Arma 2's DayZ zombie survival mod is everything your lil' nerd heart desires (probably)

Ooh!  Zambies!

Arma II is a 2009 tactical shooter that most people (myself included) had probably never heard of before a few months ago.  Even fewer people had the desire to play it despite solid mechanics, a huge open world and tons of support for modification of the game -- mostly because it's incredibly realistic and therefore incredibly sloooow.  Also, it had tons of bugs at launch.

Then, all of that changed after word got out that there was a new extensive mod for Arma II which turned it into a zombie survival game.  

The mod, called DayZ, was originally coded and produced by one man (who is now employed by Bohemia Interactive, the company that originally made Arma II).  As of the writing of this post, there are currently 726,882 players who have currently installed the mod and have played it at least once.

Keep in mind, that's around three-quarters of a  million people.  Playing a mod.

So there must be something that brings all of these players to the game, otherwise its base wouldn't be growing exponentially like this.   Naturally, I had to check it out!  (Special thanks to Kyle Harner for being a terrible friend and making me want to spend money on the game after watching him play.)

From my experiences playing the game, what makes DayZ so special is the fact that it offers something that, quite honestly, people can't get anywhere else in the entire realm of zombie fiction -- be it in games, books, movies or otherwise. It's an immersive experience where the only goal is survival, and goddamn does it make it incredibly hard to do so.

DayZ is unlike very many other games currently available; it's not a zombie shoot-'em-up in the vein of Left 4 Dead, nor does it restrict itself to "classic" survival horror narrative ala the Resident Evil series.

What it is is a game that, like I said before, is all about survival, on a massive scale. You have to eat, drink, stay warm and stay alive. You lose temperature at night and when it rains, and run the risk of catching a cold.  When you get attacked by zombies, you can very easily start bleeding, and must apply bandages to staunch the blood flow. You take pain medicine and morphine when you suffer from pain or a broken body part.  

You also need plenty of ammo and better weapons if you're going to survive the onslaught from the hordes of the undead, as well as fending off other players. OH, did I mention you can play with up to 100 other players at a time, and there are no specific rules guiding their conduct?

Pictured above: the rustler of jimmies.

Specifically, this means that players can bust a cap in your ass very easily and at their own discretion. The only repercussion for murdering another player in DayZ is that the murderer will get a special "bandit" skin, which signifies to other players that, yes, they are indeed a scumbag who would shoot their own mother for some bandages and a shitty camping tent.
  

It's incredibly hard to trust any player you meet on a DayZ server. XxAssfuckerxX420 could be the nicest guy in the world and give you his last pistol rounds, while on the other hand "John (2)" could be a satanic assault rifle-wielding maniac whose only goal is the complete genocide of all other player characters.

This all probably seems terrifying and difficult, and it really is. Especially when the handling of weapons and of the player's character are as realistic as possible -- meaning all of the clunkiness, shaky aim and noise associated with real-life combat must be taken into consideration.

You want to fire off your shitty little pistol at that lone zombie standing on the ridge? Don't be surprised if A.) you miss by a mile, and B.) the reports from your pathetic gun rouse nearby zombies who will charge at you very soon, and quite possibly C.) you alert your presence to a nearby gagglefuck of bandits who want nothing more than to kill you and take your cans of beans.

Another thing to consider in the wide world of survival in DayZ is the immense map that seems impossible to truly traverse without entire literal days spent making your character run ... and run ... and run.  

Many fans lovingly call DayZ a "running simulator," and with good reason.

Big cities are incredibly dangerous -- filled with zombies and fellow looters and bandits alike -- but they hold great rewards for those intrepid enough to explore. Players that would rather stick to the trees will have a much easier time of survival, but eventually some crisis, be it a loss of blood or lack of ammo, will push them into the cities where their luck and sneaking skills are put to the test.

oh god I just wanted to get into the city,
grab some bandages and leave why did
you snipe my head off oh god now I
have to respawn and whyyyyyyyyyyy

There are hundreds of other factors to consider, and when looking at the bigger picture, it seems like your survival chances in the pseudo-Siberian land of Chernarus are pretty slim.

But hey, that's what makes this game so incredibly fun and addicting.  You live, die and learn. Mostly die, though.

Betrayed and shot in the head by your only partner after a successful looting of one of the game's biggest cities? THAT GODDAMN TURNCOAT, lesson learned -- not gonna trust anybody I meet in an abandoned power plant during a zombie apocalypse ever again.

One of the coolest things about the game too is the fact that it lets you create your own personal story of how you survived in a zombie apocalypse, be it heroic, cowardly or anywhere in between. The tagline on the producer's website says exactly as much:

 "This is Day Z.  This is your story."

There's enough freedom in the game that players really can make their own zombie survival narrative, of which can be as harrowing and terrifying as any other survival horror games on the market that pride themselves on their prefabricated stories and environments. Also, watercooler talk among your nerdy friends about DayZ war stories can often be as fun as playing the actual game itself.  

However, the game isn't without its flaws. 

To be clear, people who are NOT patient and who DON'T LIKE overly-realistic games that apply a lot of restrictions to the player's character should steer clear of Arma II in general. To avid Halo players looking to try this: you can't even JUMP.

Continuing on, as a mod of an already-huge, already-buggy game, DayZ has tons of game-breaking glitches and kinks to work out before it can showcase long periods of smooth play.  

Case in point: I walked off of the middle of a set of stairs, from a height of no more than two feet, and I instantly broke both legs.

Another one (this one from Kyle again):  there are a few abandoned, broken helicopters scattered across the map. Players can actually repair them and fly them around and use them to traverse the hugeass map, but to do that they need to get in the broken cockpit first to see what parts are needed for repair.  Kyle jumped into the cockpit of a chopper he found and instantly died.  

As well, there are plenty of servers, but most still aren't built to hold the huge levels of player activity that they've been seeing recently.  This leads to oodles and oodles of lag and often incredibly long waiting times to get into the servers to actually play the game.

Luckily, a laundry list of glitches have been fixed (including the helicopter one, thank god) and DayZ is constantly updated by the creator of the mod and his team--who are all quite serious about keeping the game working and balanced. So hopefully, the mod can only get better from here, and has a pretty bright future thus far in its short lifespan.

Interested? YOU SHOULD PLAY THIS GAME. It's so much fun.  Message me sometime if you want to party up, I could always use some non-assholes to explore with.

If you're still on the fence about the game, check out this video series about some people trying to survive.  They're pretty hilarious and entertaining, and give a good feel for the world.

However, I'll leave my readers with one more word of caution.  The process of getting the mod to actually work involves a whole lot of dumb luck and a possible star pact with some unspeakable horror from another dimension, and can in all likelihood be very frustrating (I know it was for me) to work around.

To aid this, purchasing the Steam version of  Arma II: Combined Options seems to be the best option, as buying the game on Amazon -- though cheaper -- not only rips off the developers but also makes it much more difficult to configure. 

Keep in mind, you need to own both Arma II AND Arma II: Operation Arrowhead to play the mod, both of which can be purchased for around $30 in the Arma II: Combined Operations pack.

For those interested, here's a pretty okay set of instructions for manually installing the DayZ files:   http://www.kugutsumen.com/showthread.php?13411-ARMA-II-Mod-Day-Z. I just used an automatic patcher to get my game to work eventually, and I can't recommend it or the guy who made it highly enough:  http://worrom.com/

That's about all the time I have to gush about this game for now. I may post some logs of my hilariously short lives that I've spent in the game at some point later this week.

Thanks for reading!