It's Hardcore Survival Minecraft meets Realm of the Mad God. That's the best way I can put it. As someone who has sunk an unhealthy amount of hours into each, I am not at all surprised that this game is taking off. I didn't expect half of what I got. I haven't been taken in by the mechanics of a game like this since Civ 5. I just finished my first time playing and I started around 5 PM.

That said, there are some issues that I would like to be ironed out, as they update it. There are some inventory issues and the difficulty curve is steep, even when you get used to the "nightlife". However, none of this is gamebreaking. I hope they flesh out the Constructions that are available to the player, and some more long-lasting light sources would be nice, too. I get it's supposed to be survivalism, but when I'm making marble floors, it becomes a bit ridiculous that I'm still relying on a fire pit to keep the evil at bay.

Also, a more reliable way to regain health would be helpful. There are 3 character attributes to watch for: Hunger, Sanity, and Health. The first two are kept up by food and sleep (among other things), but Health gets a 1-3 HP regen when you eat food (out of a max of 100 for the first character). Let me craft a hospital bed or something, that's all.

USE THE WIKI. Like Mincraft, this game is complicated in terms of resource-utilization. The crafting recipes are provided in-game, but a first-time player will find it hard to keep up. Better description boxes for what certain items do would allay some confusion.

But srsly, buy it.

Spec Ops: The Line is actually a remarkable piece of story-telling. it doesn't break new ground with its narrative, but it does set a new standard for darkness. This is not darkness for the sake of darkness, but more to frame the concept of Man's Inhumanity To Man for the modern gamer. It's no mistake to hearken back to Apocalype Now, as much of symbolism and imagery serves to intentionally invoke it.
I first looked at this as another dime-a-dozen, third-person, cover-based shooter. However, I decided to take the plunge before the Summer Sale, based on some unexpectedly glowing reviews. Interestingly, every aspect of the game is tweaked slightly to suit narrative.

The ending is one I may have seen coming if it weren't for the more involving personal struggles of the main character and his men. Resolving, as it did, was actually very satisfying for me.

The moral of this story is don't judge a book by its cover, I guess. This is doubly true for the world of Spec Ops: The Line

A game with lofty goals for co-op, open-world zombie mayhem. It almost works, too. Simple sanity checks fail in Single-Player, with items mysteriously disppearing and clear hits simply not registering, what I've come to describe as Dragon Age Combat Disorder.
I blame most of those problems on the checkpoint save system. If you die, you lose money and sometimes items (glitch), while being taken back to a nearby safehouse. If you return to where you died, it's a toss-up as to whether your items/objectives will still be there (probably not).
Amazingly, the multi-player keeps better track of your items and hits, but sometimes you will lose whole sections of missions.
Definitely play it if you love zombies, but you better be willing to lose good items, die arbitrarily, and scream in frustration. The rest of the game is great. I will have to debate heavily whether to launch this game ever again.
The WORST sin you can commit as a designer is to punish a player by removing power/items.