State of Decay: Lifeline

Written by: Adam "ManKorn" Korenman, CC2K Video Games Editor

Tall Tales

Zombie games suffer in the story department more often than any other type of game, including Peggle. This is even more true for “open world” survival titles such State of Decay. There are only so many variations of “the dead rise, society breaks down, you and a band of scrappy do-gooders must survive” that you can make before the whole idea seems trite. 

Lifeline doesn’t deviate from this formula much, but goes so far as to add the “possible cure” thread to the tale. For me, this wasn’t much of a problem, as I take vacant story lines as a chance to tell my own little vignettes. It makes for more compelling drama if that soldier you just lost had a wife and kid back home. Or if they have some tragic backstory. 

Or if they’re secretly the cast of a fan-favorite TV series that was cancelled ahead of its time.

Which rag-tag team of badasses are you rooting for here?

In the previous episodes of State of Decay, the characters at least engaged in idle banter during the wandering. This often gained your character insight into the psyche of the survivors, and maybe earned you an extra trait for your time. None of that happens with the soldiers of Greyhound One, and the silence is staggering. 

I completely understand that, as an independent developer, Undead Labs doesn’t have access to the extensive music collection of, say, Rockstar North. Nor do they have time to sit in recording studios capturing hours and hours of small talk. Still, those long stretches of road between missions get pretty dull when the people riding shotgun don’t chime in from time to time.