8.5
TheIndieJar: ArmA2 DayZ Mod – The Zombie Experience You’ve Always Wanted
Who has ArmA 2: CO? Yes? You guys get over here and download the mod right now! Everyone else, listen up. There is currently a mod in production that encapsulates the atmosphere of S.T.A.L.K.E.R and the rogue-like paranoia of ProjectZomboid. Predictably the internet is currently exploding for it. The basics include surviving, running from super fast zombies and trying to discern whether that other player over there will shoot you on sight. One of the best bits is that your character is persistent over EVERY server. It’s hard to put into words so let me tell you a story of my first few hours with the game…
I started on a beach, as everyone does, at night. The dark consumed everything, so I cheated a little bit and turned up the gamma in my video settings. While this helped, the black was still solid in most places so I took my chances and legged it into the woods. In the next five minutes I found some empty tins in a shed and got holes put in me by another player who could apparently see at night. That was it for my first outing.
The next day the sun was up in-game because it has a 24 hour day cycle. I decided to be more careful this time so I very slowly crept towards the nearest buildings. Outside of one of the few places I could enter, I heard a moan. Stopping to look around there was nothing but a few far off gun-shots. The house had some beans, ammo and flares so I took them all and legged it out of town. That was my first mistake. My heavy boots were loud and attracted screaming, flailing zombies!
After a 10 minute yakety sax style chase, I came across another survivor who actually had ammo ( I wasted my last on pot-shots towards my pursuers) and was kind enough to save me. After taking a second to bandage myself and say hi to my saviour we were fired upon by a bandit with a big gun. Hitting the deck I told my new comrade that I had no gun to help him with. He dropped a revolver magnum and stood up to see where our assailant was. Blood sprayed out of his head and he fell to the ground, with a tear in my eye I unloaded six rounds towards the crouched figure. I didn’t see him go down but the fact that he wasn’t returning fire and the debug monitor calmly telling me that I had killed one bandit showed we had won.
I checked over his corpse and stole his hunting rifle because I liked the scope. Returning to the body of my martyr, I thought it would be appropriate to revere his death by taking all his food, his map and his watch. Properly kitted out I went into the northern wilderness where I watched a helicopter shooting at people in a town before glitching out and killing all involved. Nothing else exciting happened after that and I died an uneventful death during a supply raid.
This game is pure emergent gameplay, and no doubt you will have your own story to tell. Do you risk going into the large towns for the best loot or is it better to scavenge from the smaller ones? Who is shooting over there and are they friendly? Is it worth murdering a person for their things and becoming a bandit, a fair target for all?
There’s a good injury system where falling means broken legs, and losing too much blood makes you susceptible to fainting. It is only an alpha though so glitches like loot falling out of your inventory while swimming is common. I love it and think you will too. Come join us, team up with people you meet or shoot them in the face, ’cause that’s life in the wilderness. Oh, and kids, there are never any friendlies in Cherno.
That looks ridiculously awesome!
As soon as I get a new lead to link my PC to my TV, I am 100% getting this game. As you say, it appears to be the zombioe game I’ve been waiting for my whole life.