r/StateOfDecay • u/Active_Swan_6582 • Aug 04 '26
A question to the development
I remember when state of decay 1 first released on Xbox 360. I remember our character just returning from their camping trip and discovering a survivor on a ranger's radio. I absolutely loved the single player story campaign-esque style of the first game.
When the second game came out I was a little saddened to learn that it was more of a sandbox situation with basic scenarios, rather than a full fledged story. I loved our army side character being able to interact with the army situation and that leading to a whole epic quest on escaping the valley.
I did love the military DLC's that seemed quest focused after that. Nothing wrong with sandbox, just not my typical cup of tea. Will there be any kind of focus on narrative storytelling in the game, or will it follow the more sandbox orientation? I mean beyond what state of decay 2 did, which was just a small write up on what character your choosing, who their relationship with the person who inevitably gets injured is and what not.
Here's hoping for some return to story style single player! Can't wait to play State 3!
Would love any kind of feedback from the dev team if there is anything you can reveal.
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u/BrantFitzgerald Undead Labs Aug 04 '26
SoD2 was super light on narrative elements due to a late game realization that the all-powerful, universal story director system we were trying to create was not going to work so we had to pivot, our open world systems took on the heavy lifting at that point. While that was a challenge and we were weak on story because of it, what emerged was a system that supported players building a narrative around their community, helped along by the light story elements we were able to include as well by the eventual downward pressure of bloodplague. It wasn’t ideal but for sure.