Is it worth playing?
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Zombies… Zombies everywhere! The world is in a state of chaos, and the hordes of ravenous undead are looking to devour every living thing left on a planet. That is basically the premise of State of Survival game, a post-apocalyptic strategy in which your goal is to create a settlement strong enough to withstand the horrors of the dreadful undead-infested world.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Development
This game was very well received by the gaming audience…
SoS was published on August 26th, 2019, by KingsGroup Holdings. In less than a year since its release, it was downloaded over 10 million times on Google Play alone, where it currently sits on 4.5 out of 5 stars rating with over 830 thousand votes. On the iTunes App Store, SoS currently holds 4.7 out of 5 stars rating with more than 65 thousand user reviews. This can be considered a massive success, and the game was very well received by the gaming audience.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Atmosphere
While playing the State of Survival, you will definitely get the feeling that the world is in a very chaotic state…
Since this is a post-apocalyptic zombie survival game, it is only fair to review this part of it first. While playing the State of Survival, you will definitely get the feeling that the world is in a very chaotic state. Your camp will constantly be surrounded by zombies, and you will never truly feel safe.
As for the soundtrack, it really helps build up the tension, especially while fighting the undead. It subtly plays in the background, and as you encounter harder enemies and bosses, it gets more and more prominent. Overall, the soundtrack and the sound effects are neatly done, and they greatly contribute to the apocalyptic feel.
It is also worth mentioning that many of the dialogues are fully voiced-over, and the voice actors did a fairly good job of making the characters come to life. Each of the main cast has a distinct personality, from a lovely and cheerful girl Maddie, to stoic and composed Sarge and rough but friendly Rusty. You will definitely grow to like these characters, and kudos to the development team for making them as they are.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
GAMEplay
While the game is set in the post-apocalyptic world, in its essence, State of Survival is a strategy game…
While the game is set in the post-apocalyptic world, in its essence, State of Survival is a strategy game. Shortly after starting, you will discover the settlement of survivors, and in order to earn your keep, you will have to do what it takes to ensure the survival of everyone within it. At the start, your settlement is fairly small, and it only has a few basic buildings. In order to expand it, you will have to clear the surrounding area of zombies and other monstrosities. The progression of the game is pretty straightforward. In order to upgrade your main building, aka Headquarters, you will need to complete a set of tasks. These are fairly simple and direct. Some of them include clearing the surrounding areas, rescuing survivors, constructing or upgrading some other buildings, and so on.
The game features several different resources, such as food, wood, iron, gas, energy, and so on. There is also a premium resource called Biocaps, which is equivalent to gems or diamonds from other games of the genre. Each building requires a certain amount of resources to construct and upgrade. In the beginning, these costs aren’t high, but eventually, it will take longer and longer to upgrade buildings and train troops as you progress. The progression of your settlement will be fairly similar to that of many other strategy games available on the market.
One of the other aspects of the game involves cleaning certain areas of zombies. You deploy some of your heroes, and they fight the zombies… simple, right? Well, not so much. Each of the heroes has their own unique skills they can use during combat, and each of them is suited for a different style. For example, some heroes prefer being in the front lines, taking on the enemies up close, while others prefer shooting from a distance, and so on. Every hero can be leveled up, ranked up, and etc, similar to some hero collecting RPGs (aka Gachas). This will increase their combat capabilities and will also increase your overall combat power. Once you deploy your heroes, you will have to fight several waves of enemies, and you will have to use the skills strategically in order to get their full potential. You also need to be aware of the enemy power for the area you want to clear. If you rush head-on and the enemies are much stronger, you definitely won’t have a good time.
And then, there is a multiplayer aspect of the game. You will be able to make friends with other players of the game and enter alliances, similar to many other strategy games. This will allow you to take on some of the most difficult challenges the game has to offer together with your allies. And since the SoS is a multiplayer game, there is also Player versus Player aspect of it. You will be able to attack the settlements of players of other alliances and pillage their resources while you’re at it. However, be aware that you can also be on a receiving end, so you might want to think of the best strategy to succeed in both attack and defense.
All in all, the game offers a lot of content, which is definitely good for a strategy game. The social aspect of it is very strong, and cooperating with the members of your alliance is probably one of the most interesting things that SoS has to offer.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Graphics
Visually, this game is not too impressive…
Visually, the game is not too impressive. The gameplay does feature 3D models, but they don’t look very impressive visually, especially not in actual combat. Some of the zombies look like they’ve been pulled straight out of PlayStation One, and that’s without exaggerating. Thankfully, heroes do look decent, and some of the environments are good looking and well detailed. Understandably, the developers reduced the quality of many in-game models in order to optimize the game’s performance. Still, one can’t fail but notice when many of the enemies are sticking out like a sore thumb.
It is also worth noting that during dialogues, each character have their own artwork, and these are very well drawn and detailed. It is evident that the developers wanted them to look as good as possible during dialogues, and frankly, they did quite a good job when it comes to that. All in all, SoS can be classified as a decent looking game, but many of its visual aspects are lacking, which negatively impacts the overall experience.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Tech Compatibility
The game isn’t too demanding when it comes to minimum hardware requirements…
The game isn’t too demanding when it comes to minimum hardware requirements. Android users will need to have at least an Android 4.1 compatible device. This is fairly low, so pretty much any modern smartphone should be able to run it. When it comes to players on iOS, the minimum requirement is a device that supports iOS 9.0 or later. This is also relatively low by today’s standards. It is evident that the developers purposefully reduced some of the game’s visual qualities in order to make it accessible to a wide variety of mobile devices.
However, while it is possible to play SoS on a minimum requirements device, it is worth noting that during massive fights where you fight hordes of enemies, you can experience slowdowns. These can sometimes be very frustrating, but most other aspects of the game should work relatively fine, even on low-end mobile devices.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Free-to-play Friendly
The biggest obstacle in the game is the construction/upgrade time of certain buildings…
To spend or not to spend. This is the question that is often asked by the gaming community, especially when it comes to strategy games. While SoS is entirely playable as free to play, the experiences may vary. The game is designed to be played in short sessions during your daily breaks, and it takes quite a while to progress through it. The biggest obstacle in the game is the construction/upgrade time of certain buildings. This can take days, and even months in some cases, which can be very frustrating. So, the alternative is speeding things up. This, however, is very costly, so unless you are willing to pay a pretty penny for it, you’ll be stuck with waiting.
And this wouldn’t be too much of a problem if not for the multiplayer aspect of the game. Since many players would be willing to use their real money in order to progress faster, they will naturally have an advantage over free to play players. The biggest problem is when someone who is much higher level than you attacks you, pillages your entire settlement, and there is nothing you can do about it. Actually, you can use a peace flare which temporarily shields your settlement, but these aren’t easily obtainable, especially for free to play players. In other words, unless your settlement is shielded, there is nothing preventing someone who is much higher level than you from pillaging your resources all day long, especially if you don’t have an alliance or aren’t close to members of your alliance. What’s worse is that there is no limit on how many times you can be attacked by the same player. This means that someone who can easily defeat you is free to attack you continuously until you get “zeroed-out”.
Because of these issues, SoS is not very free to play friendly unless you don’t mind enduring occasional pain and suffering of getting your settlement pillaged every now and then. Understandably, the developers need to make money somewhere, but the whole idea of allowing the players to “bully” others that are way below their own level discourages F2P players from playing the game. This is frankly a shame since the game has several very good and enjoyable gameplay aspects, especially those that involve playing with other members of your alliance.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Verdict
From the sole gameplay perspective, State of Survival is a great game, filled with many interesting and engaging features. Unfortunately, it also has its downsides, and the main one involves being very unfriendly to free to play players…
From the sole gameplay perspective, State of Survival is a great game, filled with many interesting and engaging features. Unfortunately, it also has its downsides, and the main one involves being very unfriendly to free to play players. Still, it is overall a good game, and definitely worth a try if you are a fan of the strategy genre.
State of Survival guides and TIPS
How to improve your gaming experience and gameplay…
Here is the part when we get a bit more in-depth. We compiled a list of useful guides, tips, and tricks that will help you throughout your gaming journey and hopefully make it more fun and easy! Enjoy!
Use links below to jump to the guide sections.
FAST LINKS:
- How to rally?
- How to change state?
- How to get skins?
- How to get Lucky?
- How to upgrade troops?
- How to send resources?
- How to relocate?
- How to get heroes?
How to rally?
This guide will aim to explain how to rally. Rallying is one of the most important features of the game. It allows players to team up with the members of their alliance in order to take down enemies. You can rally against PvE threats or enemy players. In PvE, you can rally in order to take down Infected Fiends. Defeating these isn’t easy, but players will be able to earn some nice rewards by doing so. You can also rally against an enemy player. To do that, you need to click on an enemy settlement and then select the “Rally” icon. You can then set up the launch time. This will allow the members of your alliance to send their troops to your settlement. You have to keep in mind that all of their troops need to arrive at your settlement before the rally starts. Once you pick the launch time, you will be asked to select the heroes and troops you want to deploy. When a Rally is launched, you and the other members of your alliance will get a notification under the Alliance icon on the bottom side of the screen. Clicking on it will open the Rally page which will provide you with all the relevant information.
How to change state?
In order to change state you need to use the Rookie Relocator item. You will receive two of these items shortly after starting the game, and you have to use it in 5 days since you started and before reaching Headquarters level 10. Not doing so will result in Rookie Relocators disappearing from your inventory. To change a state, you first need to click on the “Wilderness” button on the bottom-left part of the screen. After that, click on the “Map” icon on the right side of the screen. Once it opens up, click on the globe icon on the bottom right. This will open the world map. From there, you can click on the “Search States” button on the bottom-right part of the screen. Then simply type the number of the state you want to visit and then click on the “Enter” button to visit that state. Once you are there, click on an empty section of the state and then click on the “Join State” button. Once you are done, your state will change to the one you selected, and your settlement will be placed on a random location within that state.
How to get skins?
Skins can change the looks of your Headquarters and troops. They will sometimes provide you with various bonuses, which makes them very useful. Skins can be obtained by participating in the limited-time events. While the event is active, you will be able to complete the list of tasks and upon doing so, you will receive many useful rewards, including skins.
How to get Lucky?
Lucky is a legendary hero. Unlike most other heroes, she cannot be obtained by normal means. You can only get Lucky fragments by buying them through VIP packages. Bear in mind that you will have to increase your VIP level for additional packages.
How to upgrade troops?
There are three types of troops, Infantry, Riders, and Hunters. These are trained at Barracks, Garage, and Range, respectively. If you have some of the troops you want to upgrade, simply click on their building, and then click on the train. From there on, click on your troops and you should see the upgrade button if the level of your building is high enough. Simply click on it, and you will be able to upgrade your troops.
How to send resources?
You cannot really send resources in SoS. However, there is a trick you can use to give some of your resources to your alliance members. One of you can simply leave the alliance, and then you can attack each other in order to get resources from one another.
How to relocate?
There are several ways to relocate and this guide will aim to explain how to do so. In order to relocate, you need to possess a relocator. There are multiple types of these available in the game. Firstly, there is an Alliance Relocator. Using this one will move your settlement close to your Alliance Headquarters. Secondly, there is a Random Relocator. Using this one will relocate your settlement to a random place in the Wilderness. Thirdly, there is also an Advanced Relocator. This one will allow you to move your settlement to your desired location in the Wilderness.
How to get heroes?
Heroes are the essential part of SoS and this guide will aim to explain how to obtain them. In order to get heroes, you need to collect their hero fragments. You can do so via Hero Search function in your Hero Precinct building. This works similar to some of the Gacha games, but instead of heroes, you will get several random hero fragments. Once you obtain enough fragments, you will be able to unlock a hero.