At the fundamental level, State of Decay 2 is very much just more State of Decay. Aesthetics are polished a bit, some annoyances and/or exploits are cleaned up, and there are some new features and mechanics, but this game is basically the platonic ideal of a sequel

State of Decay 1 was great though, so this isn't a bad thing (if it works, keep milking it i guess). I enjoyed the interesting blend of zombie apocalypse community management / survival action back then, and i enjoyed it here once more. There's a bit of a leaning towards playing over and over again, with characters and bonuses being (optionally) carried over, and a bunch of new maps to settle in - including the main map from the first game

Like the first game, there's two extra play modes: Daybreak, which is a defend-the-wall horde mode aimed at multiplayer, which i played once; and Heartland, which is a more narrative-focused run, set between the events of the two games. "Narrative focus" here means your base, survivors, and quests are all pre-defined (barring a few story-choice changes), leaving you to focus on keeping everyone alive, while pushing for quest progress

I'm not sure that i appreciate the skew towards the action side in the extra modes though. I do enjoy the zombie shooting and whacking here, but i don't think it's good enough to carry it the whole thing - i much prefer how it's balanced against base management in the main game. State of Decay 1 had a similar skew with its extra modes too, so i guess it's another sequel thing