Lifeline is the second DLC for Undead Lab’s State of Decay. At the beginning of Lifeline you find yourself dropped into the middle of a new city that has been overrun by zombies. Apparently the military in this game calls them zed. You are immediately thrust into the middle of the action and will have to make your way to base. There is no slow burn here.
If you are unfamiliar with State of Decay it is a survival horror game with a nice big of RPG thrown in on the characters you play. There are more zeds than you can shake a stick at and they all want to kill you and your squad. While the game has a heavy emphasis on the action there are enough character development and story elements to keep most RPG fans entertained.
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The world around you in State of Decay is dynamic and will respond to your actions. As you progress through the city flash points will pop up around you and provide you with activities to do. Most of these points involve killing packs of zed or taking on a particularly nasty mutated zombie. You will also need to undertake raiding missions to search the city for supplies to sustain your base. In addition you will be tasked from headquarters with rescue missions to collect survivors and grow your base camp.
While this DLC does have an overarching storyline you are not required to complete each step as you are immediately tasked with it. You will eventually have to go about HQ’s business; however, or you will be tasked with dereliction of duty. The flexibility of the main story missions and the dynamic quests along with the ensemble cast of characters you can collect will guarantee that each play through is not same experience.
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My favorite part of the experience so far is the number of different ways you can kill the zombies. Starting off with my tire iron crushing zed skulls to finishing them off with moves that range from decapitating the zed to some type of flying acrobatics that look more at home in the WWE. My favorite way to kill zombies though is when I find myself smiling with glee as I commandeer a half-ton pickup and lay wastes to roaming hordes of zed. There is something very satisfying about mowing down zombies as if I am a bowling ball and they are the pins. This is also a very efficient, if not noisy, way of killing roaming hordes.
I do have two minor complaints so far. First is that on some rescue missions the random soldiers I save are supposed to go back to my base but seem to just disappear. Secondly, the running animations need some work. My soldiers appear to be prancing, not running. This wouldn’t be such a big deal other than you will be doing a lot of running and it is really odd to look at over time.
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Lifeline is due out tomorrow (May 30th). If you already own State of Decay I’d suggest picking it up. If you haven’t played State of Decay you can find Undead Labs streaming it on a weekly basis over on Twitch. It’s worth the time to take a look. If you do own the game, let me know what you think about the game in the comments below. It definitely has me wondering how Undead Labs’ eventual MMO-esque take on the zombie genre will shake out. Thanks for reading; I’m going to get back to running over the zombie hordes in my truck now.
Robert Lashley / Robert Lashley is a Staff Writer and Online host for MMORPG.com. Rob's bald and when he isn't blinding people from the glare on his head talking in front of a camera you can find him spending his free time checking out the latest games and technology. Feel free to hunt him down on twitter @Grakulen
Read more of Rob’s columns:
- Pantheon: It’s Just Fallen
- The End of My MMO Monogamy
- ESO: The Road Ahead
