Oo-err. Zombie-filled survive-’em-up State of Decay‘s PC version has been in the works for awhile, but – courtesy of a livestream, and a summary in the form of a forum post by community director Sanya Weathers – we now have a better idea of when it’s coming and what it’ll feature.
Most important stuff first: yes, it’s coming this year. That always seemed to have been the plan, but it’s nice to have it confirmed.
The PC version won’t feature any new content or features – it’s the same game – but it will have the expected graphical tweaks; you can expect higher resolutions, enhanced graphics, and a better frame rate. If you’re now making faces and going DUHHH at me, then remember that Simon & Garfunkel song: “Hello, Dark Souls, my old friend…”
What it will not feature is any form of modding tools. This isn’t because the team is against the idea of modding (indeed, the post states “we have no objection to mods or modders, and we look forward to seeing what our PC players come up with”) but because of the time required to test that sort of thing. Knowing our vibrant PC modding community I’d be surprised if we don’t see at least some minor mods appearing pretty sharpish.
Oh, and the PC version will be appearing on Steam Early Access. The Early Access build will be controller-only, while the full version will (naturally) have keyboard and mouse support.
That’s it for the PC stuff, but the team also used this occasion to talk a bit about the updates coming soon to the console version, which will presumably also be making an appearance in the PC version what with that whole “it’s the same game” thing. For starters: you’ll soon be able to take NPCs with you on missions. They’re hoping that they can figure out how to let you put rucksacks in vehicles. Zoomable sniper scopes will not be coming due to engine limitations. There will be a sandbox mode in which, after clearing out the map, you and a portion of your community can move to a “refreshed” version of the map, repopulated with resources, but also featuring more zombies and a generally higher difficulty. And finally, “the future of the SOD world is under active discussion with our publisher, but we can’t say anything beyond that.”
More news to come before long, I’d expect.
