see deal State of Decay 2 - Xbox One $59.99 on Gamestop

Microsoft and Undead Labs' just-announced zombie-survival sequel State of Decay 2

Loading

Loading

In an interview with IGN, Strain said that State of Decay 2 aims to give fans "exactly what they want," which is a new zombie apocalypse survival RPG with drop-in/drop-out cooperative play for up to four players. It does not require any online connection."The #1 request our fans had from State of Decay was, 'Give me co-op multiplayer,'" Strain said. "[So we said,] 'Let's give our fans exactly what they want.' So we took a couple of steps back and changed direction and that's what State of Decay 2 is."When development first began on the sequel, however, the game apparently did resemble its "Class4"-codename roots; Undead Labs did start down the MMO road. "It was a server-hosted, online world," Strain said, "with the business models that go along with that: subscriptions [or] free-to-play."He elaborated on the nature of the co-op play: "This is not a session-based experience. It's drop-in/drop-out. They key thing that I want everybody to know is, it doesn't require you to be online. We've designed it very much with the intention of it being the easiest, most convenient type of multiplayer you can imagine."The sequel also scraps the original game's CryEngine-based technology for an Unreal Engine 4-powered backbone.The first State of Decay has now seen almost five million unique players, according to Strain.Hear the full interview with Strain on next week's episode of Podcast Unlocked, airing on Wednesday, June 22.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews and Xbox Guru-in-Chief. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan , catch him on Podcast Unlocked , and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.