I saw a let's player begin this game and was instantly intrigued by it, so I got it and played when I had a few days off work.

The things I enjoyed:
-The crafting and bartering systems are fantastic. It encourages exploration (especially through the unsafe zones once you've explored the story locations). I liked that some locations have specific machinery to use fewer resources to make certain things, for the trade off of some time and gas. It does sometimes feel like some of the late game items are hard/impossible to find, while you could have stack upon stack of useless early game leftovers, so barter appropriately.

-Choosing your own symptoms is a fun way to get some perks, and if you use med items, they are fairly manageable. I like how this allows for some player strategy.

-The characters, even minor ones, are interesting, with very few "mustache twirling villains" and mostly believable actions/reactions to the world around them. A huge reason why I kept playing even when I got a bit frustrated with the game was that I wanted to know what was going to happen, even if many of the characters are fairly stereotypical of the zombie apocalypse genre.

-The relationship between the protagonist and her son is endearing, even during the times where I got frustrated at Cody (like, I get that you're 8 years old, but come on, buddy, get a grip!). It is a very nice story about the sacrifices of parenthood, made all the more noticeable by the apocalyptic scenario of a zombie outbreak.

-The art style is lovely. I like that you can tell exactly what they're feeling, even if they technically don't have faces. It manages to convey a lot of emotion with not a lot of detail, which is nice (especially if you're running the game on an older computer).

-Having a time limit really amps up the tension, especially as the game gets more complex and you have to choose whether or not you can really afford the 2 hours it takes to get to the farm for some food. I'm a huge fan of "doomed by the narrative" stories, and this one feels like a great tragedy of normal folks just trying their best in a doomed world.

The things I think need improvement:
-(Disclaimer: The developers are Chinese and I have only played the English version so far). The translation needed another pass from a proofreader, as there are many moments where the inconsistencies (example: one character being referred to as "Willie", "Willy", and "Wily") and weird grammar took me out of an otherwise enjoyable story. It also took me a moment to get a few of the untranslated cultural nuances, such as a neighbor character calling the protagonist "Aunt" (it's meant in a "respect towards your elders" way, but not really well conveyed in the translation, so for a second I really thought they were related).

-The difficulty curve is steep, even at the lowest "tranquil" setting, which is supposed to be a level at which you can "enjoy as if you're reading a book" but can definitely be too much, especially for a new player. It took me three tries to get to one ending, because my save file got soft locked the first time (the mom kept dying due to a symptom before I could get to my storage locker where I had medicine), and I ran out of time the second time, even if, in my opinion, I was playing efficiently. You also need to play at least four times to get all the endings, and it is a fairly long game at about 20-25 hours per pass, depending on how fast you play. If you intended your game to be a rogue-like, it would also be useful to have an option to skip the initial cinematic and tutorials at the house.

-Some elements of the story are not as fully fleshed out as others. The main story line I followed is obvious from the beginning of the game itself (survive until the evacuation day), but as other avenues come up in the game, there were times where I didn't quite know what I was supposed to do or what thread I was supposed to follow.

-The game will tell you that you have 60 days to evacuate, but you must make a choice around Day 40 that can really cut your game very, very short. I haven't found a way to avoid this yet, and the game doesn't offer the option to save before big decisions, so you could accidentally ruin hours upon hours on a save file because of a single click.