State Of Decay 2 Has Three Maps At Launch, More Could Come Later

State of Decay 2 developer Undead Labs has confirmed how many maps the zombie sequel will have at launch. In a blog post, the studio said there will be three maps out of the gate. Each of the areas is "roughly the size of the original," Undead Labs said.

The maps will be very varied. "You should expect to see slightly different environments, definitely different landmarks and locations, different layouts lending themselves to different strategies, unique home sites, and even different mission types," Undead said.

The studio went on to explain why State of Decay 2 has three maps instead of one. The idea is that the studio wants players not to experience a sense of "deja vu," and this also gives Undead the freedom to potentially expand the game world even further with more locales in the future.

"Why'd we do it that way?" Undead said about State of Decay 2 having three maps. "Well, primarily, because it makes the game more fun. It really feels like you're moving from one small town to another, and creates a tremendous sense of immersion. And perhaps counter-intuitively, it makes the world feel even bigger.

"You know how on one map (even one three times the size as the original game's) the longer you play, the more you start feeling deju vu with every mission?" it added. "That's less of an issue with separate maps. And see above about strategies and missions. Oh, and one more detail--the multiple map set up makes it easy to expand the world down the line, if you know what I mean."

Also in the blog post, Undead explained that its idea is to allow players to take all of the survivors and all every item collected in one area to the others. Additionally, players should get some kind of refund for the buildings they create on one area when they move to the next. All of this is subject to change, as State of Decay 2 remains in development.

"We'll have all the vehicles parked in our home site parking spaces, along with whatever's stored in the trunks," the statement says. "We're also going to get at least a partial refund on what we sunk into building our facilities. That's the intention, anyway. As always, specifics may change a bit as we get deeper into testing..."

That State of Decay 2 will have a larger game world than the first game is no surprise. Last year, Undead boss Jeff Strain confirmed that the sequel's game world will be "substantially larger" than that of the first game.

For more on State of Decay 2, which launches this year for Xbox One and PC (the release date will be announced at E3), you can read GameSpot's interview below with Strain.

• State Of Decay 2 Dev Talks Larger World, Co-Op, Griefing, And More