Fntastic Studio sent out word that just ahead of the New Year celebrations, indicating that Dead Dozen is still coming along and development is advancing at a steady clip. They didn’t just want to wish the team a happy New Years, they also wanted to showcase some of the first pre-alpha gameplay footage of the Dead Dozen in action.

Unlike other games where it’s only four people in a small arena fighting off hordes of enemy AI, the Dead Dozen has up to a dozen players attempting to fortify the location and fend off waves of enemies. It plays out similar to the movie The Thing.

In fact, the action starts off like a typical action-horror film. A couple of the soldiers get taken out pretty quickly by the monster, who eats the pistol fire like it’s nothing but ends up going down when a guy with a shotgun blasts it in the side of the head. The only thing that would have been better is if the monster’s upper half gibbed from the impact of the blast. You can check it out in the video below.

The trick, however, is that once the main monster kills one of the other players, they come back as zombies. As some people in the comment section pointed out, it’s a lot like the Source Engine mods like Zombie Panic or No More Room In Hell.

We see that two of the soldiers lay waste to their former buddies after they revive as the undead, and then make their way upstairs.

A third soldier ends up joining them after they make it into a room and attempt to barricade themselves in using a plank and pushing a metal shelf in front of the door.

The makeshift barricade doesn’t look very sturdy, but it somehow keeps them out. The monsters break through a nearby ceiling and work together to tear down a wall. The soldiers kill most of them but then one of the last remaining teammates turn and attacks the last two guys.

The weapon handling looks passable, but the sound effects come across as weak. They need a bit more kick.

There’s an Evolve-style asymmetrical element when controlling the creature, where players will be able to respawn as the creature, regenerate health, and command zombie followings.

It’s still a ways off from release but the setup shows promise. A lot of it will depend on how well the levels play out, how large the levels are, and what sort of objectives will be present to keep the tension and intensity high.

You can keep track of Dead Dozen by visiting the official website.