I don't normally do this type of thing; but here goes:
I've been looking forward to this game for a while now; as zombies are right up my alley. Hopes abound of smashing heads while having an at least semi-realistic touch of survival game play thrown in.
After getting past the initial prologue of waking up in your hotel and getting your bearings, you will find yourself pretty much thrown into the deep end. As expected, Zombies aren't far away and your only weapons are what are around you. Paddles and Oars on the beach, planks of wood or the occasional broom handle. These do their job reasonably effectively, with the ability to kick zombies back from you should they get a little too close. Weapons have durability and you will probably be surprised at just how fast they will degrade. Without exaggeration, I had one break after killing 5 zombies. Fortunately, they generally aren't in short supply. Also, do not expect to find guns. I am a few chapters into Act 2 and I've found my first pistol.
There is also an RPG element to the weapons. To borrow the naming convention from WoW (purely for reference); there are common (white), uncommon (green), superior (blue) and legendary (orange) weapons. Fans of Dead Rising will find that the method for upgrading and modding, as well as creating (through items found via scavenging) is done through a workbench found in key areas of the levels. This costs money which is found through-out the game. All items have so far been able to be upgraded through the workbench (a total of 3 times, with compounding cost). Weapons can also be repaired at the workbench, so you don't have to constantly replace them. The character I am playing (Logan) also has a talent that reduces wear and tear on weapons, which also saves on repair costs. Handy!
Combat is fairly straight forward. You can either spam melee attacks, while kicking back zombies, or go for a more agile approach and dodge incoming attacks, smacking them in the back of the head afterward. It sounds fairly simple and it is; however it's surprisingly rewarding and still manages to be challenging with three or four zombies to dispatch at once. Each of the four playable characters (Logan, Sam B,?Purna and Xian Mei)have their own area of specialty: Thrown, Blunt, Firearms and Edged weapons (respectively). Some special zombies have exploitable mechanics. The 'Rams' (guess what they do) cant fit through doors, so it's possible to make them charge at you while you just stand there smacking them from behind the safety of a pine door frame.
Game-play is akin to Dead Rising 2 with mission's based out of safe areas, taking place around the game world and broken up into separate 'Acts'. Said missions are not overly complex however they have thus far remained interesting. There have been no 'wow' moments as yet; but also nothing that has bored me to tears, with the bulk mostly involving getting from point x to point y; recovering x item; and talking to x person.
After spending about 20 minutes trying to establish a connection, I managed to spend a couple of hours in Co-op mode with forum resident Heretic and it was really quite fun, except for the fact only the Host has any mission completion counted (the client gets boned). This is probably a blessing however, given the annoyance of co-op in games such as Borderlands and characters not being on the same progression point. You will also find that as you play, the game will find players that match your story progression, level and location; giving you the option to join them. I advise turning your game to private (LAN) if you don't want unexpected guests.
Graphics wise I can't really give a judgement. This is mostly due to my machine having trouble running it (for some reason). I was disappointed to find very little configurable variables in the games menu's. I will go out on a limb however and say that there will be ini tweaks floating around soon (if not already). With that in mind, it is still obvious that a lot of time has gone into designing the environments. Not only do they look good, but more importantly they play well.
The Sound. This is probably where the game falls down. The voice acting is nothing spectacular. In my opinion it's on the same level as the latest Dues Ex. Some characters will make you cringe (ahem, the 'Aussie' Purna), and most will be purely uninteresting. The Zombies sound as you'd expect; however I found one zombie type in particular to be extremely annoying - the 'Thug' who screams at you every 5 seconds regardless of your proximity. The games sound-track or lack-there-of is disappointing. Those of you who have seen the marketing videos featuring Sam B's rap song "Who do you voodoo, bitch?" will be disappointed to find this is the height of in-game music.
If I had to throw a score at the game, I'd probably give it an 8/10. Keeping in mind I have yet to complete it.
That's it for now; I might post more as I get further into the game.