Thursday, 5 July 2012

DayZ: Real Life Zombie Expectations.






Recently I bought Arma II combined operations so I could try this new DayZ zombie mod that everyone has been raving about as of late and after an extremely stressful install process I got it running. The game is still in Alpha so it has a long way to go but I figured I'd write about my experiences in the game. The game is set in a fictional place called Chernarus and is approximately 225 kilometres in size. When you start the game you wash up on a random beach with nothing but a bandage, a torch and some painkillers. It's your job to survive the zombie infested area for as long as you can, because death means that you lose everything.


I peered around myself, looking for some sign of life. It was difficult to spot anything with the overcast making my sight ever so slightly blurred. To the right I saw nothing but to the left I could see what looked like a small dock and figured that if there wasn't any life, I might at least find some food or at least a gun. Off I went and before long I bumped into someone. Not a player, mind but the shuffling undead. It's sight was very poor but it's hearing was superb so I tried to sneak past, which was successful but upon turning around I found myself in-front of another undead but this one was hunched over on the floor, hopping around like an animal...He spotted me so I ran, More spotted me and chased after with human-like speed...I was trapped...I died.

I figured I would have to accept that I would die here and there, so I started over. A different area of the coast this time. Looking around I saw a road and nothing else, so I followed it. A road has to lead to a town eventually. It took a fair bit of running but I did find a town...A town that was guarded by Zombies. I had no choice. Like a survivor ninja I tried to weave between the zombies in town to try and find some kind of tool. Not even a gun, just something to hit them with would do. Success!, I thought to myself. On the floor were some objects inside a small barn I found. Some 12 gauge bullets, some makarov rounds and a heat-pack...Fantastic. Well if there were bullets maybe there would be a gun. Too late...A zombie had phased through the door I had just closed and in getting up and running another horde was on my tail...It was impossible to outrun them so only death awaited me.

Okay...There has to be something I'm doing wrong here. Maybe coastal areas are not the way to go...This time I made a bee-line straight through the forest ahead. No zombies so far and it wasn't too long before I noticed another man-made structure. An army airfield I thought, perfect!. There would have to be weapons there. Sneaking around the undead AI, I could see many soldier corpses but sadly it seems I could not check them for weapons and items. I saw something move oddly and when I focused on it, I could see that it was another player. One well equipped it seemed. Sneaking around with an AK47 in his hands I could see that he had far more experience than me...Or that he was very lucky. I decided to go my own direction as to not get in his way. A small building I found near me and with some items on the floor. Before I could pick them up I saw the guy from earlier.
He turned around and shut the door behind us so the Zombies would not get in. I thought that finally I would have someone to aid me in getting a weapon. I heard a gunshot and I was laying on the floor, dead.

Zombies are avoidable...Players are not so much. So that was my first experience with DayZ. It's a very fun and realistic attempt at a zombie apocalypse but it has a fair way to go yet in my eyes. Removing some glitches and maybe balancing the game more. In earlier versions you did start with a handgun which I suppose is kind of interesting that they removed it...Maybe they should add a few more melee weapons to find. Either way, I see great potential for this game In the future but right now...It's a little bit of a mixed bag.

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