Hey kiddo, Handsome Jack here... and I just played DayZ, and apparently someone decided to make a survival game where the real enemy isn't the zombies. It's other players, starvation, disease, and your own complete inability to make good decisions. Fantastic. Really puts the “survival” in survival game.
You wake up on a beach wearing approximately three pieces of clothing and carrying nothing useful, and the game basically says, “Good luck.” So you start searching houses for food, water, weapons, anything. You find a can of beans and suddenly you're the richest man alive. You find a gun and immediately become convinced you're a military genius. Then you hear footsteps.
Oh.
Oh no.
Another player.
Now you're crouching behind a refrigerator, holding your breath, wondering if this stranger is friendly. Maybe you can work together. Maybe he'll help you. Maybe he'll give you some food.
HAHAHAHA.
He shoots you in the face.
Twenty minutes of survival. Gone.
And somehow you immediately want to play again.
That's the magic of DayZ. Nothing is safe. You can spend hours building up supplies, finding weapons, getting geared up, and becoming a walking apocalypse survivor. Then you eat something questionable and die of food poisoning. Fantastic. Humanity survived nuclear war, zombies, and societal collapse, but apparently you couldn't survive a can of beans.
The zombies are almost secondary. Sure, they'll chase you around, but honestly, they're predictable. Players? Players are terrifying. A zombie will chase you because it wants to eat you. A player will follow you for ten minutes because he wants your backpack.
And the inventory system? Oh, kiddo. I've spent more time organizing my backpack than I have managing some of my actual business operations. “Do I need this screwdriver?” Yes. “Do I need this piece of rope?” Probably. “Why am I carrying six cans of beans?” BECAUSE BEANS ARE LIFE.
And that's why DayZ is so ridiculous. Every little achievement feels meaningful because nothing is guaranteed. Finding a warm jacket feels like winning the lottery. Finding a working car feels like becoming a billionaire. Finding another player who doesn't immediately murder you feels like witnessing a miracle.
9/10, kiddo. Brutal, frustrating, slow, terrifying, and occasionally hilarious. It's basically a social experiment where the question is:
How long can you survive before another idiot ruins everything?
Usually?
Not very long.
But hey, that's multiplayer.
