I don't recall my exact take... I was really, really smitten with AMH at that show... Clearly.
As for the ZOMBIE game....
People were ROUGH on the artwork.. and I didn't think it was bad, just needed more, or some resizing and additional concepts. I really liked the back glass art myself.
The game play was so totally different from anything we have/had seen lately, I couldn't help but think it was a cool move. I did feel there might be a lack of actual "shots", but I really could tell as that weekend went on, this game was in Alpha stage... Charlie was really proud to have his first design out.
It is really a retro (early 80's) feeling game with ALL THOSE SLINGS/BUMPERS, so I was very positive on the concept, but also hopeful that some refinement and additional work would be put in... Which it seems has been the case. Also, the price at the time was targeted LESS than AMH... Which for a NIB, DMD equipped game, has to be part of the story.
Very excited to see what this re-theme they have been hinting at will be...