As expected, the State of Decay 2 Xbox One X version is visually superior to the Xbox One S version, but its performance is actually worse.

　　Undead Labs’ latest State of Decay installment is out now for both Xbox One and Windows 10 PC, and Eurogamer’s Digital Foundry put the console versions of the game to the test.

　　State of Decay 2 is enhanced for the Xbox One X, and fans were promised better visuals and a more stable framerate. “Extra memory and greater processing power gives us a more stable frame rate and let’s us do more with higher resolution textures”, Undead Labs studio head Jeff Strain told IGN back in March of this year. “When you’re in the game, you’ll immediately see the difference – denser foliage, detailed shadows, depth of light from farther distances, and more detailed character models. It makes the world feel more crisp, vibrant, and like real life. And of course, it lets us run the game in 4k and HDR, which a lot of fans are excited about.”

　　While the game does look significantly better on Microsoft’s enhanced Xbox One console, Digital Foundry concludes that the same can’t be said about its performance. “On the face of it then, we're looking at a substantial upgrade for X owners in every regard, but there are no free lunches when it comes to real-time rendering”, Digital Foundry’s Thomas Morgan writes.

　　“As things stand, Xbox One X's various upgrades combined with its prodigious increase in pixel count ensure that State of Decay 2 runs with a lower performance level than it does on the regular Xbox One S. The most powerful console on the market is hit hard, sometimes even slipping from 30fps into the high 20s. By comparison, the S runs the gamut between 30fps to 45fps in typical play, but the heaviest scenes can drop to the low 20s. The bottom line? There are no graphics or performance modes in this game on either machine, and so you're stuck with what Undead Labs is serving - and for X owners, that's categorically much lower frame-rate overall. As we understand it, this goes against Microsoft's own guidelines to developers for developing on X hardware - software running on the enhanced machine should run at the same frame-rate, or higher.”

　　The full State of Decay 2 Xbox One X vs Xbox One S analysis has been included below:

　　We suggest reading Digital Foundry’s full analysis right here.

　　State of Decay 2 is available now for Xbox One and PC. You can read our very own review right here.