Undead Labs released State of Decay 2 over six years ago, delivering a survival sandbox filled with the undead but uniquely focused more on the community-building aspects than just action. As it was announced in September, after years of free updates that have completely overhauled the experience, the development team is finally moving on from the project to fully work on the third entry. Today, State of Decay 2"s final content update landed for PC and Xbox.
Titled Legacy Awaits, update 38 brings some fresh features, fixes up a whole lot of bugs, unlocks previously gated content that was exclusive to promotions, and adds a whole bunch of outfits for players to find in the wild.
The major additions include water resistance now affecting vehicles when they travel through lakes and waterways, quickly accessing community inventories, changing zombie spawning mechanics for noises, and more. Here are the improvements the studio detailed:
- Water will Slow Vehicles - Water resistance will now reduce vehicle speed while travelling through lakes and waterways. Be sure to choose the right vehicle type for the job as each handles differently. A 4x4, for example, will outperform a Sports Coupe in the water.
- Community Inventories - While over in the base, you can now access individual Survivors" inventories from the Community screen, allowing you to quickly view or equip their items, transfer items between you, or store their gear (including rucksacks) into base storage. No more hunting around the base to find the Survivor you need!
- Zombie spawning has been removed after certain noise events - Failed search crashes and door slams will no longer spawn new zombies. These noise events will now simply attract already existing zombies to the location.
- We’ve reduced the distance at which characters automatically attempt to climb down from ledges. Additionally, characters will no longer attempt to climb down unintentionally whilst the player is aiming, which could often lead to some frustrating moments.
- Rucksacks can now be deposited at claimed Landmark Outposts.
Aside from a whole lot of new outfits for survivors that can be looted from containers across maps, Undead Labs is making previously timed-exclusive items available to all players too. These include wearables from various crossovers like Age of Empires II and Sea of Thieves, as well as items from seasonal content updates like Halloween and Christmas.
"While you’ve enjoyed State of Decay 2 for many years, you may have heard that we are also hard at work on the next evolution of the franchise," said the studio in its last blog post regarding the future of the series. "Our ambition is to make the greatest zombie survival sim in the franchise, and to do so, we’ll be shifting our focus and resources to making the upcoming third installment, State of Decay 3."
Find the complete changelog for Update 38 — Legacy Awaits over here, which goes over a number of additional gameplay balance adjustments, as well as a whole lot of key bug fixes reported by the community.
State of Decay 3 does not have a release date attached to it yet, but it did receive a new trailer at the Xbox Games Showcase earlier this year with tiny snippets of gameplay. Undead Labs has been working with Obsidian Entertainment and other studios for the upcoming entry, which will also feature advanced co-op features and a world that"s much further into the zombie apocalypse than before.