I recently started playing this game after seeing it repeatedly referenced on gaming sites. The article that finally did it for me was recently published on pcgamer.com :
http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/05/27/day-z-photo-diary/Anyone up for starting a DayZ group? Let's try and survive the end of the world together.
I've gone through piles and piles of zombies in the Left 4 Dead series and Killing Floor. With DayZ, it's a little bit different. There is still a fair share of zombies to shoot through the head, but that hasn't been the hook for me. Crawling through the brush, surveying a farmhouse, counting the number of zombies nearby and carefully navigating around them to reach the sweet can of beans I need to live. Seeing another survivor, ducking behind cover, and playing the dangerous game of judging them as friend or foe. Moving through an open field, hearing the loud screech of a zombie that spotted me, and then running in a full spring to avoid getting killed by my stupid mistake. These are some of the things I've had to go through after a couple of hours of playing the game.
Ross has mentioned it before in
Zombies of the World, but DayZ gives the concept center stage: People are the real threat in a zombie apocalypse. The zombies suck, but they're manageable. The other survivors are the worst. They can be valuable allies, if they want to, but there are also the lying survive-at-all-costs folks that roam the barren fields. One of the reasons players are dangerous, is that other players drop the best gear. A zombie might drop a Coke to quench your thirst, if you're lucky. A player on the other hand can drop his awesome sniper rifle, GPS, flashlight, and other neat toys. I watched an exchange where one player told the world he carrying a GPS. He then greeted another player in front of him, commented on how friendly the player was, and then screamed as he was gunned down like a dog. The other player looted the GPS from the dead player, and quietly left the area.
The game is still in the alpha stage, so there are still plenty of bugs that need to be fixed. Zombies can punch through walls, zombies only spawn near buildings, the zombies seem to run and teleport towards their prey. Even with that, the game still holds its own.
Here's a quick actual play video from youtube:
I'm usually not a fan of people running around and screaming, but it gives an idea what a game session can be like.
Let's try and get an RPPR DayZ hunting group together!
