I’m not usually one to wade into sandboxes fully of decaying body parts (what can I say; guess I’m a bit of a germophobe), but State of Decay has me reconsidering that policy. The zombie survival sandbox from the apocalypse technicians at Undead Labs pushes all the right emergent, never-know-what-might-go-wrong buttons – at least, if word from the haggard survivors over in Console Land is to be believed. Unfortunately, last we heard, the prognosis on PC wasn’t looking so great. And, to be honest, it still isn’t, but at least Undead Labs is doing its damndest to make the PC version worth the wait.

First up, State of Decay will be setting up shop on Steam Early Access sometime late this year. That’s a step in the right direction given that Undead was originally fearing the worst for any kind of reasonable release date, but it’s the improvements to this somewhat notoriously janky game that have me scrawling out death avoidance plans on every loose scrap of paper I come across. Relaying the results of a recent livestream, Undead explained:

“Will the PC version have enhanced graphics? Higher res? Improved framerate? Yes. A high end PC can do all those things, so we’re modifying the game to support those things. The PC version will not have different content or features, however.” “What the PC version also won’t have are modding tools (for time/testing reasons), but we have no objection to mods or modders, and we look forward to seeing what our PC players come up with.”

Mod tools would be much appreciated, but still: that’s much better than nothing (or the negative-nothing publishers like EA offer). Plus, Undead’s hoping to continue supporting all versions of State of Decay with new content, so the game’s not necessarily at a dead end just yet.

It’s still a ways off, but this is definite progress. And in the meantime, well, maybe I can conjure up some kind of voodoo spell that’ll make me un-sick of zombie games. I mean, I could also just wait and see if that does the trick, but I get the feeling that I’m gonna need all the help I can get.