Imagine the collective groans – much like those emanating from the undead featured in the game – when news of yet another remastered title was announced for the current crop of consoles.

Many of us may still argue that these re-releases are little more than blatant cash-ins, offering little more than slightly glossier graphics. And there have been plenty of them lately: Grand Theft Auto V, The Last of US, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Resident Evil, Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition and Metro Redux to name but a few… Yet while we all yearn for new IPs, the remastering phenomenon seems to be here to stay.

"There are updated graphics, of course, new achievements, new supply crate missions, a nice auto-recording DVR feature to capture deaths and zombie kills, as well as an exclusive character if you’ve previously bought the main game."

Understandably, those who’ve not yet experienced the titles in their original form are excited at the prospect of getting the chance to try the ultimate version of the game in all its glory, but it’s clear that even existing owners relish the prospect at playing a new souped-up version.

Add the fact that many developers also use it as an opportunity to bundle game-extending add-ons and DLC with the new edition, complete with enhanced HD graphics and next-gen bells and whistles, and remasters actually look pretty good value.

And the new State of Decay is no different.

There are updated graphics, of course, new achievements, new supply crate missions, a nice auto-recording DVR feature to capture deaths and zombie kills, as well as an exclusive character if you’ve previously bought the main game. Gurubani Kaur is fairly handy with a sword too so is well worth having onboard. It also comes bundled with the “Breakdown” (infinite sandbox mode) and “Lifeline” (a campaign from the viewpoint of the military), which are both decent in their own rights.

"What I like most about the new offering, however, is the upgrade plan for existing owners. Xbox 360 gamers can expect a 33% discount when they buy the Year-One Survival Edition before the end of June."

State of Decay: Year-One Survival Edition sees everything captured in glorious 1080p and has a few other additions to lure previous players to the next gen. Visually, everything looks so much better. The environments are nicely detailed, the colours crisp, the animations smooth and the effects, impressive. There’s better lighting, and the textures and shadows all enhance the experience of the zombie apocalypse.

What I like most about the new offering, however, is the upgrade plan for existing owners. Xbox 360 gamers can expect a 33% discount when they buy the Year-One Survival Edition before the end of June. Now that’s quite tempting given all the extras, isn’t it?

When the original State of Decay emerged in 2013 it proved hugely popular with the masses, and despite issues with frame rates, pop up and clipping, it became Xbox Live Arcade’s fastest-selling original game – just a week after its launch. Those half a million paid downloads proved that zombie fever was still rife amongst the gaming community.

"Any doubters of remasters could do far worse than taking the plunge with State of Decay. It’s still a little rough around the edges but it’s a fantastic game and this is a pretty comprehensive package."

Rather than a standard hack and slash effort, State of Decay demanded careful and considered resource management and some tough moral decisions to ensure your survival. You got to build a secure base, rescue stranded survivors, prioritise food and ammunition collection… or die.

Zombies are everywhere, attracted by noise and often appearing in large groups. And they’re pretty speedy too, able to catch you when you least expect it. They’re perfectly happy to chow down on you while you’re rifling through supply crates or raiding a seemingly deserted house – so you better hope you’ve got a friendly face alongside you to watch your back. Keeping your fellow survivors alive and onside is a crucial element of the game – and what makes this stand out in a massively flooded zombie-themed market.

Any doubters of remasters could do far worse than taking the plunge with State of Decay. It’s still a little rough around the edges but it’s a fantastic game and this is a pretty comprehensive package. Here’s hoping any future visits to Undead Labs’ gruesome world will offer multiplayer, eh?

A Xbox One copy State of Decay: Year-One Survival Edition was provided by Microsoft for this feature.

Marcus Campbell begins the story with his friend Ed, as the two are returning from a trip at Mount Tanner. Being out in the wilderness has isolated them from the real world though which has quickly fallen into the throes of undead madness. Along the way, Marcus and Ed meet Maya, a soldier, and eventually travel to the Church of Ascension where Lily and a group of survivors are holed up. From here, it’s a desperate struggle to survive the undead while finding ways to escape the valley.

"The size of the world isn't inconsequential but it pales to the freedom players will have. Whether you choose to pursue the plot or continue building up your own camp, the world continues to evolve, making it tougher for you to survive."

State of Decay is an open world game, played from a third person perspective, and is fairly heavy on the hacking and slashing. You can hit drop-kicks, execute stealth takedowns on zombies and acquire firearms and other equipment to best the undead. However, this isn’t just an action game. As soon as you arrive at the Church of Ascension, you’ll immediately begin to manage resources, bond with survivors, attempt to keep morale up and modify the overall structure. You may choose to expand on the medical facilities at the church or build new structures to unlock new equipment like explosives. State of Decay also adds in aspects of hunger and exhaustion. Marcus may be tough but you can’t keep running with him, day and night. Eventually, you’ll have to switch out for another survivor. Don’t worry – they all have their different skill sets. Maya, for instance, is extremely skilled with firearms and hand to hand combat.

Given that you need resources, State of Decay encourages you to venture out into the valley and explore houses that are often teeming with the undead. Players will be charged with clearing out nests or escorting survivors back to the safety of the Church. Story missions pop up now and again, as you need to hunt down medics and traverse outside of your slice of shattered civilization to check up on other survivors. State of Decay’s open world may not be as ginormous as Grand Theft Auto 5 but it’s still fairly large and offers enough to do without getting lost.

The size of the world isn’t inconsequential but it pales to the freedom players will have. Whether you choose to pursue the plot or continue building up your own camp, the world continues to evolve, making it tougher for you to survive. Allies will level up and face varying degrees of sickness and emotional fatigue. Supplies will continue to be used. The little eco-system you’ve cultivated will continue to roll on and needs to be maintained. And make no mistake: Death in State of Decay is permanent. Lose one survivor, even by being over-zealous in your exploration, and you lose him/her forever.

The Year One Survival Edition collects the base game and its two DLC – Breakdown and Lifeline. Breakdown functions as a sort of “endless mode” as players progress through six different levels of varying difficulty and try their best to survive. Lifeline explores the story from the military’s point of view and takes you to Danforth City. You’ll manage survivors here as well but also work on defending your base from zombie mobs, including raids that will necessitate planning and plenty of luck. Also, unlike the other modes, you’ll be running on the clock in Lifeline which presents an altogether different and arguably more narrative-driven experience.

"The new visual touches in State of Decay: Year One Survival Edition are significant but far from overwhelming. The game benefits from a variety of new alpha effects, unseen even on the PC version, and a sharp 1080p resolution."

It’s very hard to not love State of Decay: Year One Survival Edition, especially with all the content and fun gameplay it packs in. Unfortunately, the game’s glitches do their best to dissuade you. Clipping issues, frame rate drops and numerous other bugs hamper the experience considerably. The frame rate fluctuations are bad enough to make gameplay impossible at times and you have to wonder how Undead Labs was unable to squash many of these problems in the two years since State of Decay released on the Xbox 360.

The new visual touches are significant but far from overwhelming. The game benefits from a variety of new alpha effects, unseen even on the PC version, and a sharp 1080p resolution. It’s not quite the remastered treatment that games like DmC: Definitive Edition received and overall, this is far from being the best technical showcase for the Xbox One’s hardware.

Nonetheless, considering the resources Undead Labs has at its disposal, it’s far from looking horrible. Consider for a moment that this started out as an indie title on Xbox Live Arcade. To say that’s worth your money is an understatement but if you’ve already experienced everything State of Decay had to offer – that too several times over the past few years – there’s very little incentive to come back. And I personally don’t feel the visuals have been updated enough to justify a return either.

On the other hand, if you love open world games, especially zombie survival titles that provide a free reign in managing resources and crafting your own narrative while exploring the plot on your own time, State of Decay: Year One Survival Edition is a good game. It’s a shame that some of its issues prevent it from being a great game overall. Returning players should have received significantly greater enhancements and additions than this; we’ll just have to wait for Undead Labs’ Class4 for future zombie apocalyptic scenarios. Everyone else should come to this valley for some open world R&R and stay for the sheer excitement of besting the undead.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox One.

Undead Labs’ State of Decay is perhaps one of the most under-rated but still one of the most recognized zombie titles in the past decade. It’s hard to reconcile those two together until you realize that this is a game that should have more success than it’s already seen. Sure, there have been zombie games like Resident Evil (which has ranged from good to awful in the past few years) and Telltale’s The Walking Dead but there had never been an open world survival horror zombie title like State of Decay.

Amazingly enough, State of Decay was developed on Crytek’s CryEngine 3. The list of features that CryEngine is capable of includes motion blur, parallax occlusion, SSAO, screen space reflections, bokeh depth of field, tessellation and much more. A smaller budget played a role in making sure that Undead Labs couldn’t recreate the brilliance that other open world games like Grand Theft Auto 5 provided but for the resources it had, State of Decay went above and beyond the call of duty.

Head to head video comparison between the original release on the PC and Xbox One versions. Select 1080p and 60fps for the best possible video quality.

Most open world titles unfortunately can’t escape glitches and State of Decay was no exception. Both the PC and Xbox 360 versions suffered from numerous glitches, ranging from AI problems to clipping issues and frame rate drops. It was the worst on Xbox 360 which often made the game unplayable. It also didn’t help that everything felt so choppy even when there were a moderate number of zombies on-screen. The PC version was better but couldn’t quite escape the glitches.

This brings us to State of Decay: Year One Survival Edition, the Xbox One port that includes the original game along with the Lifeline and Breakdown DLCs. In terms of content, this is an incredible deal if you’ve never played the game before. In terms of visual differences, the Year One Survival Edition doesn’t quite compare to the best that the Xbox One has to offer. If one has already experienced the previous generation’s version and is expecting a total remaster, there’s enough visual improvement to justify the tag.

And it’s funny when you consider just how much better State of Decay looks better on the Xbox One than the PC version. Textures are more high resolution with the overall display resolution bumped from 720p to 1080p, resulting in sharper clarity. Anisotropic filtering is far better as well. The lighting engine has been tweaked significantly to support better shadows and a more natural ambience. Transitioning between day and night and vice versa looks more natural compared to before, lending even more atmosphere to this desolate, zombie-infested open world.

In terms of volumetric and alpha effects, the Xbox One version sees several new additions including fire and smoke effects. If you pay close enough attention, you’ll even see dust particles shuffling through the air in the night-time. The PC version lacked these effects and this is proof that Undead Labs tried to add on to what was originally the best looking version of the game.

The developer also made a strong effort to clean up the visuals in the post-production stage. The colour correction has been applied to make the visuals appear brighter (or at least less dark) compared to the PC version. The effect was so impeccable that we actually had to tweak the brightness of our display for the PC version to match it to the Xbox One version in the comparison video and screenshots. Imagine if Man of Steel was colour corrected to look brighter and less gray and dismal and you’ll have a pretty good idea of how State of Decay looks on the Xbox One compared to the PC version. And once you notice it, it’s very hard to go back to the way things were.

It is interesting to note the anti-aliasing for State of Decay: Year One Survival Edition as compared to the PC version. The post-process anti-aliasing looks better here but with the visual fidelity that State of Decay offers, I would have at least expected a higher grade of anti-aliasing. Thankfully, the foliage and water effects look better than the PC version with more detail in the former and better fluidity in the latter. To make things slightly better, the camera has also been tweaked a bit in the remaster.

But then we come back to the lack of motion blur and depth of field in the Xbox One version. You’ll notice it very quickly when driving around and it’s kind of a bummer. The zombies and NPCs see slight improvements in terms of their geometry but their animations haven’t been significantly improved upon.

Head to head screenshot comparison between the Xbox One (RIGHT) and the original version on the PC (LEFT)  versions.

In the end, Undead Labs was incapable of really improving on the frame rate from the PC and Xbox 360 versions. The frame rate still significant and frequent drops to the point of making the gameplay sluggish and painfully responsive. This only accentuates the need for optimization as well as improved textures, alpha effects, anti-aliasing, etc. Sadly, this isn’t even a case of State of Decay’s visuals exceeding the scope of the Xbox One’s hardware. This isn’t the kind of game that should result in such severe frame rate drops, especially compared to what the competition has to deal with. Could Undead Labs have been working on an earlier version of CryEngine 3, prior to version 3.6 (which is meant for current gen consoles), resulting in issues with the previous gen engine not meshing with the Xbox One?

It’s funny when one looks back at State of Decay. The game was (and still is) a ton of fun to play and for what was essentially an Xbox Live Arcade title, its visuals were very impressive. That’s no longer the case roughly two years later and if anything, it shows that Undead Labs has a ways to go with its future Xbox One projects, which will hopefully face fewer issues with regards to the frame rate. As far as State of Decay goes, the Year One Survival Edition is the best version you could play this game on.

Note: Gamingbolt’s Bill Smith carried out this performance analysis.

Developers of the popular zombie survival sim, Undead Labs are bringing State of Decay to the Xbox One on 28th April as the updated State of Decay: Year-One Survival Edition. This updated build of the game retains the original’s focus on surviving the hordes of undead in the community that you’ve built. Returning features include resource gathering, sneaking through infested towns and building up your base with the help of survivors.

This updated version of the game is going to include a number of bug fixes that will help improve the quality of the game, the visuals are also being improved (the game makes use of the powerful CryEngine 3) as well as receiving improved animations and an improved draw distance. The game will also be running at 1080p at 30fps. Also said to appear in the game, though no specific details have been given is, is Gurubani Kaur but only for those who have played the original State of Decay.

State of Decay was, in my own opinion, is the best game set in a Zombie apocalypse that a player can play. Though with that being said, it was riven with bugs at launch and continues to suffer from frame rate issues on Xbox 360. Despite this, the game was still a record breaker for Xbox Live Arcade and it’s well worth your time.

Microsoft has finally revealed some of its big name releases for the coming months. First up is Undead Labs’ State of Decay: Year One Survival Edition which will be releasing on April 28th. This is a port of the open world zombie survival horror game on the Xbox 360 and will include all previous DLC along with a 1080p resolution.

Next is Ori and the Blind Forest, an indie platformer that was expected late last year but was delayed into 2015. It will now be releasing on March 11th. Check out the newest trailer for the game which showcases the Forlorn Ruins.

Finally, there’s rollercoaster title Screamride which will be out on March 3rd. There isn’t a whole lot we know about the game but it’s got rollercoasters and destruction. That’s really all we need.

What are your thoughts on these upcoming Xbox One titles? Which one piques your interest most? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and stay tuned for more information.

Undead Labs announced that its hit open world zombie survival adventure State of Decay would be coming to the Xbox One. The Year One Survival Edition will feature updated visuals and all the previously released DLC. Now that 2014 is behind us, Undead Labs announced it will reveal plans this month concerning release plans for the Xbox One.

“The release date of YOSE (plus answers to at least some of your questions about what we’d like to do for those of you who’ve supported us already) is going to be announced this month.”

The above is especially interesting because it means Xbox 360 and PC users haven’t been abandoned in light of the Year One Survival Edition. More information about the game will be revealed at PAX South, taking place on January 23rd to 25th. What are your thoughts on State of Decay for the Xbox One? Let us know in the comments below.

Undead Labs will be bringing its hit Xbox 360 zombie survival sandbox title to the Xbox One with State of Decay: Year One Survival Edition. Microsoft has announced that the game will be heading to the console in Spring 2015 and will include the original game along with previously released DLC.

These DLC are Breakdown and the recently released Lifeline, both of which add a substantial amount on top of the original game. If that weren’t enough, Undead Labs will have brand new content for the original game as well. The visuals will also see a bump up to 1080p resolution though we’ll need to wait for more information on just how much the Xbox One edition differs from the Xbox 360 version.

State of Decay was a fairly well put together title for the Xbox 360 and actually earned an award from GamingBolt for the Best Xbox 360 of 2013. It’s also available for PC and has managed to cross one million units in its lifetime.