First keep in mind this is an EARLY ACCESS release, so everything is subject to change and these views reflect my opinion of it as it stands atm, with that in mind here is how I found the game.
Really nice zombie survival game, in many ways visually it feels a lot like how Fortnite was before it went Battle Royale.
You make your avatar, there are three body types normal guy, beefy guy and skinny girl. You choose you hair style, give yourself a name and that is it. Real bare bones as things stand, you cannot choose skin colour, changes or alter faces, you cannot even change hair colour none of that seems to be implemented outside of what was previously noted.
There are no classes, profession, archetypes, no traits, perks, flaws or anything flavoursome like that its literally just a bare bones avatar right now and thats all. Once done you enter the game.
The premise is you wake up outside of a vault of some sort in nothing but your undies to a zombie apocalypse and have to survive. A questing system is planned down the line, but nothing yet, nor have i found any lore in game to explain the how and the why of the zombie apocalypse, but as it stands you go through a few missions that make up the tutorial and then you are pretty much left to your own devices to decide what you want to do in true sandbox style.
The map itself if i'm honest is pretty small, more is planned but right now its fairly easy to find the edges. Dotted across the map are buildings and towns inside which are things to loot and break down all for materials to either equip, use or utilise via crafting to make other things. You can also find plans for things to craft which you can use to learn.
CRAFTING
This is nice, and fairly simplistic and straightforward you have things you can make yourself from your inventory, then additional things you can create via various types of workbench, the tutorial will run you though making the basic tools etc.. There is also research (done via a research table that can teach you even more advanced things to make). You gather the resources or place them in the relevant workbench, select the item you want to make and how many hit craft and off you go..
Also when it comes to weapons, clothing, tools etc.. they all have durability, once used up you dump them and make more. I haven't found any means to repair anything yet?
Oh and there seem to be vehicles, I haven't found any that are anything but lootable thus far, but i have found many vehicle parts and upgrades so that is something else to look forward too.
SURVIVAL
Survival elements are health, energy, hunger and thirst. Hunger requires you to either hunt or later on grow your own food or scavenge homes for left over foods and canned goods, thirst requires you to gather water or find a water source to drink from or again scavenge homes and businesses for water bottles.
Hunger goes down pretty quickly and you will typically need to eat half a dozen food to fill your bar once more of the early food, better foods seem to fill it more, or more quickly but you won't be seeing those for quite some time. Thirst doesn't seem to go down as fast as hunger and you also seem to get way more bang for your buck when drinking in terms of refilling it. You can even walk into a water source like a pond or lake and fill it instantly.
Energy is a little odd as there is a sleep mechanic in the game for the purposes or moving the day from night to day etc.. but it doesn't seem to have anything to do with rest. Your energy will go down as you do things but so long as you eat and drink it stays mostly filled.
Health is pretty self explanatory, its the amount of damage you can take before you die.
COMBAT
Combat is simple, your left mouse hits, your right mouse blocks. Typically a zombie will come straight at you and if you pause long enough it will take a swing. Basic zombies aren't really a threat, they move straight at you and can easily be kited around in a circle hitting them continuously, or move away from them, stop hit, move, stop, hit etc.. they do have a range from which they will stop following, or attacking, at which point they just turn around and walk off..which is a little strange.
There are other kinds of zombies and bosses, but mostly its just more health and more damage.. no frills.
Zombies do drop loot including coins, which you use to buy things from the traders, which is nice although most only seem to have coins and rocks on them, which again is a little odd.
There are melee weapons and ranged weapons, initially your only melee option will be a club and your initial ranged weapon will be a bow. I found the bow far less effective than the club doing about a third of the damage of the club at default. There are guns, you can find them, bullets you can find or make yourself.
Another odd thing is that mob placement, where you see a zombie, boss, bear, pig, sheep, chicken is ALWAYS where that thing will be. Mobs that roam will always take the same route. This is both a good and bad thing. For example if you need food and leather and have pigs near your base they will ALWAYS respawn by your base,
Another odd thing is the respawn rate, again we have no control over this at game start up, which would be nice but by default things respawn REALLY quickly. IF you clear a house of zombies and loot, by the time you move to the next house the zombies (not the loot) will have already respawned it needs toning down, fine with animals, which are needed more frequenlty but for purposes of clearing anything long enough to effectively loot buildings in an area its just way too quick.
BUILDING
The building system is straightforward but enjoyable, you make a "Building plans" item (this games version of a construction hammer) that when equipped opens up the building parts you can make. have the materials in your inventory, pick the part, rotate, raise or lower it and click to place. There is a snapping system so parts will if moved near enough to an edge snap to the previous parts, which is nice.
One thing the game doesn't do right now is draw from your chests for building, which is a real shame. As noted you literally have to have the materials in your inventory.
If you make a mistake while building there is a hammer you can make which you target a piece allows you to rotate, destroy or upgrade it. Making it simple to undo mistakes, or turn your wood parts into stone etc.. if you have the materials available from a simple tap of your hammer.
also of note lighting uses fuel, it would be nice to be able to turn that off for solo play as its a pita
World resources respawn VERY quickly, it would be nice to have some control over this at game set up. But as it stands by the time you have cleared a dozen or so trees and rocks etc.. the first ones will have already started to reappear. With trees you cut them to a stump if you remove the stump the tree doesn't respawn. Not for rocks and some ground plants that will clip through your flooring and NOT disappear when you build over them, which is a little frustrating.
PROGRESSION
There is progression the game, you have stats, which affect various aspects of your character,, there are skills which either improve something or open up new crafting options and all of it is tied to levels. You get XP for killing things, gathering things etc.. when you XP bar fills you get a level. Each level gives you 1 allocate-able attribute point and 1 skill point. There are not a lot of skills but there are 2 or 3 levels to all skills and gaining a second or third level in a skill typically have a level requirement.
SUMMARY
The game is fun and quirky, but also feels fairly rough around the edges that an early access title still in development would feel. But the game nevertheless shows promise and if it keeps getting updates will hopefully round out into a nice standout game in the genre that doesn't overburden its players with too much minutia.
