State of Decay 2’s New Curveball Update Is a Literal Game-Changer
How do you meaningfully add to a game that’s been in players’ hands for five years? As in the case of State of Decay 2.You’ve thrown a curveball. This new update, coming to players for free on September 18, is a landmark moment for the game – not just offering a swathe of new content for the game’s most dedicated players and newcomers alike, but marking a new era in State of Decay 2.’s development through the work of Wushu Studios.
Wushu from Liverpool in England will continue to provide support for State of Decay 2. as much of original studio Undead Labs transitions to work on the next entry in the series – but where you might expect that support to be incremental, Wushu is making a very big splash. Curveball, a massive update that touches almost all aspects of the game and is designed to offer new challenges to players who are experienced, will be a welcome addition. State of Decay 2.Since release.
Curveballs, available after the fifth day of in-game play, can alter the landscape around your settlement. You can also find out more about us on our website.In a number of different and interesting ways. Housed in a new menu, curveballs will periodically appear – each with their own narrative attached – offering new objectives, rewards, enemy types and much more. Curveballs may be negative or positive, affecting your opponents, survivors or NPCs. You can expect to see changes in any aspect of your game that you have become comfortable with.
“We basically wanted to address the feedback that over time the game became a bit repetitive relatively quickly,” Undead Labs’ Meg Chaney and Eric Anderson tell me, “so we wanted to introduce something that would shake things up and keep the game changing as players spend more time with the game.”
“For experienced players, the later stages of State of Decay 2. can get a little predictable,” adds Wushu’s John Hollingworth. “That’s why we are introducing curveballs. It’s designed to keep the player on his toes with random events, world-changing modifications and other features. This feature introduces several new levels of difficulty and unpredictable events to make the game more exciting, dangerous and fresh. These new scenarios help to develop more unique stories around your survivors, so whether you’re a seasoned survivor or just starting out, each session and playthrough will feel different to the last.”
To enforce that unpredictability, curveballs are fairly random – while a few are tied directly to actions you take in the game, many can appear completely unexpectedly – and you can even have multiple curveballs active at the same time. “We think it’s going to be a bit of a rollercoaster ride for seasoned players,” Chaney and Anderson explain. “Some of the curveballs may only require minor adjustments to tackle or will provide new opportunities, but some of them can be pretty vicious and require major adjustments to their tactics.”
Curveballs are the easiest way to change your target. “Zombies were the first and most obvious target for modifiers,” Hollingworth tells me. “We wanted to lean into the idea that there is an ebb and flow of mutational outbreaks within the population as a result of events occurring in the world, or the Plague attempting to push back and fight the enclaves.
“Zombie side effects can include lethal physiological changes or heightened senses. For example, zombies can have stronger attacks or improved hearing, eyesight and scent to track down survivors who are out of view. When zombies are killed, they may emit a decomposed gunk or have a foul odor that drains any survivors’ stamina. This is just a small sample of some challenging mutational mods. Zombies may have side effects which make them more vulnerable. They can become frail, slow down, and in turn be easier to behead and knock down by affecting their center of balance.”
To put this into context, all of this can happen to just a single enemy type – with so many modifiers on the table, it’s clear how wildly different the form of curveballs could be from one player’s game to another. But the point is that curveballs shouldn’t make it feel like you’re suddenly playing a different game, just a The Warped one (and you can even turn the feature off entirely if you’d prefer to play the base game as it was). “We have touched on a lot of different systems but only to an extent which complements the current gameplay,” explains Hollingworth. “We wanted to ensure it narratively fit and could be justified within the simulation as to not break the immersion.”
And the curveballs don’t end with what’s coming to the game on September 18. “We also are hoping to introduce more player control over the feature over time, so ultimately it should be up to the player to determine how much of an impact they want curveballs to make,” Chaney and Anderson tell me.
This is just the start of Wushu’s work on State of Decay 2., and you can expect the game to see more updates as time goes on – but the team wants to spend some time after its big new feature making sure that its players are feeling heard, too: “We’ll be putting a bit more time into tackling some items from the player wishlist and addressing existing player concerns,” says Hollingworth of the near future. “Some of them may require extensive overhauls to existing systems, but mostly I think we’ll be focusing on improving what’s already there and making sure it matches players’ expectations.”
It’s rare to see such a significant new idea added to a game after five years, and it seems Undead Labs and Wushu have more plans to come: “SoD2 has an incredibly loyal player base and a phenomenal community,” says Chaney, “so our primary goal is to continue to provide them with meaningful content and gameplay updates! This game is 5 years sexy and we’re going to keep the party rolling…”
Curveball is a new update that will arrive in State of Decay 2. The 18th of September is a day to celebrate.
State of Decay 2, Ultimate Edition
Xbox Game Studios
This Ultimate Edition contains:
• Independence Pack*
• Daybreak Pack*
• Doomsday Pack*
The ultimate zombie survival game
• Build your community and invite up to three friends** to explore an open-world world filled with hostile zombies
• Establish a base, develop your characters and manage resources to survive in a post-apocalyptic world
• In the apocalypse, every decision matters and brings with it lasting consequences.
• How you survive just might surprise you.
• Available on Xbox One and Windows 10.
• Xbox One X Enhanced and supports Xbox Play Anywhere.
*Add-on packs available as released, see Xbox.com for more info
**State of Decay: Year One Survival Edition and add-on content downloads require up to 25GB. ISP charges apply. Xbox Live required.
State of Decay: Year-One Survival Edition may be downloaded to your Xbox One console by selecting “My Games and Apps”, then selecting “Ready to Install”. The included content will be automatically added to Ready to Install without the use of a code.
***Xbox Live Gold membership required for online multiplayer on Xbox One (sold separately). You can only play on one device. Hardware requirements on Windows 10 may be different. Features for Xbox One X may be enhanced upon the release of a new content update. Information about games is available at xbox.com/enhanced. The specific enhancements will vary depending on the game.
State of Decay 2, Juggernaut edition
Xbox Game Studios
$29.99
$14.99
Xbox One X Enhanced
PC Game Pass
Xbox Game Pass
Civilization has crumbled and the dead have returned. Not even the military could stop the zombies, and now it’s up to you to gather survivors, scavenge for resources and build a community with up to three of your friends in a post-apocalyptic world – a world where every decision matters, and where you define what it means to survive in this ultimate zombie survival simulation.
State of Decay 2: Juggernaut Edition re-imagines the popular survival game as a brand-new experience to welcome first-time players… and those who’ve come back from the dead. This version is jam-packed with brand new content and has been remastered for the ultimate survival zombie experience.
Discover what Juggernaut Edition offers to over 10,000,000 players.
• The base game plus all three add-on packs released to date, including the all-new Homecoming update:
o Homecoming : A full-sized, fully remastered open-world version of Trumbull Valley in the core game. This includes reintegrating Mount Tanner, Fairfield, as well as adding sites and sights for players to explore.
Heartland is a massive campaign with a new story set in an old town.
o The Daybreak Pack is a teamwork test with “survive”-style gameplay, based on siege.
o Independence Pack: a celebration of history that blows up zombies… with fireworks!
• Remastered graphics and an upgraded engine featuring realistic fog effects
• An expanded soundtrack with hours of new thematic musical arrangements
• Providence Ridge: a brand-new open-world map full of forests, zombies, and mystery
• Two-handed heavy weapons with new melee combat moves to bust zombie heads
• A new introductory experience and improved controls to help you master the apocalypse
… and countless other improvements to the classic open-ended sandbox gameplay.
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