Zombies, zombies, zombies! You start off trapped in the wreckage of a post-apocalyptic world, and hordes of ravenous zombies are on the hunt for every living thing left on the globe. That is the core premise of the State of Survival game strategy, in which your main objective is to build a strong enough town to endure the horrors of the terrifying undead-infested planet.
State of Survival: Essentials
KingsGroup Holdings released the initial State of Survival game on August 26th, 2019. Since then, it has been downloaded over 50 million times on Google Play and the App Store, with a 4.6 out of 5-star median Metascore and around 2.5M votes.
Only a year after its release, the game was named Best Simulation Game at Samsung’s Best of Galaxy Store Awards 2020 in 2020. This is a great success, and the game was and continues to be highly appreciated by the gaming audience.
The game developer has been rolling out regular updates to keep the game fresh and exciting, earning the title #4 in the “Most successful strategy mobile games on Google play” for 2022 so far.
Gameplay
While set in a post-apocalyptic environment, State of Survival: Zombie War is primarily a strategy game. You will soon locate a community of survivors, and to earn your keep, you must do all it takes to protect the survival of everyone within it. Your settlement is relatively modest initially, with only a few basic structures. However, you must rid the surrounding area of zombies and other monstrosities to grow it.
The game’s progression is rather straightforward. To enhance your main building, nicknamed Headquarters, you must fulfill a series of objectives. But, again, these are straightforward. Some involve clearing out the surrounding areas, rescuing survivors, building or improving other structures, and so on.
Food, wood, iron, gas, energy, and other resources are available in the game. Biocaps are a premium resource equivalent to gems or diamonds in other games of the genre. Each building necessitates a specific set of materials to create and enhance. These expenditures aren’t too expensive at first, but as you develop, it will take longer and longer to upgrade structures and train troops. Your settlement’s evolution will be comparable to that of many other strategy games on the market.
Another aspect of the game is cleaning up zombies in specific areas. You send some of your heroes to fight the zombies… Isn’t it simple? No, not so much. Each of the heroes has unique abilities that they can use in combat, and each is suited to a different fighting style. Some heroes, for example, prefer to be on the front lines, taking on enemies up close, while others prefer to shoot from a distance. Like some hero-collecting RPGs, every hero can be leveled up, ranked up, and so on (aka Gachas). This improves their combat abilities while also increasing their overall combat power. Once you’ve deployed your heroes, you’ll have to fight several waves of enemies, and you’ll have to use the skills strategically to maximize their effectiveness. You should also be aware of the enemy power in the area you wish to clear. You won’t have a good time rushing head-on when the enemies are much more substantial.
The game also has a multiplayer component. Like many other strategy games, you will be able to make friends with other players and form alliances. This will allow you and your allies to take on some of the game’s most complex challenges. Furthermore, because the SoS is a multiplayer game, a PvP aspect is present. You can attack the settlements of other alliance members and pillage their resources. However, remember that you may also be on the receiving end, so consider the best strategy for success in both attack and defense.
Overall, the game has a lot of content, which is excellent for a strategy game. The social aspect is powerful, and collaborating with your alliance members is probably one of the most exciting things that SoS offers.
Game Atmosphere
Because this is a post-apocalyptic zombie survival game, it is only fair to start with this section. While playing State of Survival, you will undoubtedly get the impression that the world is in a state of chaos. Your camp will be surrounded by zombies at all times, and you will never truly feel safe.
The soundtrack contributes significantly to the tension, mainly when fighting the undead. It begins in the background and becomes more prominent as you encounter more difficult enemies and bosses. Overall, the soundtrack and sound effects are well-done and contribute significantly to the apocalyptic atmosphere.
It’s also worth noting that many dialogues are completely voiced-over, and the voice actors did an admirable job of bringing the characters to life. From the lovely and cheerful Maddie to the stoic and composed Sarge and the rough but friendly Rusty, each main character has a distinct personality. You will inevitably grow to like these characters, and the development team deserves credit for creating them as they are.
Artwork
The game’s visuals aren’t exactly awe-inspiring. The gameplay includes 3D models, but they don’t look imposing, especially in actual combat. Without exaggeration, some of the zombies appear to have been plucked from a PlayStation One game. Thankfully, the heroes look good, and some environments are well-designed and detailed. Granted, to optimize the game’s performance, the developers understandably reduced the quality of many in-game models. Even so, it’s impossible not to notice in the long run, especially when you get to a group of enemies standing out like a sore thumb.
It’s also worth noting that each character has their own artwork during dialogue, which is very well drawn and detailed. It’s clear that the developers wanted them to look as good as possible during dialogues, and they did a pretty good job of it. Overall, SoS is a visually appealing game, but many of its visual aspects are lacking, negatively impacting your gaming experience.
Tech Compatibility
The game isn’t exactly demanding, even more so when it comes to minimum hardware requirements.
Android users must have a device that supports Android 4.1 or higher. Because this is relatively low, almost any modern smartphone should be able to run it.
The minimum requirement for iOS players is a device that supports iOS 9.0 or later. This is also a low figure by today’s standards.
The developers clearly reduced some of the game’s visual qualities to make it accessible to a wide range of mobile devices. While playing State of Survival on a device with the bare minimum of requirements, though, it is worth noting that during massive battles with hordes of enemies, you may experience slowdowns. These can vary from mild to very frustrating. Still, most other aspects of the game should work reasonably well, even on low-end mobile devices.
State of Survival: F2P or P2P
This is a common question in the gaming community, particularly regarding strategy games. While SoS is entirely F2P, the experiences may vary.
The game takes a long time to complete and is designed to be played in short sessions during your daily breaks. The construction/upgrade time of certain buildings is the most difficult challenge in the game. This can take days and, in some cases, months, which can be very frustrating. So the alternative is to accelerate things. This, however, is very expensive, so you’ll either have to wait or pay real money to speed it up. And this wouldn’t be such a big deal if the game didn’t have a multiplayer mode. However, because many players are willing to use real money to advance faster, they will naturally have an advantage over free-to-play players.
The most challenging problem is when someone much higher level than you attacks you and pillages your entire settlement with no recourse. You can use a Peace Flare to temporarily shield your territory, but these are hard to come by, especially for free players. In other words, nothing stops someone much higher level unless your settlement is shielded from pillaging your resources all day. Worse, there is no limit to the number of times you can be attacked by the same player. This means someone who can easily defeat you can bash you indefinitely until you are “zeroed out,” especially if you don’t have an alliance or aren’t close to alliance members.
Because of these issues, SoS is not particularly free-to-play friendly unless you don’t mind the occasional agony of having your settlement pillaged. We get it; the developers have to make money and eat, but allowing players to “bully” others far below their own level discourages F2P players from playing the game. This is a shame because the game has several outstanding and enjoyable gameplay aspects, particularly those that involve playing with other alliance members.
Review Summary
State of Survival is an excellent game in terms of gameplay, with numerous exciting and engaging features. Unfortunately, it has some drawbacks, the most significant of which is that it is unfriendly to free-to-play players. Still, it’s a good game in general, and it’s definitely worth a shot if you enjoy strategy games.
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