Jumping into the deep end of a multiplayer survival game can be a recipe for disaster, as I found it in my first-ever taste of the State of Decay series. My last encounter was with State of Decay 2, where I was unceremoniously dropped into a friend's game. It was complete with fully built settlements and swarms of zombies banging down the doors while I was still fumbling with the mechanics. I felt very much out of my depth and never really revisited the game.
Heading into our closed-doors look at State of Decay 3 at Gamescom, I was a little worried I wouldn’t enjoy it and would be going through the motions. I knew I wanted to love it, and I had already planned to play it on release just to support the studio following its ceremonious dumping (aka divesting) by Xbox. In fact, I have implored the Xbox community to buy it, whether it hits Game Pass or not.
As it turns out, not only is the relationship with Xbox not completely severed (it’s now officially confirmed to be launching straight onto Xbox Game Pass alongside its 2027 release window), but the demo proved to be an absolute blast in the time I had with it. The world of State of Decay 3 is pretty fascinating to navigate even amidst incoming waves of the dead.
