State of Decay Critic Reviews

The balance of combat, stealth, scavenging, and environmental interactivity is perfect.

State of Decay is an impressive open world zombie game that can actually rival blockbuster zombie games like Dead Island.

Undeniable technical difficulties aside, with a price tag of only 20 bucks nobody should miss out on State of Decay. It's easily one of the most complex and elaborately designed XBLA title to ever grace that service, so clever and mature I'm struggling to name another open world game that has felt this fresh in the last three years since Red Dead Redemption rode along.

State Of Decay is an amazing videogame, albeit one hiding beneath one of the ugliest, creakiest engines we’ve seen in some time. It’s a complex, inaccessible beast, but one of the most rewarding and compelling open-world games in years. This is The Walking Dead: The Simulator. And it’s every bit as good as that sounds.

State of Decay is offering you to have first-hand experience of dealing with the zombie-infested Earth. The intense experience is being built-up by plenty of selves-affecting possibilities resulting in one of the best sandbox games of the recent years.

State of Decay is so much more than the sum of its parts: it’s a fun, challenging game of survival that will demand more of you than just twitch reflexes. It’s another feather in the Xbox Live Arcade’s cap, and an essential purchase for gamers looking for a fresh take on a familiar theme.

Decay belongs in the pantheon of great modern zombie games alongside Valve’s Left 4 Dead series and Telltale’s Walking Dead episodes.

This game re-defines the genre of zombie based games with so many ideas and his unique atmosphere, despite tons of tech glitches and a little bit frustrating combat system.

State of Decay is a fun game that puts you right in the middle of a zombie outbreak and forces you to stop and plan your survival strategy. If you've ever asked yourself what would you do in a zombie apocalypse scenario, this game will offer you a different perspective. And yes, you'll find a few annoying bugs and glitches, but you'll also find a compelling and powerful gaming experience.

By tying so many systems together with tough choices and the constant spectre of death hanging over it, Undead Labs has created something singular. Small complaints notwithstanding, State of Decay is one of the most cohesive, terrifying and engaging open-world games I've ever played.

State of Decay is ugly. It looks ugly, and in many ways it plays ugly. However, there's a simple beauty underneath the frightful veneer, one that surrounds a compelling, interesting, complex, and enslaving little game...Few zombie games, for all their marketing power and visual sheen, can come close to providing what State of Decay does.

State of Decay is certainly not without its flaws, but if you can see past them you’ll find that there is a boatload of entertaining gameplay that awaits you in this unique zombie survival simulator.

For anyone even remotely interested in what might be like to survive the zombie apocalypse, State of Decay is an absolute must-play.

State of Decay is a game that is, in many ways, both the best and worst zombie game you’ve ever played. For all of its bugs, blemishes, and festering imperfections, this game realizes an untapped style of survival gameplay that genre nuts should definitely take notice of.

An entertaining zombie apocalypse sandbox. It's a bit rough visually, but makes up for it with a persistent world.

Naturally, this mortality will drive some players nuts, while others will relish the undeniably heightened sense of danger.

As a sandbox game, State of Decay is not very impressive. But a survival game with an apocalyptic and zombies setting is pretty awesome. Combat, exploration and good community sense make for the most ambitious game for the XBLA in a long time.

There are some issues on the tech side, but it's a surprisingly good sandbox we think zombie fans will love.

Technically has its weaknesses but the gameplay is pure gold. State of Decay is one of the most memorable, engrossing zombie games to date.

Regardless, if you like exploration, stress, permadeath, free-roaming games and don’t care about how the arm hair on your man looks, then this is definitely a game for you.