Summary:
Game has great promise and story, but not well implemented and unstable.

Pros:
The game has an awesome potential and atmosphere, the story line (campaign mode) has an interesting script, and the game mechanics are super fun. Take an island and then take the next, and unlock new technologies meanwhile.
But that's as far as it goes for good points.

Cons:
Constant crashes, quests bugging, unexplained introduced aspects/mechanics/items throughout the quests, badly designed interaction makes this game a very bad experience for the ones looking for joy without getting into tech stuff. In order to make the game playable (still crashing often), upgrading to a beta and installing a "Deadislands" mod that fixes several issues and implements quality-of-life improvements, is required.

The mod saves the game by one hand, but then leaves one wondering how was the game originally intended to be played -- if at all. It's an old 2012 game abandoned by the developer/publisher, yet the mod was still under active development down to 2025!

So if you're looking to just have fun and chill with a game, a "capital ship of sorts" game, move on, this is not for you.
If you really like the genre and the style, and are willing to give this one a try, be ready to go fancy and constantly research (through steam discussions basically) how to avoid or undo bugs and glitches or how to do unexplained things; ensure to save often (said mod implements better autosaving capabilities); and also fiddle with steam launch options for the game.

Bottomline: fun, but not for everyone.

.