Thanks for trying it, and for all this detailed feedback!
You are absolutely right about the knife hits, and good job being the first person to bring this up. In fact the zombies have 5 hp, but most hits seem to hit twice. I'd like to get to the root of that issue, but I didn't prioritize it because I thought a little bit of unpredictability "worked" in the context of the game.
Good thoughts about the use of knife vs gun. A lot of people seemed to feel that knife combat was too hard as is... Tweaking the difficulty is always hard without playtesters; after the ratings period I'll add difficulty levels.
I have been developing this setting for a while now. If you're curious, The Derelict Orpheus, The Gnawing Hunger, and Dagger's Last Testament all take place in this world. The first of these games was made in 2021. Then I read Dune last year, and I was, uh oh... 😂