State of Decay vs The Culling
State of Decay
State of Decay is a pretty unique zombie survival RPG that doesn't only feature a vast open world for you to explore but also allows you to build a base, fortify it and recruit survivors (NPCs), each with their own personalities and characteristics, that you encounter to join you. You can even ask them to join you as you venture out into the world to find more items. The game's crafting system is pretty in-depth as well along with an interesting scavenging system that allows you to speed up the process of scavenging but at the cost of potentially attracting surrounding zombies to swarm to your location. Aside from the many weapons available, tere are even a wide variety of vehicles for you to drive around and ram zombies with.Granted that the game still has some bugs and that the developers had earned a pretty bad rep for apparently releasing a patch as a separate DLC and wanting players to pay for it, State of Decay is still undoubtedly a very fun zombie survival game to play. If you can get the game at a discount, this game is definitely worth the price, especially for fans of the genre.
The Culling
The Culling is, in many ways, a potentially great PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds alternative game. In fact, many would say that this is perhaps the very first standalone, battle royale game that is inspired directly from the Hunger Games. As such, you'll expect a pretty brutal arena set on a remote island where players will not only need to explore the foreign land to scavenge for resources but also to craft a wide variety of weapons, traps and tools just so you can ambush your fellow players. Naturally, being battle royale and all, the last man standing will be the victor.Each match can contain up to 16 contestants (and yes, like Hunger Games, The Culling is apparently a game show) and the game lasts for around 20 minutes. There is also a tutorial, a training mode where you play against AI bots, and a special 8-player Lightning Round where players get access to the best weapons early on in the game. As a game show, the "organizers" will often spice things up with special in-match events that have some pretty crucial rewards too. Like the Hunger Games, players can also each call in an airdrop (a.k.a. "care package") containing valuable items but getting to that airdrop in one piece without having your stuff stolen before you reach there can be quite a challenge in itself.
Now, unlike PUBG's shooter-heavy gameplay, The Culling has a more visceral, action-based, melee-oriented gameplay that will make every successful kill a very satisfying one. Don't get me wrong - the game does have ranged options like bows and guns but having a firearm or any ranged weapons may not be an advantage if you don't know how to keep your distance. Players can easily be disarmed of their ranged weapon if they are ambushed by a melee player, and of course, if you missed your aim, you may not have a second shot.
However, due to a plague of problems between the developers and its community, The Culling seems to be a pretty dead game at the moment and hence, finding a match can be quite difficult. Similar to PUBG, The Culling is not a free game either and this game is on the pricey end considering its almost non-existant player base.