My interest was piqued a few months ago when I heard mention of this game being published through Arthaus (a division of White Wolf) and it finally got released.
Being a game addict, I bought the pdf.
It's a complicated game. Not for newbies, for sure. Complicated and complex, but also very well done. I'm very impressed with it and no game has captured my imagination as this has since I read Deadlands back in the late 90's.
That said, I'm still trying to wrap my head around parts of it.
The system is very cool, allowing for success levels to have a dramatic effect on the game. The setting is even cooler. It's a strange mix of pulp, fantasy, noir, and bits of anime.
Character creation is a lifepath system and one of the best I've seen. You start off with a base age and origin and then buy skill packages that cost a number of years and give you options of skills to take. For example, you could take a military package for a few years, get captured and take the prisoner package, and then take the life of hedonism package once your character is released. When you get done with character creation your character will have a pretty deep history. This has been done in other games, but the system is done almost to perfection in SoZ.
In a lot of ways it reminds me of the Final Fantasy games, particularly 6 (3) and 7. That's a compliment, by the way.
I'll have a review in a bit, after I finish Ashes of Middenheim, but I've got to say that this game has a lot of potential and I think there are several of you guys who will find this as imaginatively-captivating as I have.