Surviving against zombies too easy for you? Why not see if you can survive the survivors in DayZ?
Zombie games have become relatively common in recent times. But few have gone the route of DayZ, combining battle royale with roaming zombies. It makes sense, though, since execution isn’t always what fans may expect or even want. From Bohemia Interactive, an exciting experiment comes to the BR genre. As much as their efforts could be admired, is the apocalyptic title worth the time?
When it comes to the game’s story, I’m not exactly sure what it is. Aside from the fact that zombies roam the countryside of a former Soviet territory, one can only assume what is happening. The game makes it evident that society has crumbled. And, as a viewer/player, one knows that whatever caused the zombie outbreak is responsible. It’s never expressly stated exactly what spread the infection, but it’s been going on for years, judging by the environment. The majority of society has perished, but every question one may have is doubtlessly left unanswered.
had no idea what I was doing going into the game. What passed for “tutorials” wasn’t very helpful. They were just images with a handful of text boxes. Eventually, though, I figured out that sprinting was done by pressing down on L3. Basic combat was relatively easy to get the hang of as I tried out the controls. I just had to hold L2 and mash R2 to swing my fists or equipped weapon. Fist fighting was excellent as it was an average animation speed. That was at least one positive DayZ had for the controls.
The biggest issue with the controls was how difficult it made exploration. If I were to assign an axe to my radial menu, assigning something to the same slot would make it impossible to return my axe to my inventory. I would have to re-assign the weapon to a spot on the radial menu and then “unequip” it just to fix things. Either that or I could “drop” the item and pick it up. Having to do that felt unnecessarily convoluted. And personally, it took away from the intended immersion when it came to the “survival” aspect of the game.
In addition to the absence of any tutorial for controls, there were no tutorials on how to survive. Absolutely nothing showed me what I needed to do first. It took about seven or eight deaths before I figured out what I was doing. As said above, thanks to the lack of tutorials, the survival aspect became doubly important. Eventually, I figured out that I had to start a fire to keep warm. But it didn’t help when resources were at opposite ends of a town, with dozens of zombies between them. I often had to fistfight a single zombie to escape into the wilderness and re-group.
Besides zombies, other players are roaming about the map. They will not hesitate to relieve you of your weapons. Unless you are playing with someone you already partied up with, trust one other living exploring the map.
The zombies of DayZ felt like they stepped out of a Romero film. While it was frustrating having to run from the enemies with limited sprinting, it added a welcome layer of challenge. Unlike some other games, this undead cannot “smell” living creatures, from what I could see. This meant one would have to sneak through the majority of infested locations. It was never good when they caught sight of me.
Since zombies don’t get tired in DayZ, getting caught in the open almost guarantees one’s death; fortunately, if one could manage to find a house, all they have to do is close the door. But they would stay there like a determined ex who won’t take no for an answer.
When it comes to the visuals, DayZ left much to be desired. Nothing about them stood out as ‘spectacular.’ But I’m happy to say they were not awful. The issue was that there didn’t seem to be any work applied to what the zombies or characters looked like. All of it was from a stock library of skins and items. There were often visual glitches, causing some trees to disappear completely. Other times, I could go into a town full of houses and see none of them. This did a lot to break what little immersion there could have been.
My biggest issue with the visuals had to be lighting during the night. As someone who already has trouble seeing in the dark, the pitch-dark of night in DayZ was ridiculous. Does no moon exist in this universe? It would have been fine if there had been at least a moon to illuminate some of the environment. This absolute and complete lack of light during the nighttime made playing the game at night virtually impossible. My only workaround for this was to increase the brightness of my television.
The sounds in the game were alright. There were plenty of nature sounds that felt right during the day. Various chirps did a tiny bit to sell the idea that nature partially took back over the world. However, some wolf howls in DayZ would have been an exciting addition at night.
Overall, I do feel DayZ was a bit of a mess. The hardest part about surviving the game wasn’t even the zombies. It’s the fact that no one tells you what you are supposed to do right out of the gate. If the tutorial consisted only of building a fire, that would help players new to this game. As someone who’s played previous Bohemia Interactive titles, I was saddened this didn’t have the same polish as other titles under their belt.
With all the current problems, I cannot justify the price tag that comes with it. But if you’re willing to look past the issues, it could be a fun ride for you and a group of friends. Just make sure the zombies don’t corner your group.
DayZ is available now on Steam for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
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