Day Z: Zombie Apocalypse Mod for Arma 2

[Apostate]

I've just recently started playing this mod, and as I can't find any mentions of it on the forums I think I'll post about it so you all know it exists. I apologize if this is more well known than I think it is.

So Day Z is a mod for Arma 2, a realistic fps/strategy game that wasn't that successful. However, since Day Z has come out, the game sales have skyrocketed. The game is 15 bucks on Amazon, available for download.

Basically Day Z is a very realistic zombie apocalypse survival game. It's the best of it's kind that I've yet played, and here's why:

-Huge map, I have yet to trek across the entire thing but it took me two hours to cross what I estimate to be half of it.

-Your character is persistent across all servers as far as location, items, health, and kill stats goes, and has perma-death. Staying alive is very difficult--the average lifespan is currently 38 minutes. In order to stay alive you must find food and water constantly, avoid infection through the harsh cold nights, and avoid getting killed by zombies/other players.

-The gameplay is extremely immersive. The servers run on realtime so the day/night system is realistic to the location of that server. During the day visibility is high, but at night... It's extremely hard to see anything. People who use bright light sources are easy prey for zombies and player killers alike.


Basically it's pretty awesome. It's only in alpha and the UI and engine it's built on are both not particularly impressive, but considering where it is in development I am a huge fan. And it's only 15 bucks. Be warned though, huge learning curve. Not quite as steep as HoN but expect to fail hard at first.

-it is the most cruel, unforgiving game I have ever played. Work eight hours to survive and gather equipment, only to be murdered for your beans and canned pasta. mistakes are almost always fatal, and to survive you must use care and patience.stealth is a huge part of the game.

You can read more here or google it yourself!
http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/05/12/fo...-survival-mod/


If you do end up playing, let me know. If enough people do I might organize a HoN clan for the game. Playing with friends is ridiculously fun.

[EVA_Unit_02]

servers, i ended up playing with a bunch of russians once

[Hat_Truck]

The idea for this is awesome, I was watching a stream of it just the other day. However, the execution seems severely flawed. The servers were extremely laggy and there were a ton desyncs. Zombie survival games like that are ALL about the believability and atmosphere, constant lag and desyncs would ruin it for me.

I might wait until it's further progressed, but I can't wait to play it when it's polished. I'm amazed something like this hasn't been done before.

[Lethe]

im with hat on this one. Concept seems excellent, but I think I'll wait till beta at least.

[Apostate]

Oh, I agree. The game definitely has some serious stability issues that are mainly related to how many more people are playing than usual. The game has exploded into popularity very fast and the infrastructure isn't there yet.

That said, I personally think that the game is already fun enough to be worth playing. I've been enjoying it quite a lot, and only experienced occasional latency problems and it takes forever to start a character (loading into the game takes about ten minutes, i just alt tab til its done).

You're definitely right though, the game will be MUCH better when it's had more development.

[[Nasu]Emiya]

I'm interested, if the mod gets worked on some more I'll definitely buy the game just to play this mod.

[Apostate]

I played for an hour earlier. It was night time and I was near a ware house that was by the beach, where there was a pier. I would hide behind the pier and toss flares over to the warehouse to bait noobs over. Then I would crawl up to them and blow their skulls, and take their items. Eventually someone came by that had a AK and killed me, but it was a good run. I was getting hypothermia anyways

[[GnJA]Good_Apollo]

The mod, and conversely ArmA 2, are immersive to the point where an uncanny valley principle occurs that makes every little thing that isn't immersive look ****ing jarring as hell. Part of the reason I think uber-realism games will always fail to attract mass attention.

I've enjoyed watching people do Let's Plays of it, but I've played around with ArmA and OpFP enough to know I'm not going to buy them just for a mod.

[[Loli]Loli]

I'm thinking about getting this and playing with a couple of friends, but don't you need both the game and the expansion?

If so that might be a bit expensive for a mod in alpha. It seems like an amazing concept.

[Apostate]

The mod, and conversely ArmA 2, are immersive to the point where an uncanny valley principle occurs that makes every little thing that isn't immersive look ****ing jarring as hell. Part of the reason I think uber-realism games will always fail to attract mass attention.

I've enjoyed watching people do Let's Plays of it, but I've played around with ArmA and OpFP enough to know I'm not going to buy them just for a mod.

This is a pretty valid criticism. Once you play for a bit though the uncanny valley effect tapers off and you start to accept the unrealistic parts. The best example is the way zombies run. It's extremely difficult to predict their running patterns because they behave very unrealistically, and have jerky animations right now. However, the main point of the game isn't to fight zombies, it's to avoid them whenever possible and find loot/hunt other players/etc.

What I really like about it is that there is absolutely no goal set out for you. You get to define what success is. There's a base assumption that you want to survive, but other than that you can try to do whatever the hell you want.


@Loli, yes you do need both the game and the expansion. The total is $30 on steam, and it's also on sale on amazon for $15 right now. I'd nab that deal, really. That's the price of a movie these days. I haven't played Arma 2 itself, but as I understand it the game is also hyperrealistic and a lot of war veterans play it. It's one of those niche games. Buying it just for the mod is fine, but the game itself might be an added bonus sometime down the road. I also understand there are some other good mods for it as well.

[[PonE]Rydden]

Watched some dude on youtube after reading OP, it seems really cool, and something I want from a Zombie game today. Problem is I play on a laptop, so unless the mod is less craving than the game on the processor, this'll have to wait a while for me

[Icaruk]

This game is still is ALPHA stage. Btw the map has 250 km2. I'm playing right now and its ****ing awesome, ****ing epic at night because you can't see nothing xD

[Apostate]

This game is still is ALPHA stage. Btw the map has 250 km2. I'm playing right now and its ****ing awesome, ****ing epic at night because you can't see nothing xD

Just wait until you get your first night vision goggles. You become a God.

[Icaruk]

Just wait until you get your first night vision goggles. You become a God.

Have you tried to put brightness and gamma to the maximum? :P

[Apostate]

Have you tried to put brightness and gamma to the maximum? :P

oh, certainly. After a while though I decided I'd rather have the experience of darkness than "cheat". I have mine adjusted to what feels like real night vision as if I was actually there. It's much more fun walking through the darkness and throwing flares ahead of you, straining to see if there are walking dead or survivors.

[Icaruk]

oh, certainly. After a while though I decided I'd rather have the experience of darkness than "cheat". I have mine adjusted to what feels like real night vision as if I was actually there. It's much more fun walking through the darkness and throwing flares ahead of you, straining to see if there are walking dead or survivors.

AFAIK with flares you will aggro zombies and attract bandits to you. Chemlight ftw! xD

[Apostate]

AFAIK with flares you will aggro zombies and attract bandits to you. Chemlight ftw! xD

Oh, of course I learned real fast to not go near flares. But I throw them away from myself, just to illuminate an area I will patrol AROUND.

Where do you usually roam?

[Icaruk]

Oh, of course
I learned real fast to not go near flares. But I throw them away from myself, just to illuminate an area I will patrol AROUND.

Where do you usually roam?

I started to play 2 days ago, I started to be friendly... until one day i was low on blood and trapped on rooftop, I asked help and someone came WITHOUT bandit skin, he gave me a blood transfusion then shooted me in the head. From this day i'm a bandit roaming in Cherno and Elektro (atm, i'll expand soon xD).

[[Wolf]Minaxter]

just watched a video for it and yeah, that looks awesome... will consider dishing out 30 bucks for it, but is arma 2 any good as its own game?

[Apostate]

I started to play 2 days ago, I started to be friendly... until one day i was low on blood and trapped on rooftop, I asked help and someone came WITHOUT bandit skin, he gave me a blood transfusion then shooted me in the head. From this day i'm a bandit roaming in Cherno and Elektro (atm, i'll expand soon xD).

Yeah, I started 3 days ago. I spent a looong time in Cherno, but now I'm heading for the NW airstrip. Apparently that's the veteran zone where **** is real.

just watched a video for it and yeah, that looks awesome... will consider dishing out 30 bucks for it, but is arma 2 any good as its own game?

It seems like it is. It's a pretty hardcore realism game, so the community is pretty small. However, it's a really mature and sophisticated community as well. People do really sophisticated missions together in PvP.