It wasn't a complete win for the good guys, let's just say. Immediately, I had no idea what my objective was, and found myself quickly beset upon by zombies. That's not exactly a bad place to kick off a zombie apocalypse story, mind you, but some background is usually welcome for us poor souls who find themselves interjected into such an affair. Indeed, the difficulty level appears to have been ratcheted up substantially, with a lot more zombie killing to be done, and zombies overall far more likely to take a significant chomp out of one's hide.
There were also some odd glitches here and there, sections where, for example, someone will respond to something Lily says--usually something like "What did you find?"--but that's just it. Lily didn't audibly speak. Your character is responding to what I can only guess is a voice in his or her head. That's kind of creepy. Sure, I know what they meant--I spent a large enough part of this summer playing "State of Decay" that I've got a good idea of who is, or who should be, saying what when, but it's a noticeable deviation from the norm. However, there are some better changes here, particularly in that there wasn't an infestation to deal with for several minutes.
There's a upside and a downside to "Breakdown," and it comes in what you prefer. If you liked the rummaging through drawers and setting up traps and all like that, you'll be pretty happy here because there's a lot more of that going on than before. But if you liked the story, dealing with the Wilkerson boys and their violent gunrunning madness or Judge Lawton's egomaniacal megalomania, then you'll be extraordinarily unhappy here. Story is in very short supply here, but that's not what this is about. With the release of "Breakdown," "State of Decay" may well be the best zombie apocalypse simulator ever released. You're going to find, build, run, and make this sucker tapdance in your own very specific way.
And here's the best part: reports suggest that Undead Labs is actually working on a whole new slice of DLC to follow, and that should help make this already impressive game a powerhouse on par with any triple-A release.
It's impressive to see that a game on Xbox 360 still has legs, especially with the Xbox One now in release. But still, we should be in for quite the time with this one, and it's enough to make me wonder just how much time the Xbox 360 has left on its metaphorical clock.
We've been seeing new titles, new DLC, and plenty more in just the last few weeks alone, and based on some of the release calendars it looks like there's quite a bit more to come in the short term alone. A version of "Titanfall" seems set to hit in March, and that's just for starters. But if Undead Labs keeps up with "State of Decay" content--and that's barring any plans they might have for the Xbox One--we may well see many hanging on to Xbox 360 consoles longer than expected.
