I really wanted to like DayZ, and for a while I think I legitimately did. I still remember getting chills the first time I heard a zombie aggro me, running through some shitty town on the coast of Chernarus in the dark. DayZ is not without its fair share of problems however.

DayZ, for those of you who don't know, is a Zombie Survival mod for Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead. You start out with next to nothing and have to scavenge food, weapons and other various supplies to ensure your survival. The multiplayer component can be co-op, but is largely PVP based. "Who's shooting in Cherno?" being a common question of neophytes. Congratulations, you just gave up your position and will most likely die in the next 5 minutes.

The "End Game" largely consists of living in the wilderness, trying to fix up a vehicle to use, and living out your days as a kind of virtual Ted Kaczynski. Daily raids into nearby towns to collect supplies are usually cut short by hordes of zombies and or a few players coming in to ruin your day. It doesn't matter how nice your "kit" is or how long you've been alive, at some point, you will die in some stupid fashion to Arma2's broken mechanics (oh, Surely I can jump off this 3' high loading dock... *CRACK* and no morphine? I guess you're crawling your way to the nearest hospital.) or to one of the many hackers/scripters that feel the need to use their godlike powers for childish evil pranks.

All in all, it's an alright game. It's made much better by having friends to play with (of whom you will probably die to from time to time... it's part of the experience!) however I would simply wait for "Stand-Alone" to come out.

jdodson   Admin wrote on 12/18/2012 at 01:30am

I think I will wait for the sand alone too. That said, the idea of being alone the wilderlands against Zombie hordes sounds awesome.

One of my friends hit me up with a video of some troll that made nice with another player, they went through the game for a few hours and then as the guy had his back turned, killed him and took all his stuff. Classy.

Jason_Taylor   Post Author wrote on 12/18/2012 at 02:36am

yeah, that's essentially DayZ when it comes to PVP. "oh, you have nice stuff, I think I'll take it." In the end, I just wound up using some ~special powers~ to fix up helicopters, fly them around, and give boxes to people (every item in the game...) That's what the endgame is.

jdodson   Admin wrote on 12/18/2012 at 06:25am

Sounds good. Looking forward to the full stand alone release.

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