A developer named Undead Labs this week announced that yet another zombie survival game is being developed, this time for a console. State of Decay will feature a DayZ-like open-world, sandbox zombie apocalypse wilderness for players to inhabit via the Xbox LIVE Arcade or PC.
Undead Labs states on its website that players will have to find water, food, and shelter – all while battling the zombie horde. State of Decay seems to set itself apart from DayZ by focusing more on setting up fortifications against the zombie outbreak, allowing players to recruit NPC survivors and designate certain areas as a home base.
Undead Labs states that the world of State of Decay will develop in real-time depending on the actions players take. Content will be dynamically generated and the zombie threat will be “ever-increasing.” What is unclear from either the trailer or the announcement is whether State of Decay will feature the nerve-wracking and dangerous player-versus-player (PVP) interaction that makes DayZ so exciting.
DayZ itself is a mod for the Arma II military simulation game for PC that was released in an Alpha state earlier this year. In it, players spawn into a large, open world with little gear and have to dodge zombies and seek out basic necessities to survive. Other players are also playing simultaneously and competing for limited resources, meaning that some survivors turn to banditry as a way of life. State of Decay is the second DayZ-like zombie survival game to be announced this summer. In July, a game staying close to the DayZ formula called WarZ was announced by Hammerpoint Interactive.
Check out the State of Decay announcement trailer below and decide for yourself which zombie survival game suits you best: