With the Xbox One soon to head off into the sunset thanks to the arrival of the Series X/S it’s worth stepping back to revisit some of the games that made an impact here during this generation. Not all of them are exclusive but each of them resulted in many hours spent glued to controllers and that’s all that really matters. 🙂

State of Decay 2 was a bit of a slow burn for me. Though the first game was a big success on the 360 I never really got into it and at first my feelings for the sequel were similar – there were a lot of mechanics to come to grips with for a game that involved zombies. However the co-op mode would eventually change it for me. Allowing players to take one of their characters and take part in another player’s community was a really smart move and I happily spent hours killing zombies to help out friends. I may have put in twice an many hours in co-op than playing on my own.

So when the time came to focus on completing the game using my own community I was familiar enough with what to look for that it made for a far less confusing experience but it also offers incentive for replay by allowing you bring across characters and perks you’ve earned previously. Even then it felt like there were enough random elements in the game that you couldn’t always predict how it would play out as certain paths for developing your community were tied to the skills of your people and the resources/items you find. Learning from your experiences was key to future success. Subsequent plays would ultimately be faster but made it easier to focus on the story and less on the survival and I enjoyed that.

This was one of the first big games that helped justify Game Pass for me as I was able to take my time with it and not feel the dread I sometimes get when buying a full price game I know nothing about. That can go a long way in allowing you to accept a game for what it is and simply try to enjoy it (if you can). Considering the number of zombies I killed with car doors I think the game has accomplished that!