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State of Decay expansion Breakdown out 29th November

Less story, more long-term survival, more difficult.

Popular open-world zombie game State of Decay is soon for an expansion, not that anyone will notice with all this next-generation hoo-ha going on.

Breakdown, as it's called, arrives 29th November on both Steam and Xbox Live Arcade, priced $6.99.

"Basically," Undead Labs' Sanya Weathers told me, "we built the expansion according to player requests. People wanted less story, more survival (and long-term at that) and increased difficulty.

"We can't actually survive past the eighth respawn, but there are more levels because we know gamers..."

Undead Labs

"So, you spawn in the world and play as you remember, but without the story stuff. And when you've picked the world clean or you're bored, you find an RV, load it with supplies and whichever survivours you want to take with you and who you'll leave to die.

"Then you drive to 'the next valley': same map, respawned resources...and more difficult. More zombies, harder zombies, fewer supplies. The RV also respawns in a different place, so you need to find it/repair it/reload it before you can move to the next valley."

There are new achievements, she said, new leaderboards, and you can unlock special Hero survivours.

"Heroes have special stats and elite weapons, and they're taken from characters you couldn't play in the original, like Judge Lawton. Once you've unlocked a Hero, that character is always in your pool of possible survivors in subsequent playthroughs (and you can choose one Hero to start with in subsequent playthroughs as well). But who you find on each level is still random.

"It sounds simple," she added, "but it actually massively increases the replayability of the game. We can't actually survive past the eighth respawn, but there are more levels because we know gamers..."

Cover image for YouTube videoState of Decay: Breakdown Trailer