I was kinda let down with State of Decay, I enjoy zombie games and I felt it had a good premise with the survivors having personality and skills while also having a community management mechanic. Sadly, it felt barebones and unfinished especially when it was supposed to have multiplayer but they cut that out.
Yeah, I can agree with you on that. I played loads of State of Decay on the 360, and while I had a lot of fun, it felt really janky and unfinished in some ways. And after a while, the survivors' "distinct personalities" were obviously copy+paste'd from a premade list of backstories/attributes, so that feature felt underwhelming and sort of pretentious.
What do you think of State of Decay 2 though?
Much better than the original, in my opinion. While there's no real "story", at least they're no longer pretending every survivor is "unique" and needs special dialogue.
The gameworld is also much bigger (not to mention there's like
5 maps, one of which is Trumbull Valley, the original State of Decay map!), and there's a lot more fleshing-out of the mechanics too. The controls are also much more fluid and far less janky.
Outposts don't just mean "safe zone + resupply" anymore, they can also give you set amounts of resources every day (pharmacies give meds, diners give food, gas stations give fuel, etc), *and* train survivors in those special skills like mechanics and chemistry. No more praying that the game will spawn in a survivor with these skills, which are NEEDED for mid-endgame base building.
Also, that's another thing too. Basebuilding is a lot more involved now, and for the better.
Oh, and survivor enclaves actually can DO shit for you besides badger you with busywork quests and shitty "trading".