I'm one of the people mentioned above that loved it and it was the first next gen game (okay okay current gen!) that really clicked for me.
To answer some of your questions (and the comments above).
GovernmentYard wrote:
Now, from what I gather, you haven't got time to do everything,
You can actually do a lot but its nearly impossible on your first playthrough as your character is that weak - playing the game the whole way through is only a few hours and you will need to play it through multiple times to get the most out of it.
GovernmentYard wrote:
so on the first playthrough, you just learn the map, have fun, complete maybe a case or two...
Not even that - first few playthoughts go out , save the first 2 people standing outside , and go kill zombies trigger stuff to happen and then die - just save and restart the game (dont 'save' then go back to your save game - you get killed - then start a new game which will keep your XP and unlocked skills)
GovernmentYard wrote:
and then regardless of whether you make THA CHOPPA or not, the game endeth, and you restart with all your xp and so on, the stronger to tackle other elements of the game, until all cases are solved and so on.
There are mainline quests (about a dozen) and then loads of side quests - its very unlikely you'll be able to do 'all' the quests in a single playthrough until you've maxed out a lot of the game already.
GovernmentYard wrote:
Am I correct? It seems awfully strange. Also, is it 100%able on the cheevos without too much arseachery beyond the faff of the controls?
There are 5 problem achievements :
Saint - rescue 50 survivors - there are around 55 people you can save in the whole game but there is a 'choice' at one point where you cant save both people - its do-able but you need a maxed character and pinpoint timing to get it
Transmittion - you need to answer all the calls from Otis , this is doable as they happen at specific times , but you need to do different things to trigger them and if your in the wrong area when a call comes in then you'll miss it (and there is no display to say this so you wont know until you've finished the whole game).
Genocide - kill the total population of the town (you still get zombies around afterwards so dont think its easy after that) , this is do-able but just boring - and the bit Doccy G mentioned above - you can just drive around the underground areas running over zombies in the car (and swapping out cars when they get damaged) and you'll get the kills and piles of XP + if you then finish the game (for any ending) you unlock the most powerful gun - it will take a few hours of playing to do this but you only need to do it once
There are then 2 'timed' mode games which are stupid - one is survive for X days in a special mode in game where there is no save points so you need to do it in a single playthrough (I think it said somewhere about its 6 hours in real time) , the other is survive for double the amount of time (so 12 hours real time) - you can pause the game but cant save and the whole point is saving up the food to eat when your 'almost' dead (as you lose health automatically) - if you do this you get a 'real' lightsaber (I have not done these 2)