Developer Undead Labs has given a fresh look at State of Decay 3 – the reportedly troubled latest entry in its zombie survival series – courtesy of a moody cinematic trailer.
State of Decay 3 was announced nearly four years ago, during Microsoft’s July 2020 Xbox showcase. Two years later, with the game still nowhere to be seen, reports began circulating allegations of sexism and mismanagement at Undead Labs, with staff claiming the game had been announced too early, and at a time the studio “didn’t even know what it was”.
Now, however, State of Decay 3 has resurfaced, appropriately enough, during Microsoft’s latest Xbox Games Showcase, albeit with not a second of gameplay in sight. Instead, Undead Labs has opted to introduce State of Decay 3 with an atmospheric cinematic trailer focusing on the plight of some of the characters certain to its story.
While it offered little in the way in specifics, studio head Philip Holt has taken to Xbox Wire to tease some of the ideas driving State of Decay 3 hinted at in the new trailer. “The first thing that I hope people pick up [from the trailer] is that there’s four player characters we’re highlighting,” he explained. “three of them start in different places in the world — so we’re implying this idea of a shared world experience, not just a ride-along, and that the boundaries in which you can go off independently are going to be much, much greater than they were in State of Decay 2.”
Undead Labs has apparently had held from Obsidian Entertainment, Gears studio The Coalition, Blind Squirrel Entertainment, and Wushu Studios to get State of Decay 3 out the door, and the goal is to create an an experience featuring a heavy emphasis on more reactive co-op combat, more visceral zombie dismemberment, and more realistic enemy reactions.
There’s not a lot to go on admittedly, and there’s still no word on a release date, but when State of Decay 3 eventually shows up it will – like all Microsoft first-party titles – be a day one Game Pass release.