, watch Bambi.

IoBS evokes, cleanly and with cold terror, the fear and paranoia of the Cold War.

Dawn invokes the terror of mall shopping in Pennsylvania doused in Ketchup blood. It has all the script and atmosphere of a 3M corporate video with the production values of early Jon Waters. It’s a "classic"if two bots and a Joel were involved.

And to you, Sir.

Cold War? Why not just watch Hunt for Red October? If I wanted an allegory I’d read Aesop!

Zombies work because they don’t need to stand for anything. They can, I guess, if you’re one of those people who needs a “message” in your entertainment so it doesn’t feel like a waste of time, but sometimes a zombie is just encroaching doom, that will not stop until it’s chewing through your flesh that it can’t even taste or digest anymore. Zombies don’t make sense and they don’t need to. They’re the boogeyman. They don’t come from space and they don’t stand in for sneaky russkies that want to steal our way of life.

So ketchup blood and rotting chicken meat are more terror inducing than a Doppelganger? Indeed, in your words, Zombies “stand for nothing”. I will leave you to eat your cheese whiz from the can nozzle, sir, and bid you good day!

Now…was this debate nerdier or less nerdy than “Deckard was a replicant”?

Less nerdy. But probably also less dumb.

A flying silver ball that attaches itself to your cranium, and then drills your brains out, is much scarier.