Recent reviews by Taco Power PhD

This is an unforgiving game but is enjoyable for that reason. DayZ provides very little in the way of instruction for beginners and the learning curve is steep. There are many good resources out there you can use to help you when you start i.e. crafting guides, survival techniques and most importantly maps with resource filters!

But once you grasp the basics. Exploring the map, the various play styles you can use and the level of depth in the crafting and construction mechanics, all become things you appreciate/want to investigate and no longer seem like insurmountable barriers.

Luck does play an enormous part in all aspects of the game. This is very evident with a first load where you could spawn on a perfect day with good loot in the near area. Or you could spawn in the middle of a rainstorm on a cold, dark night surrounded by zombies with no decent items to pick up.

Later on, experimenting with vehicles, base building and combat open you to all sorts of eventualities that could see your well sustained, highly equipped character meet an unexpected end.

There is effort required to survive you first couple of days, before getting yourself decently enough equipped to press deeper into the map and forge your own survival path. This investments translates to attempting to ensure survival at all costs. So instead of a faceless character who you can disregard and re-spawn if things aren't exactly as you would like.

You end up attempting to solve all the problems the game presents. Splinting a broken leg and being criminally slow for a prolonged period of time, or, following a stream so you can continue a vicious cycle of vomiting and re-hydrating with dirty water until you find some medication. These are things you subject yourself to instead of just quitting and starting again. Because the satisfaction of surviving everything the game throws at you, weather, health, starvation, disease, wild animals, freak accidents, zombies and of course, other players, is one of the most honest or genuine gaming experiences I have seen a game deliver in a long, long time.

Serving as a virtual version of an IRL games night this game pretty much does everything it needs to. I have only played this in a private friend group so can't speak to the playability in normal multiplayer or the creation mechanics.