Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

100 or More Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Highly addictive"

When I first saw DayZ, I wasn't sure what to think about it, but when the Steam summer sale hit, I decided that I really hadn't much to lose except 15 $ to give it a try. Since then, I have been playing DayZ for an unhealthy amount of time.

DayZ is a survival open world game where your main goal is simple: Survive the zombie outbreak. DayZ is an unforgiving and hard game to get the basics if you aren't familiar with ArmA II's complex control scheme and clunky gameplay; you start off with basically nothing but a bandage, a flashlight and your trusty backpack (Depending on the server) you then run about the map searching for vitals such as Heinz food, soda cans, blood bags and other useful goodies to ensure your life in the desolated lands. Once you are well grounded into equipment you may want to start heading elsewhere to find more valuable loot, such as military grade weapons, vehicles and whereabouts to set up your camp site. This is DayZ.

The DayZ mod has also an amazing community; several custom maps have been added, sub-mobs and forums are full of people who enjoy the game.

Unfortunately, the only thing holding this mod from being simply amazing is the Arma II engine the mod runs off. The inventory mechanics are simply disgusting and requires patience to understand how it works. Zombies aren't really a threat and are twitchy and walk through gates, fences and such. The real threat are bandits; players who purposely seek others to kill them, and gain their hard-earned loot for themselves.

But since the standalone will come out soon, my opinion stays unconfirmed for now, as the game will run on the Take On helicopter's, a much smoother engine than the military simulator instalment.

Thus, DayZ is a hell of a good mod that will suck for the first week then become gradually better in the following days. Have patience, and godspeed !