The dev sessions at EGX kicked off today with a presentation by both Yager and Deep Silver and a video with some demo gameplay from a pre-alpha build of the game.

Dead Island 2 is set in ‘sunny California’ with different locations located in and around LA and San Francisco and will be a co-op multiplayer game for up to 8 people in which the goal seems to be to move around the area, scavenge as much as possible and then upgrade yourself and your weapons to make surviving the apocalypse as much fun as it’s possible to have while fighting for your life.

The game will have a number of different playable classes, including 2 not yet seen in video demos, and all will have their own unique styles of attacking and special moves. For example the Berserker can execute a special move that lets them kick a zombie. Either into other zombies, creating a domino effect or just sending them flying over the horizon. You can also launch zombies with a moddable weapon that combines a bowling ball and a baseball bat, so I think you can see why this game is about making survival fun. And somewhat ridiculous in a hilarious way.

One of the things that this game does differently from previous Dead Island games is that crafting is no longer tied to worktables – you can now craft on-the-fly. However you’ll either need teammates to watch your back or to find a safe and secluded little corner of the map to do it, the world does not stop just because you need to equip some parts to your weapon. however crafting does allow you to add extra effects to your weapon, such as the ability to set enemies alight and electrocute them. The zombies will even blacken as they take fire or shock damage. There are set to be more weapons, more blueprints in the game and while weapons will still need repairing, they won’t ever be so broken they can’t be saved. There’ll even be a in-built system to distribute level-appropriate loot so that even if you’re a different level to your friends, no battle together ever feels like it’s a waste of your time.

The environment is set to be dynamic with interactable elements such as canisters of gas that can be used as flammable explosives and the ability to set traps. and obviously a lot of noise means that zombies will inevitably be attracted towards it, and some of the in-game tasks revolve around keeping said attracted zombies away from the noise source.

Dead Island 2 is being planned for release sometime in Spring 2015 for PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox One.