State of Decay 2 Xbox Series X|S Adds New Difficulty, Achievements

There’s a slew of new content that was just added to Undead Labs’ State of Decay 2, which should see several players returning to the game to try out the new content.

The new update brings optimization for both Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S to bring improved performance and aesthetics, faster load times, improved shadow detail, and support for 60fps running at 4K.

But that’s not all. There’s also a new difficulty level, achievements, and other goodies. Players can experience the game on the new Lethal difficulty mode, which will likely challenge players in a way they’ve yet to tackle in State of Decay before.

Enemies become much more dangerous, world resources are reduced, and the blood plague becomes a much deadlier annoyance to deal with. Plague Hearts will also grow in quicker, meaning you’ll have undead mobs growing faster and repopulating the world with abandon.

Luckily, there are 100G work of new achievements to earn if you’re going to tackle this new Lethal difficulty, which means all of that hard work isn’t for naught. But don’t be mistaken, as it is going to be hard.

You can also pick up the Stay Frosty Pack for free, which comes with around a dozen wintry items you can earn by completing a series of new challenges.

We awarded the game a 7.5 in our review, praising it as a great riff on the original game with a series of improvements.

“State of Decay 2 is every bit as fun and rough as the first game was in 2013. It feels like a game that would have massively benefited from additional resources during development given its numerous technical shortcomings, but even so, its core (improved in this sequel) remains unique and fun to play, especially with friends. It’s one of those titles that can be described as being more than the sum of its parts.”

Right now, if you don’t have it available, State of Decay 2 is available via Xbox Game Pass to be played on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC. Happy slaying!