If you found yourself thinking State of Decay 2's brutal Nightmare Zone difficulty still wasn't unforgiving enough, the game's latest update is just the punishment you crave. Lethal Zone is Undead Labs' newest gift to the game's masochists, delivering the most intense experience ever created in the series.
In Lethal Zones, resources, such as food and weapons, are even more sparse than they are in other modes, and one minor footnote: all freaks, or special infected, now have blood plague, making them even fiercer and deadlier. Should they transmit that plague onto you, it'll turn you faster than ever before as well. In short, if Nightmare was the game being cranked to 11, Lethal straight up breaks the dial. You can see a new developer diary on Lethal Zones below, including the ominous opening line, "expect to die."
If you don't want to pure Lethal Zone experience, you can also tune the game in parts, as with all other difficulties, selecting where various elements, such as resource availability or combat difficulty, fall on the difficulty spectrum. For the more casual fans, don't forget the game also recently received the Green Zone difficulty, which is the new easiest mode in the game, so Undead Labs has really catered to everyone in the game's 23 updates and counting.
Other changes to the game include new achievements, a bevy of bug fixes and quality of life improvements (full list here), and a new Stay Frosty Pack, including a mix of new weapons and cosmetics.
On top of all that, the game has also received its official optimization update for Xbox Series X|S. State of Decay 2 now runs in 4K/60 on Xbox Series X and 1080p/60 on Xbox Series S. The update is free for all players and available now. If you've got auto-updates permitted on your console, you may have already received it.
