Last week I saw that a friend suddenly bought ArmA2 Operation Arrowhead. He never liked ArmA2 and it wasn't on sale so I asked him why he had bought it. The answer was Day Z.
What is Day Z I hear you ask? You didn't ask..? Well I'm going to post it anyways! Day Z is a survival zombie simulator that is based on ArmAII and Operation Arrowhead. Some sort of disease infected a lot of people and turned them into mindless flesh-craving zombies. You, the survivor, are in Chernarus and the situation is bleak. You only got a Makarov, some cans of beans, a bottle of water and some medicines. You spawn randomly along the coast of Chernarus and need to survive. Basically, this game is what you see in shows like the Walking Dead, movies like Dawn of the Dead. You are just out there, paranoid and scared, trying to scavenge and survive.
That is the whole point of this mod, to survive. And it is not easy. You can't compare this zombie game to Left4Dead or any other zombie game you ever, ever played. This is the hardest game ever and the developers even stated that they did absolutely no balance, they avoided balance. Frankly I even think they hate balance.
You are out there all alone and need to move quiet and slowly, the wild nature is mostly empty. The Z's are all in the urban areas. But the problem is, all supplies are in the urban areas. And you need those supplies. Weapons, food, water, medicines, ammunition and vehicle parts, it's all there. And yes, car parts. Because you can fix up vehicles. Even helicopters. But the zombies are not the only challenge. The zombies are the easy part. You know what the hardest part is? Other survivors. You never know if you can trust them because it's anarchy and everyone needs their stuff. Some people might co-operate but others might rob you or kill you for your stuff. And did I tell you that there's no respawn? If you die, you die. You lose your stuff and need to start a new life. I told you it was hard.. But it gets worse.
Let me sum it up a nice list of the things that make this game hard:
- The nights are dark and full of terror. I mean it, the nights are pitch black and you can't see a damn thing and the flashlights/flares attract both zombies and survivors.
- There's no respawn, if you die you lose all your stuff and you need to start all over again.
- You can't see names above people so you never know who you are dealing with, this game makes you really paranoid and indecisive.
- You can sneak around zombies with crouch and prone but if you get busted and shoot one, many more will come. Zombies are attracted by light and noise.
- All supplies are in urban areas, guarded by zombies. But guess who are also in the urban areas? Bandits, the survivors that choose to kill others for their own benefit.
- You need to drink and eat to survive. If you don't drink and eat enough you will weaken. In the end you will starve to death.
- Servers run real time, when it's dark out your window, it's dark in the server. So if you are a Euro, join US servers. US other way around.
- Your character is saved and you can use the same character on every server you join.
This is one of the most intense games I ever played, I am continuously thrilled while playing it. Scared, paranoid, I am all of those things. And the immersion is fantastic. Sadly it is only in Alpha phase, the game is very buggy, hard to install and because it's so popular, all the servers are usually full.
http://dayzmod.com/
