>>1936190
We start our adventure in story mode alone on a road and stumble on a bunch of dead bodies and a woman trying to ambush us for money. Looks like she didn't kill them, after beating her we recruit her to our future thriving community Binlandia and let her guide us to the nearest outpost.
Sadly, the Highway Patrol outpost has been overrun, a single human is seen among white strain infected (the most dangerous strain) and tells us the zombies are ignoring him because he's drenched in blood, he asks for help in blowing up the doors to the settlement to escape to safety. I already played and finished the first game so I have an idea of what's going on. We can ask for explosives at Tent City close from there.
On the way I talk a little more to Kelly and beat up some infected. NPC relations seem to be the most fleshed out in the game, you can ask them how they feel about you and various questions about their community, all dynamic. I also sneak around rabbits (no bow yet) and green strain infected, the game has a wind and smell system for sneaking. We sleep in the gas station (sadly, buildings still don't have modeled interiors and behave like an RTS).

Tent City is pretty big, there's farming going on and NPCs follow their own routine following the outpost's needs and theirs. I talk to some, one of them already knows Kelly and greets her, then asks her about me. A trader initiates a quest with me, after that I go see the FEMA guys to tell them about Highway Patrol. They don't have any chickens I could steal, sad!

I am somwhat positive for now, it's definitely not a simulation like PZ with tons of systems but the focus on NPC relations and community seem a lot more fleshed out than the previous game, I'm also glad the top down perspective is gone.