Well, newbie, welcome to the decaying state. In this world of blood, shit and simple human assholery, where the roles of the victim and the hunter cleverly change sides. You came to find out what awaits you ahead and, damn it, you did the smartest thing in your life by asking me about it. Look out the window, you see a crowd of zombies wandering towards the supermarket?
Just recently there were quite reasonable people in their place, but one lousy day they suddenly became brainless creatures. I have no idea why we got lucky, but now we have to somehow coexist with this new fauna. You can’t survive there alone, and therefore you have to gather in small groups, arrange your home, look for supplies and from time to time show the walkers who is the pinnacle of evolution here. Actually, in general terms, this is what you will be doing.
A bird sang to me that this is already the second adventure for you, in the first you helped Lilly set up a base and investigate the situation in the Trumbull Valley, and also had some business with the military and rescued scientists. It’s quite commendable that you have experience, but it will be useful here insofar as. It has its own rules, its own nuances, so forget everything you were taught. While you were having fun with zombie girls, serious events happened, a bloody plague, as we call it, appeared out of nowhere, and crowds of brain-eaters infected with this virus are walking all over the frontier. Their attacks can turn a person into a zed. Thank the eggs, our scientists were able to find a way to make a vaccine, but this does not mean that we should be careless. Besides, why the hell do you understand how zombies were able to build plague hearts and hide them in the darkest corners, when you meet them you will immediately understand what it is. Cocoon-shaped pieces of flesh and bones surrounded by stench and red haze will haunt your nightmares for a long time.
I suspect that they are spreading the infection, so eliminating them is your first priority. But if they don’t have paws and teeth, this doesn’t mean it will be easy, they call on crowds of zeds to help them and do not hesitate to spread poisonous fumes around them. But those lucky ones who managed to deal with this threat boast that they were able to fish out of it fairly well-preserved supplies and equipment. Apparently what was left of their owners became part of the heart.
There aren’t many hearts in the valleys, you’ll mostly encounter these.
An ordinary zombie sticking into the void. Unlike the movies, these are too cunning bastards. It seems like they can barely drag their feet, but as soon as they spot a survivor they run like crazy. Some of them pretend to be corpses, but in reality they are waiting for the moment to grab your ass. If you see a body with no signs of life, give it a whack just in case. By the way, about the turnip, the best way to kill the undead is to blow off his head, don’t even try to shoot his body, it’s practically useless. And if you have nothing in your hands except a good bat, try not to let them hit you. Zeds not only love to wave their paws, but also try to grab or knock over in a jump when they are chasing a victim, they can deliver fast and slow blows and even call their relatives for help. Underestimate these assholes.
If you saw a pack of zombies, then their DJ Screamer was probably lurking somewhere nearby.
Apparently, having become zeds, the neighbors finally gained a bit of courage and tore off the hands of the one who was trying to sing karaoke behind their wall. In any case, this guy only knows two things: scream, calling the brainless to him, and get hit in the face with a tire iron. It is advisable that the second precede the first, and you will be fine. But be careful with those who are infected with the bloody plague, they also try to spit some kind of contagious muck.
Next on our list is rotten. Look, it’s lying in the bushes? No? And he is there. From a distance you can’t distinguish him from an overly fat zombie, but when you get closer you’ll understand that he’s clearly not like everyone else, but it’ll be too late.
In their stomach there is gas in an extremely unstable state and upon any interaction with a solid object it explodes, leaving behind a toxic cloud. It’s funny that this miracle can’t run, and if it tries, it trips over the first stone it comes across and falls, after which a “boom” happens. While they are awake, they pose no danger, but in their quiet time they decide that the best place to sleep is the highway at night. You get a little lazy and this zombie dumps his shit all over the car, and you have to jump out and get some air. I have a couple of tricks here: its gas is explosive, so use the rotten as a time bomb and turn it against your enemies. The second one concerns a shot in his mouth, oddly enough, it doesn’t explode, but dies quietly, I don’t recommend doing this – it’s boring.
Ooh, can you hear the howl? These are Ferals, unlike their brothers, they run around like animals on all fours and pose a serious threat. We should shoot this geek before he breaks into the base. Hold the carbine and get in the car, it’s time to deal with it. Great, don’t drive too close to him, otherwise he’ll rip the door open and throw you out of the car right as he goes. As soon as we get closer you will have a couple of seconds to aim and shoot when he runs at you, at this time they are vulnerable. Ferals are the brightest among the zeds and drive at a speed of 40 km/h, so don’t miss…
(sounds of gunshots) It’s done. We were lucky, sometimes they gather in flocks of three and a beginner can’t cope with this, you need either a fast hand or a fast car. It’s even more difficult with the plague ones, their head is covered with a shell and you have to spend three bullets to pierce it. True, I know a guy who manages to stun them with stun grenades or a simple bat and, while they come to their senses, carefully separates the head from the body. How many maniacs are there in the world?.
This roar and stomping, we quickly got into the car and drove. Forward, forward, forward! We’ve got a juggernaut on our tail.
Let me introduce you, this big https://18hokicasino.co.uk/ piece of meat, two meters tall, is the most dangerous reptile on the frontier. His head can withstand an incredible amount of bullets and a Molotov only leaves him with a crispy crust. Turn into that alley, I’ll get mines and throw them on the road along the way, that should stop him.
Explosives are probably the most effective way to bring this monster to the zombie or a heavy rifle.50 caliber and it doesn’t kill him with the first shot, although it simply splits anyone else into molecules. Looks like we’ve had a blast, let’s go to Harrison’s group, they’ve settled nearby.
Actually, this is the entire bestiary, and while we are driving, I will explain a little about the behavior of the zeds and the fight against them. Unlike people, zombies do not see in the usual sense of the word, for them there is no difference between day and night, you can even shine a flashlight in their eyes, you will not achieve any effect. But if you are closer than 15-20 meters to them, zombies will notice you in any weather and time of day. Their hearing is quite excellent and a whole pack will run to any fallen pan to check if everything is in order.
Sound is both an enemy and a friend of a survivor, a correctly thrown firecracker will gather the undead into a heap and allow you to deal with them with one incendiary mixture, but a zombie who notices you will definitely give a cry to his friends before attacking. There is also a peculiarity here: the crowd flocks not to the cause of the sound, but to the sound itself, which means that if you screw up, there is a chance to run away and see disappointed zeds. And in general, due to poor visibility, they often run not so much after a person as to where they last saw him. I remember how I once set up a Benny Hill with them around the house, and then ran to the side and watched them cut circles. Classic.
Don’t drive too close to the house to avoid bringing the pack down on the Harrisons. Let’s walk quietly here, bending past that crowd over there. When you don’t want to attract attention, it’s better not to shine. If someone is stopping you from passing, sneak up and quietly give him the finishing blow.
In the most dangerous zones, you have to spend most of your time on all fours maneuvering between decaying bodies. Let’s do these two at the same time. (grunting) Order.
Now it’s time for some good old friendship. Hello Henry, this is a newbie. Newcomer is Henry Harrison. Just a month ago they moved here and didn’t know anyone at all, I brought them food, helped them find their friend and now we are allies. For this they regularly send me details. Remember, newbie: the more allies you have, the more people who are willing to share their surplus, the more friends who can sell valuables at a discount and buy your junk. No, we don’t use money, it’s no longer useful. Reputation itself has become the bargaining chip. A tough guy who easily deals with the strongest opponents, carries out assignments and gives away useful things in everyday life, enjoys universal respect. And this respect is kind of like a new currency. Look, I give Henry the tampons, I have no idea what he needs them for, but in return I can take a can of fuel. My friend also asks me to deal with a group of former prisoners who have settled nearby and are preventing others from living.
Unfortunately, the brainless are not the only danger. For one reason or another, groups can quarrel with each other and kill. I’ll say right away that the operation of clearing a house of prisoners is a pain in the ass, since the guys there are experienced survivalists with guns and clubs and the outcome cannot always be calculated. Therefore, I will later return to my cache and take a couple of cans of bait, the zeds will come running to it, they will deal with it without me.
Ok, I dropped off all the goods to Harry, at the same time I rented a strong guy Ron from him, he will help us if anything happens. Let’s go home. (in the car) Ron is an extremely skilled guy, when you beat zombies all day long, sooner or later you learn new tricks. So he learned and developed his strength to such an extent that with one jerk he can throw a zed to the ground and crush his skull with his foot. Rumor has it that former chef Chen is capable of blowing a head off with one blow of his cleaver after some practice. If we conditionally divide a person’s abilities, we get: endurance, intelligence, strength and shooting. Develop these abilities in yourself during campaigns and fights and you will move to a new level. And then you will have a choice of four specializations for each. Those who were able to reach the limit simply tear the zombie to pieces with their bare hands.
When you recruit people for your gang, look not only at his physical characteristics, but also at his specialization. Hey Ron, who are you?? Cook? A useful skill, a good cook will make coffee and make energy drinks. The medic will figure out how to equip and improve the first aid station, and the gardener will know how to grow a rich harvest.
Oh Ron, fuck you, yes, I’m an ikebana specialist. By the way, they raise the morale of the guys a little, so I’m quite useful to myself, unlike the dude who recently asked to join us, who only knew how to tell facts about animals. Have you ever seen at least one animal?? They’ve all been devoured a long time ago.
In any case, even a tough specialist can be a thorn in one place; survivors also have character traits: someone can lose their temper and eat a day’s supply of food, someone is conflicted and gets into fights. You definitely won’t get bored with these guys. The main thing is to monitor their morals; if someone doesn’t like something, he can simply leave the team. And when you’re not in the mood, work goes much slower and you don’t particularly want to learn something.
Cheryl from my team copes with stress by changing her clothes every day. She asks me to look for tops and hats for her on my hikes, as if I have nothing else to do. You see, she can’t go out on operations to destroy hearts in the same place, zombies, so that the devils would tear her up, they won’t understand. Half of the warehouse is filled with her things. But if you have the same mental problems, you can change your clothes at least once an hour, I won’t judge. The apocalypse doesn’t mean you shouldn’t look stylish.
Here we are. As you know, I am the leader of this group of survivors and I did not become one right away. To do this, you need to impress others with your actions: bring supplies, kill zombies – do everything so that your usefulness becomes obvious to others. To generalize, leaders can be traders, construction workers, military men and sheriffs. Everyone has at their disposal their own drawings of buildings and the final goal. Still, getting rid of hearts is not the only thing that people need now, they need to unite and confront the threat together, and for this they have four ways.
I touched on the topic of the base, so why not develop it?. Initially, one must be settled, they are different and have certain requirements. A small group simply cannot monitor large areas of a stadium or shopping center, but this mansion is just right for us. Here we will build a first aid post so that wounded partners can recover after heavy battles, there we will place a vegetable garden to at least somehow compensate for the loss of food, but here I am still in doubt between the tower and the workshop. This is the most difficult thing, even on a large base you have to choose what to build, since there is a lot of choice and not enough space. Management, motherfucker.
And this is the holy of holies. Warehouse. All resources found in the wasteland can be divided into useful little things and bags of resources. The bags usually contain basic provisions, fuel, construction materials, medicine and ammunition. All this is necessary on the farm and is the basis of the economy of the settlement. For this good, you have to go to hell and fight off zombies, so that you have something to treat and feed the guys.
Let’s go down to the command center. We have a signalman here who coordinates the actions of the group, and at the same time controls the flow of goodies from the posts. One of our guys has already gone to the store to stake it out, he will clear it and set up a post there, thanks to this we will get some food every day. Now he is requesting the help of snipers to fight off the pack, and consultation with a doctor for effective treatment. If you find yourself in a difficult situation, do not hesitate to use the walkie-talkie, it can save your life. Sometimes you can tune in to the frequencies of other factions and listen to negotiations, perhaps with the help of them you can get at least pieces of information about what is generally happening in the world.
I’ve already kept you here long enough, so here’s what I’ll say finally:. Now we are at the fork in three roads, your choice will determine your future. The left one leads to one of four valleys, where you will have to gather your community and survive.
Rumor has it that the situation may be different in the same area depending on the danger of the zone. I call it complexity and there are only five types of it.
The green zone is the easiest for completely inexperienced people. There is a sea of resources and a minimum of zeds, and even those are kind of weak. The next two are for those who like to push themselves a little and get the adrenaline pumping through their veins. The penultimate one is known for the fact that geeks can gather in packs. And finally, the last one… it’s only for experienced. There are almost no resources, crowds of zombies, all the geeks are plague-ridden, and the team’s mood is in the worst possible place. This is a real test for those who want not only to survive, but to do it with passion.
Center Road leads to Trumbull. Yes, you will find yourself in a familiar place again, but this time you will have to deal with the source of the bloody plague. It seems that she evolved there and became much more dangerous. Two couples have already gone there, and you will help them settle.
The third road leads to the Scarlet Claw. This is a paramilitary organization consisting of former soldiers who decided to work independently. They managed to find a relay for CLEO, an artificial intelligence, and use it to replenish their supplies. The problem is that while he is working, the entire zombie community goes crazy and attacks the Scarlet Claw barricades in waves. That’s why these guys are constantly looking for new recruits. All that awaits you there is a continuous reflection of the Zeds’ attacks, but if you survive, the rewards will be quite pleasant. In addition, your community can send its own agent, who, in terms of military training and adaptability, is far ahead of an ordinary survivor.
In general, I taught you the basics, now get lost. We’re planning a siege here, I saw the boys running towards us, now we’ll feed them lead. God forbid they bite you, you will also have to be treated at our expense.
From the author
It’s hard to call State of Decay 2 a breakthrough game; perhaps some won’t even call it a good game. And such people can be understood; at the start it was bugged, and some mechanics worked strangely, to put it mildly. And in this case, I will not defend the developers, since most of the problems have not yet been solved, and some solutions have created even more bugs. Nevertheless, State of Decay is a unique game, something similar is extremely difficult to find. It gives off an atmosphere of a zombie apocalypse that’s hard not to believe in. During the day, these are deserted towns in yellow and orange tones, as if referring to the name, and at night, a gloomy horror film, where you shy away from literally every bush. I played 500 hours, played on the maximum difficulty level and I’m still scared to go out at night to search for resources. Every outing is an adventure, you never know what will happen. It would seem that a banal bustle of an ordinary toilet can lead to the fact that the zombies will light up and call the others, and with them the Ferals, Jaegers and, in general, the entire dead population of the town will come running. Incorrect calculation of fuel in the car and you are left in the middle of a great nothingness, with a crowd of enemies around you. Each team member is valuable and his loss is a strain not only on our empathy for the virtual person, but also a very real loss to the settlement due to the death of a gardener or doctor.
When you start to understand the mechanics and subtleties, suddenly the whole depth is revealed. For example, an explosive with a fuse does not work if it is thrown into a puddle; a flare, which is needed to distract zombies, can be a source of fire, and therefore capable of detonating toxic clouds. To clear the house of zombies during an infection, it is not at all necessary to kill them all, just throw firecrackers away and the whole flock will run out towards the sound. These are the kinds of things that should be in sandboxes, details whose use you constantly find in the most unusual situations
It seems to me that most of the negative assessments come from those who chose the wrong approach. You need to start with the third or fourth difficulty, so that the gameplay does not turn into routine and routine, but becomes just survival. When the lack of resources and the number of zombies constantly keep you on your toes and force you to make difficult decisions. I just hope that this article will help look at the game from a new angle and give it a chance to rehabilitate itself, especially after the release of the juggernaut edition.
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