Microsoft’s press conference this year was among the strongest of all the conferences that E3 had to offer.  They showed a lot of newly announced games as well as touched up on previously announced games with new gameplay trailers.  One of the newly announced games this year was State of Decay 2, the Xbox One sequel to the 360’s State of Decay.  The game will feature, for the first time, a four player co-op in a massive open world where survival is the highest priority.  The trailer shown at E3 depicts two different groups of people, not aware that the other exists, fighting off zombies and managing to survive.  The trailer ends with one of the teams being overwhelmed by zombies and shooting off a flare, panning over to the other group of people that see the flare.

This will be a core mechanic of the game; shooting off a flare to signify that you are being overwhelmed and need help.  It will not be an MMO of any sorts but will allow a drop-in, drop-out co-op play for up to four people to help you out, as opposed to the previous installment.  In reference to the video, some of the screenshots depict what looks to be a more intense storyline with heavier cut scenes as opposed to the previous in-game  dialogue scenes.  The game cuts out the previous’s engine to be replaced with Unreal Engine 4 to display better rendering effects and gameplay mechanics.

Aside from that, the game looks to be similar to the first in survival horror and making sure that those in your squad and safehouses live to see the light of the next day.  The graphics look incredibly gorgeous and the environment looks to be much more wooded and full of new surprises for our protagonists/teams.  Whether or not we will be able to switch between characters has been undetermined but considering that was a fan favorite part of the first game, there would be no reason to remove it.

The game is set to release sometime next year for Xbox One and Windows 10.

Check out the E3 trailer for State of Decay 2  below: