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Oh god, where to begin? Which ONE? Let's go with the zombie survival idea that's NOT based on killing zombies.
CONTROLS
I'd start with a first person control scheme based on primarily using the trigger buttons to grab items, then the shoulders to cycle between uses. A gun would have shoot, hit, and throw. A sword would have swing, poke, and throw. A broom would have the same, with sweep added. Using "throw" gently should just drop items. From there it's about coming up with fun items and interactions. You should be able to grab things like furniture and dumpsters and walking should push/pull them.
CONTEXT
A few blocks of a big city. Enterable buildings, climbable areas, lots of junk to pick up and use, some base building... You start as a random person in a random situation. Extra lives would be in the form of other survivors you rescue (either by helping them barricade or by bringing them to your base,) and becoming them if you die. Different survivors have different skills and inclinations, like faster/more stamina for the athletic, better results with medkits if they're medically trained, better aim for military/law enforcement, etc. If you declare an area your base and it passes a secure check,, the game won't spawn zombies in it. They'll wear down access points over time, however, and possibly get in.
STORY
Put in a light story based on survival, not "solving" the crisis. Like a good zombie movie, the big danger is the people. But the reason to go light on story is because you want to go heavier than normal on random events. Small ones would be the other people that spawn, and where they spawn, and their own situations. Big events would be like a horde, an explosion that opens a new extra area (small but interesting,) a plane crash, etc. A few major, many smaller. There should be enough events that it's unlikely you'll get a major one repeating in back to back games. Your first dozen playthroughs should feel moderately different from each other.
WINNING
If you survive X in-game days you get a chance to get picked up. If you miss it you have to try again in X more days. Access points get written down in your base quicker as you make it more difficult. In hard mode fewer hits make you infected, and you get more dangerous humans. Or go "realistic" with one hit infects. Infection slowly drains your max health until you convert. This gives you a few in-game days of play to get your affairs in order, with subsequent injuries draining that faster. Game duration is different than difficulty, and changes the frequency of exfil attempts. Maybe every 5 days, every 7, every 15, every 30... Or go endless and see how long you can survive as zombies get back up eventually and resources become more scarce.
And ideally multiplayer. That'd be neat.
So, slightly unique controls, lean in on procedural changes to the world and characters, narrative based around events not hard coded story, and customizable elements like difficulty and game duration.