State of Decay from Undead Labs is incredibly uneven; it has terrible framerate issues and looks like it was developed at the end of the last console generation. The AI is laughably bad and the user interface is a bit of a nightmare - but you still have to play it. State of Decay is, for better or worse, the deepest zombie game you'll ever play. Underneath all the mess and design flaws, you're going to find a lot to love here, you just have to let it show itself first.

The most interesting thing about State of Decay is that when you really break it down, it's a terrible zombie game. Some of my least favorite moments with the game were when I had no choice but to take on the undead head-on. The combat sucks, the aiming sucks and the AI sucks. There's really no way around it. Sure, there are moments where it's tolerable, but those are few and far between. Instead, State of Decay works more when it focuses on being a doomsday survival game, as Doomsday Preppers: The Game.

"...your brain is going to hurt."

The core gameplay of State of Decay revolves not around slaughtering armies of bloodthirsty undead, but keeping people alive around them. You'll meet people and band together with them, then find a base and fortify it with items you find while scavenging the world. You'll start off with the most basic of accommodations, but as you progress through the game you'll be able to use entire buildings and compounds as your home base. You'll also be able to buy things like lookout towers, weapons and barbed wire to make your colony even safer. Don't over think where these survivors are buying these items in a zombie apocalypse though - -your brain is going to hurt.

You can't just stay in your complex the whole time though, as you're going to have to go out and find supplies to keep surviving, which means braving the horrors of the undead world. State of Decay's open world concept lends itself well to this aspect of the game, as leaving your compound can literally be nerve wracking.

"Everything you do has a consequence."

Everything you do has a consequence. Do you take the car because its faster, even though it makes a ton of noise and attracts zombies? Do you rummage through that cabinet fast and attract zombies? Or take it slow and hope for the best? State of Decay also features realistic attributes for the human characters. For instance, heavier weapons weighing you down and not being able to run for extended periods of time unless you spend a decent amount of your money building an exercise program at your own personal club dead.

It's just a shame though that the good majority of State of Decay is designed so poorly. This could have easily been one of the biggest sleeper hits in recent memory, but the technical issues stop it from doing so. I can't count the amount of missions that I had to change my plan because a teammate did something incredibly dumb. Items and enemies frequently clip into each other - I was constantly attacked by zombies that were stuck in rocks or other objects.

It may not be pretty, or be put together very well, but State of Decay is unquestionably worth playing. Undead Labs has delivered a deep and strategic, if not incredibly uneven take on the zombie apocalypse. If you're a fan of The Walking Dead or even Doomsday Preppers - you're sure to get some enjoyment out of State of Decay.