State of Decay 2 will present players with a much larger world than that of the first game, according to developer Undead Labs.

Undead CEO Jeff Strain told IGN that the studio is aware of players' desire for a bigger world, though he wouldn't confirm any specifics about the size of this one. "I know SoD fans are hungry for details on number and size of maps, regions, kilometers of playable area, etc, but we're not quite ready for that. For now, suffice it to say that the playable area is substantially larger than State of Decay," he said.

State of Decay 2 was announced back at this year's E3 in June (watch the announcement trailer above). It's a four-player co-op game, rather than the MMO Undead had discussed previously. Strain said you'll have the freedom to separate from each other, though that may or may not necessarily be the wisest choice, depending on the situation you find yourself in.

"There may be times when it's tactically advantageous to do so," he explained. "For example, you may be under the gun to get medical supplies back to your base, and you decide to split up and have two players scavenge the supermarket pharmacy while two others go scout for a car or SUV with a large amount of trunk space to get the goods home. Or you could even be working on completely separate objectives and only come together as needed to get each other out of a tight spot. Ultimately, you'll be more effective (and, if we do our jobs well, you'll have a lot more fun) playing close together, but as always with State of Decay, your play style is up to you."

Design director Richard Foge added that you can't turn State of Decay 2 into a direct PvP game where players fight each other. However, he noted there are "plenty of ways that they can be a hostile force in your world because they can directly affect the simulation in meaningful ways." These include attracting zombies or otherwise doing something to get a player's character killed, or killing an NPC that causes their enclave to become hostile toward your community.

State of Decay 2 doesn't yet have an exact release date but is expected out in 2017. It's coming to PC and Xbox One; it'll be a Play Anywhere game, letting those who buy it digitally play on both platforms.