My DayZ review

[badluckburt 974]

I think you should do your review on the stand-alone game that will probably have addressed a lot of the issues you and other people might have with this mod.

You said that DayZ tries to be a first person shooter with standard controls

Have you tried playing Arma2 before playing DayZ? I don't really see how you could say that if you have. You have a point on the broken legs though, it sucks when that happens and you have no morphine on you. And you might want to try fixing a vehicle if you want shorter travel times, otherwise I suggest sucking it down and taking a hike :), the journey is part of the fun!

About hackers, I survived my few encounters with them but yeah, they suck. The SA will hopefully make it harder for them if not impossible to mess with the game and players.

As for the people playing this game being murderous maniacs, it's just a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time I think. If you check the stories on the Survivor forums there are some great ones of strangers actually doing stuff together. One of DayZ's charms is that you decide how you play, that's why I'm a tree-lurking coward at the moment but I sadly think it's a fact that most people wouldn't be friendly after a real apocalypse and some people would kill others over stupid shit just like they do now.

[Jamz 253]

Thoughts noted.

DayZ is a specialist item, it's not for everyone. Thats why the vast majority of people are happy with CoD Black Ops 2, Just like the vast majority of people like to listen to Maroon 5. Let them, I'm fine with that, just let me play something different from the dreary trudge that the slopeheaded dronegurners feed off, something more... interesting.

Thats my review/opinion, sorry about mentioning Maroon 5.

[victusmortuus 1074]

These reviews really really put me off buying the game but I then think to myself "It's only a mod".

To me it seems you want NPCs to give you quests when you have all your gear -Yawn- I've done that before in every game on my Xbox. My knowledge is certainly limited as I don't even own the game. I've only heard stories and watched exactly 13 videos of game play -roughly 6 hours of footage I think-.

I wonder if you ever played Grand Theft Auto : San Andreas after the 'end game' What did you do when there was no missions? I explored, looked for myths, cop chases, flew around, chilled with my homies in grove street. Same goes for GTA 4 which was boring online if you had no imagination. We used to make stuff up as we went, for example a Sanchez and a big rig equals Terminator 2 gameplay. Or when my friend had no mic he'd automatically chase me and my other friends and kill us.

I see the same thing in Dayz, my imagination is ridiculously good -not being cocky here or putting you down- I know for a fact as soon as I touch down, learn the shitty controls and then gear up I'll find things to do. Rescue missions, hunting bandits, full map travel with only a hunting knife trying to live off the land, zombie kill of the week, ect ect ect ect.

Hacking is lame but I'm going to try find a nice private hive with like minded people, controls can be a problem but if you persist you will over come and learn.

You have to remember it's a mod so my advice is wait for Standalone until you review the game.

Edited January 12, 2013 by Victus Mortuus

[{GBYC} EvilBunny 61]

I would always get the standalone even off the back of this review. It is after all a mod at the moment with no control over much of the existing arma2 engine.

Zombie zig-zagging for example is from the soldiers of arma2 sidestepping to avoid shots.

Other than the HACKING though whcih is enough to drive anyone nuts when every single person out of 50 is suddenly on the beach dancing gangnam style with AS50s and what not.

I find everything you have listed to be positive points to me. I think the lack of persistancy is a fantastic feature it makes you way more cautious when meeting people . I for one never learn. LOL had heli on a server asked if any new players wanted a lift. landed picked the guy up took him to cherno, he got out shot me and took off again lol. it happens EXACTLY how real life would unfold. some people would trick and deceive you other will run half the map just to give you a blood transfusion because you did glitch and break ur leg in a door.

The glitching is just something we have to put up with due to the mod itself being run from another games engine. Once its optmised and specially designed for he purpose of the dayZ game i can see it being 10 fold better. I replied to this really just to say try not to be completely put off by bad reviews. Yes OP has valid points I just think this is a game that everyone needs to try for themselves. BOTH the mod and standalone. Its surprising how much of an adrenaline rush meeting another player is since the outcome may well be you on a beach with nothing again.

[Fearless96 5]

There are some cons in the game, although hopefully the standalone can clear some things up! :)

[LakePoet 3]

"But stay far away from DayZ"

The only thing ill be staying away from are your reviews. How can you visit the Dayz forum and provoke a boycott on the forum set up for said game?

Get out.

[Pandema 352]

I think your main issue is that you expected a perfectly polished experience from a mod. DayZ has no control over a lot of things as its built on top of a preexisting game and has to use the engine its provided with.

I'd wait for standalone to come out before you start reviewing.

[Rott (DayZ) 218]

So you have wandered into this DayZ mod and you want to know more about it? Well, I will tell you what I can. Keep in mind this is from my own perspective and is only an opinion.

The Good

Big open world environment, lots of items and weapons, post apocalyptic zombies (who doesn’t like zombies?), vehicles, an interesting hunger/thirst system.

The Bad

Incredibly clunky controls, All in-game signs are written in Russian, almost no character customization (everybody looks almost exactly the same), a massive population of hackers/cheaters, no persistent character advancement, very anti-social community.

The Review

Over the last few weeks a number of friends started playing this game mod en-masse. They seemed to be enjoying it. So I asked them some questions about the game and decided to pick it up so I could play with them. I have played my fair share of games over the years, although I knew a few of the problems with this title before buying, I felt I could manage.

The first major hurdle was learning the control scheme. I must say that these are some of the worst and most clunky shooter controls I have ever learned. The resident evil series remains on top of the list for clunky controls, but only barely. DayZ tries to be a first person shooter with standard controls. But they are very complex and half the time do not function properly. These controls are so clunky that I could write an entire page describing how bad they are. As “The Angry Video Game Nerd” would say, they are bad – like Dark Castle Bad. If you haven’t played it, you have no idea how shitty these controls are. Aiming is nearly impossible, and picking up items is like attempting to pick up a melting ice cube with only your elbows. And for the love of god – don’t try to climb ladders, you have a good chance of just falling off and breaking your legs.

Speaking of broken legs. Everything can break your leg. You can trip over a fence and break your leg. Yes I just said that. Walk up to a fence, press the proper key to step ever-so-slowly over it, and viola~! Your leg is now broken and you are bleeding out on the ground. Opening a door is even worse, if you are standing in the wrong spot when you open it, the door will hit you, possibly glitching you inside a building, which will break your leg, wound you, and possibly knock you out. Zombies hitting you can also break bones far too easily. The zombie runs up, hits you once on the chest, you fall down with a broken leg, bleeding, and knocked unconscious, the zombie then chews on your unconscious broken body till you die. Zombies also zig zag all over the place, randomly teleport short distances, or glitch through walls doors and buildings. This makes zombies quite difficult to kill without getting hit and very possibly giving you a broken leg and knocking you out in a single blow. Fun times.

Then there are travel times. Think incredibly long. If you remember Oblivion you may be familiar with extremely large game maps, DayZ is roughly equivalent in size and a lot more boring. So you start the game, it randomly drops you in a starting area, and you decide to go meet up with your friends. Expect to spend the next hour (or possibly two!) running across the landscape just to reach their location. There is no fast travel system of any sort. And if you happen to be killed, expect to start all over again. This leads to my next point.

Nothing is persistent in regards to your character. If you die, everything you own is dropped on the ground, anyone can take everything you had, and there are no sort of learned character skills which can be built up as you progress. This encourages players to simply kill each other to quickly obtain items and equipment. Expect to start at square one with a fresh character for most of your DayZ experience.

Then there are the hackers. Oh yes. This game has a massive amount of Hackers and Cheaters. Almost always their entire goal is to ruin your day. I had heard a horror story of one from one of my friends before I started. He had a run-in with a cheater who teleported him out into an endless flat plain and left him there. He could not die, he sat there in game for literally 4 hours real time till his character eventually starved to death – finally allowing him to start playing again.

I figured it could not be too bad, the game designers must be aware of the hacking and be actively trying to stop it right? Not so. As it turns out, DayZ is incredibly easy to hack and has been since its inception – just google 'Arma II ***/hacks' if you want and find out. The game has an anti-cheat system installed, but it obviously does not work. This leads to players with ultimate equipment, teleporting around, killing everyone, modifying the game world, spawning vehicles, items, and generally abusing other players in an effort to get their twisted jollies.

Finally I should address the community. This games 'end-game' seems to be purely designed around fighting other players. It has a veneer coating in the form of a large, post apocalyptic world. Initially the goal seems to be survive and gather items to perpetuate your survival. But beyond that there is absolutely no goal. No quests, no storyline, no faction groups to align or fight against, no area to run from or get to -- Just you and some other players in a large zombie infested game map.

Someone I know summed it up for me in a rather disturbing way, he said; “other survivors are like item filled meat bags”. The idea being – to simply kill them and take their stuff. Most people playing this game seem to regard this as their goal. Since you can’t trust anyone else, it is easier to simply shoot everything on sight – making this game Call Of Duty with zombies. It also creates an incredibly anti-social environment for new players. Since the world is full of cheaters, hackers, and people who get their jollies from generally abusing and hurting others. There are also a surprising number of people who do not care about items, they just get a sniper rifle, sit up in some well-traveled area, and shoot as many people as they can.

Now don ‘t take this the wrong way, I completely understand what makes games centered around PvP fun. I just do not think it fits in a game where most players are just trying to survive against hordes of zombies. This is not some sort of ‘Left 4 Dead’ where some players are zombies and others are real players, This is purely real live players vs ai controlled zombies initially. It is player choice which causes people to attack each other – and often it is over petty items.

I read a post a while ago where a player gleefully described shooting someone simply to get their matches. He could just have easily found his own matches, or shared the fire with the strangers, or teamed up with them until he found his own. But instead he chose to kill these random strangers for a pack of matches… I still feel sickened and disturbed by his actions. And this is common behavior! It seems it is not enough that most people in this game world are dead already, the survivors feel this need to kill each other rather than working together.

Synopsis

This is DayZ. The game rewards those who hurt others. There is no punishment for harmful behavior. Turning the game into an incredibly antisocial environment. When combined with the prevalence of hacking, amazingly clunky controls, a written in-game language which most of the world can not speak, a very glitchy game world, bugged zombies, glitchy buildings, and killer doors, a complete lack of character advancement, no storyline/factions/quests. There is very little reason to play this game.

So why did I try to play it for the last week? Three reasons. I enjoy games in a post apocalyptic setting. I had a number of friends playing it. I could not return it and get my money back. However I can no longer justify playing it for these reasons. So I felt it was time to post a bit about my experiences and shelve this title.

If you are a player looking for good post apocalyptic games, check out the following titles: Fallout 3, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat, Id Software's RAGE, Wasteland, Metro 2033, or maybe even Borderlands 1 or Borderlands 2. For games due out in the future, keep an eye on Survarium (a free-to-play game made by the same people who made the excellent STALKER series), and Metro Last Light - both due out in 2013.

But stay far away from DayZ.

Did not read ... not one Fuq was given ...

[Mr Nasty 1023]

LOL relax guys. This is a necro thread and the person who posted the review hasnt logged in since the day they posted it. Un rustle your jimmies and get back to slaying zombies and hunting bandits (or survivors).

[marcjpb 5]

This is weird, who review a beta game over a year its been in beta ?

Half of your points are bugs (due to beta), other half is what make dayz, dayz. Who would play dayz if you would just respawn with all your stuff when you die ?

Hackers, well yes, they suck. Everyone hates them. Private hive and/or white list server help with that but this will lot more control once SA is out.

To me, it just seem you didnt like dayz as the game concept, which is fine and you prolly died a few times to bandits and lost all your stuff.

Its a very unique style and not suited for everyone.

Have fun with your generic / same old shit shooter you seem to enjoy so much more.

[Guest]

OK firstly I appreciate that this is YOUR review however I have to disagree.

The game does not reward those who kill others. In-fact it does quite the opposite. If you ask anyone on here "Would/do you shoot bandit's on sight," then a majority will say yes. The game does not need to punish people because the players themselves do this.

I am curious to ask how long you have actually played dayz, because this sound like you picked it up and simply died and got mad within 5 mins.

You need to give it time, play it with some skill, get good gear and then you'll get a real experience :)

[Skadefr0en 61]

If you want to sell the idea of this game to anybody you'd want by your side (and not some triggerhappy BF3 airhead) you would have to manipulate him a bit and put weight on the survival part. When indicating DayZ is not "kill or be killed shooter no. 14100 to be released this year", the poor fellow think friendly survivors and bad zombies - and you let him ;)

After 14 days of playing, he or she is:

1. Still with you

or

2. Once again installed in front of Minecraft or Civilization V..

This game is nothing but BF3 in slowmotion for people 40+, disguised by an apocalyptic story only made to reduce weapons and vehicles.

But to survive, you have to get better at looting and shooting other people, not being able to settle or build a camp, always on the run.

And I hate myself for investing precious time to just hunt skills and get better at shooting out of pure need. We all just want a good time with our friends and not spend a billion lightyears hunting the far too sparse gear. Because life is short, tomorrow is work again. All you really want is a ride in that boat with your friends on TS and loot that island, or whatever.

I do'nt care shit about that kid who wants to shoot me, it's like he needs our attention and say "hey I am here too and you better notice me, or you are dead!" Annoying like hell...

If DayZ does not provide these few spare hours of quality time and let hackers and losers take your gear again and again, I guess it is time to move on for the sake of humanity, the economic world crisis, and our family lives.

...So that is just what Old Grumpy here did.

And if I may say, it sure feels nice not following the sheep herd anymore, waiting for the next big advertised thing (SA) :)

Like Major Lazer says, get free :)

Edited January 28, 2013 by Skadefroen

[dayzisthebest 4]

I am incredibly glad that lames and bfcodwankers do not play game as DAYZ.

[BdogZ 17]

This was very eye-oppening, but I don't completely agree with you, although i respect your opinions. I believe most players have great experiences in this game, and yes, there is no objective or storyline to it... but do you really need one? If it did have a storyline, you wouldn't feel free to do whatever you want, and most important, survive in whatever way you can.

As for the Pvp, bandits, players killing each other, I just think... it's a post-apocalyptic game, you can't trust anybody, and if players couldn't kill each other, it would take out some of the "realism" in the game. So the Pvp just helps create this rather realistic illusion of actually living in a post-apocalyptic scenario :)

[BannedOpinion 14]

All in-game signs are written in Russian

That's it guys, I am avoiding this game. I hate it when Eastern European environments don't use English..

[BdogZ 17]

That's it guys, I am avoiding this game. I hate it when Eastern European environments don't use English..

Ahaha you sir have my beans

[mitor 176]

You said it: your review

Best things of Dayz are not zombies, and one of the worst things is not the animations...

[terrorizer33 131]

it happens EXACTLY how real life would unfold. some people would trick and deceive you other will run half the map just to give you a blood transfusion because you did glitch and break ur leg in a door.

Haha spot on! I did that once for some dude in Cherno (run from a basecamp all the way up north east)... got there, nearly found him and he got a bullet in the head... lol waste of time, but I was laughing my ass off :D

I love this game! Only really annoying thing is the hackzorzzz. Our server is public, but nowadays I spend most my times going through logs banning them instead of playing... Bring on the SA!!!!

Edited January 30, 2013 by terrorizer33

[Spikér 136]

so to get this straight. All your review seems to do is bitch about the PvP element of the game. Add to that, the fact that you also complain about bugs even though its an ALPHA mod (it states this on the main page). Im sorry but your review is totally one sided and if im being honest, the main points i pick out seem to reflect that you dont like PvP and also like to complain about bugs.

Also, you keep mentioning hackers that the game designers must be aware of? Im not sure if trolling or just stupid, but this is a MOD! It is the ARMA2 part thats the problem with hacking and there is nothing the MOD designer can do about that without re-working the arma2 engine (try reading the standalone information).

My final thoughts.....

Ignore this review. He is trying to compare several full games with a mod. Fast travel? Yes because that would fit in with a realistic survival game right? This review is more like a QQ thread rarther than a review!

Edited January 30, 2013 by Spikér