Dead State gameplay video shows turn-based combat, unfortunate scavenger

Best of luck wandering the wastelands of Dead State , Brian Mitsoda's Kickstarted isometric turn-based zombie RPG. You'll sure need it as you scrounge and scavenge resources for your ramshackle stronghold and the haggard survivors holed up inside. Picking through abandoned buildings makes you a tasty, meaty target for the shamblers outside, and in a video released today Mitsoda demonstrates how to defend yourself with the various weapons you'll find as well as the game's overall development progress.

The depredations of living after the apocalypse takes a daily toll on your survivor group's overall morale, so you'll need to boost spirits with comforts such as toilet paper and toothbrushes while stocking up on adequate food and medical supplies. You'll only control your own character—party members are entirely AI-controlled—and you'll bash or shoot plenty zed-heads in a familiar Fallout/XCOM grid system.

Mitsoda provides some notes for his walkthrough, highlighting the non-scripted behavior of zombies and the importance of keeping noise levels low while exploring an area. Avoiding encounters seems like a preferential route, as "killing enemies doesn't give skill points—gathering resources or meeting objectives does."

Mitsoda also stresses the video isn't indicative of a completed game, but is instead an amalgamation of operational mechanics pieced together to give an idea of what the whole thing will look like. It's a nice display of results from a pile of Kickstarter cash, and Mitsoda's background—lead writer on Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines and a former member of Black Isle, Troika, and Obsidian—definitely adds cred to Dead State's RPG ambitions.

Omri Petitte is a former PC Gamer associate editor and long-time freelance writer covering news and reviews. If you spot his name, it probably means you're reading about some kind of first-person shooter. Why yes, he would like to talk to you about Battlefield. Do you have a few days?