You might have heard of State of Decay. You might have gotten it in a bundle, in fact. I'm pretty sure that's how I got it. I've also enjoyed it on a lot of very modest hardware,
Not surprising considering it was released in 2015, almost 10 years ago now. The graphics weren't exactly cutting edge at the time of release either though.
The cheap price, fun game play (if you don't mind gore), and modest hardware requirements make it a pretty good game for people to have in their library. It even runs on Linux, under Proton, pretty near flawlessly. It has complained about some video cards I've run it on under Linux though, so it might not run great for everyone.
It does use the CryEngine after all. Which may cause you issues on some legacy hardware. Dx11 required.
The game is just loaded with content. Plenty of voice acting for the three different modes to play. Plenty of story.
But There's a Problem
More than one, but I can live with the zombies clipping through walls. Save for the rare glitch where somehow one gets in through a clipping glitch. Or when you rarely may get stuck somewhere. Thankfully you can just close out the game in the worst of cases, and you'll go back to your base.
The most annoying thing about the game is that it feels unfinished. It has plenty of polish in certain areas, like the story and voice acting. Other areas, not so much.
To me, it's very clear they were working with too small of a team, specifically not enough technical expertise. The game is basic, to cut to the chase.
You can't swap anything between characters without using a car trunk or the vault for your base. It costs you influence to put something in the vault and take it out later as well. So I end up with a parking lot full of smoking cars with their trunks full.
Because you need a machinist to repair cars, and a significantly upgraded machine shop. So they end up piling up until you can get that.
Then, occasionally some shit ass will shoot your car while zombies are attacking, blowing it up and everything in it. Probably Alan. You'll know if you play it.
It's a small little missing feature that wouldn't take most programmers long to implement a fix or an alternative. Like say a personal storage in the base. The feature missing is a clue to me that they didn't have the staff to deal with a lot of small issues.
Like the zombies clipping through walls. Though to be fair, that's a common issue with many games.
The Unending Grind
One of the other main issues is the way the game gives you a set of randomly spawned missions that never seem to end and pop up way too fast at times, requiring you to constantly run around and not have enough time to gather resources. You have to try to gather resources while you can without failing to do missions in time. It's unending.
Do I Gotta Do Everything Myself?
The core of the game is single player. Your single character, in a zombie apocalypse, in a community. Wait, where's that community?
You can get other characters to come with you to gather supplies, but the second you go on a mission, they book it. Which can be a serious issue, considering zombie hordes and a few mutated OP zombies.
A weird little issue that they seem to have added for game balance I guess? But it's ridiculous, because why would everyone be on their own in a zombie apocalypse gathering supplies for the community?
Even if you call in scavengers on the radio, which I often use to have a bit of backup in case zombies show up, they only gather special large item resources, like gas, or hardware supplies, etc. They won't pick up things you don't have space for and leave behind.
Oh The Splatter!
I don't want to leave you thinking the game is all bad. One of the best parts of the game is also one of the most graphic and disturbing! THE GORE! There are a few special finishing moves that the characters do on the zombies that are just disgusting and awesome. You'll have to play to find out!