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your own half acre of hell-“Day Z” game review

Today I review the game”Day Z”

I’m a sucker for the post-Apocalypse genre and oddly almost gave this one a pass until Kount Kreepy suckered me into it. Wow where to start, this game does have something for everyone and should be a post SHTF educational training tool. It has it all zombies,survival,farming,scavenging,exploring,diplomacy,suffering (lots of that to go around) and death (inevitable).

You create your avatar (or character,persona,etc) pretty easily and get popped into a East European backwater (Chernarus) with just the clothes on your back (ie summer street clothes-also a flashlight and battery), normally might not be so bad…. problem is society just shit the bed and oh yeah there’s zombies…. and its those frickin’ running ones… and the survivors out there may have itchy trigger fingers. Survivors for the most part are shooting first and looting your corpse later types. (yeah that’s my avatar wandering the wasteland in a clown mask, lol)

However if you survive the first 10 minutes your well on your way to (maybe) making it (for awhile). Death is inevitable in this game and happens frequently. My current character is more than a few days old and is a relative old hand now. The game teaches people the importance of team work and that it is much easier to survive with others than going it alone. The varying strategies for survival and eventual thriving are numerous in game. You can follow to Tao of the Plow, being a peaceful farmer but let it be known there are ravaging zombies and even more dangerous bandits, looters and worse in human form (handcuffs and hostage takings happen). Violence is inevitable but if your a peace-nik you may be able to run away (pussy). Initial impressions are this is “The Road” meets “The Walking Dead“.

In game I’m one of the bad guys and am part of a semi-nomadic bandit gang. But like Fb’s “its complicated” it is complicated. I have helped out new people (giving em a can of beans when they are starving) and teamed up with people ,I could just have easily robbed (or worse), to help them check out places or escort them to another town. But in most cases the group I’m with scrounges up enough gear, food,drink and ammunition to hold down a desirable location and turn it into a big kill zone (our own version of trawling) to loot the corpses of the foolish. Especially sinister is Kount Kreepy playing Tiny Tim’s “Tip-toeing through the Tulips” as soon as we start the fireworks (or axe work in some cases) over the public ,in game voice, chat (can be heard within a certain radius). Pretty creepy shit killing folks to that song but that’s the Kount for ya LMAO.

The game world is about 200 plus km of gaming area, towns, farmland,woods,hills, etc. So if you don’t find a truck to get around you will be running a lot. The weather,people,terrain and zombies are always conspiring to kill you not to mention ones own mistakes. Ive spent about an hour at one time trying to build a fire in the rain (on and off) and running around in circles to keep up my avatars core temperature to stop from freezing to death! Finding tools to open tin cans of food as well as carve up and prepare animal proteins is also paramount. Some find it easier to eat “long pig” which really kinds of brings up bad memories of Terminus in my book. I’m might be a scumbag but even I have standards in game, lol. However sometimes you just can’t “mind about the little things” in your team.

Don’t get too attached to your cool high speed kit( or character/avatar), gear breaks down and degrades in game. Not rapidly but enough, you can sew your clothes and repair (and modify) weapons and gear (and other people too!). Disease, hyper/hypo thermic conditions, bleeding, broken bones, concussions, fatigue and energy levels,thirst/hunger are also factored in the game. (at left in game pop up interface with characters gear-K.K.s character)

There are plenty of YouTube video’s out there to assist new players (and maybe some old ones too). This is a series from Shifter. DayZ “stand alone” is the one were dealing with here as DayZ did initially start as a mod (for Arma2).

There are apps out there for the game as the road signs are in Cyrillic that give you the names of places in English letters. Also an overall map of the country in game is handy. There are maps one can find in game but they are more like tourist type maps and don’t give the topography. Handy enough there are a couple of guys in our group that hail from East Europe and understand how to read Cyrillic!

Well that’s the good. The bad is yourself, yeah your your own worst enemy in this game lol. The ugly is the game is also still in Alpha so its continuously being updated but you can buy it through Steam. There are crashes the odd time and some days are better than others. However despite these hick ups DayZ promises to be one the best horror/survival open world games up and coming. I’ve also shot the Kount twice , accidental fratricide is also a reality in game in cases of mistaken identity,etc. Communication (especially listening) is key! Twitter is also really handy for this game. I’m giving a shout out to @RolyenKindbud as well as @HeyShifter who have excellent links and material for helping players out. Dont forget to follow the official twitter of DayZ for updates, questions,comments etc. See you in game! And bring lots of loot so I can loot your corpse (and Kount Kreepy might carve you into steaks).