DayZ: from mainstream to ostracism

When DayZ Mod came out back in 2012, it didn’t take long until it was among the most popular game mods on PC, boosting ArmA 2 sales massively and dominating the multimedia scene on YouTube. The recipe was perfect: big open world (225 square kilometers!), zombies (who doesn’t love them zekes), PvP, PvE, vehicles, survival elements, and permadeath. Not to mention that AMC’s The Walking Dead was topping the charts and everyone (ok, maybe not everyone) wanted to experience a proper zombie apocalypse game. DayZ had it all. Or did it?

Bohemia Interactive (ArmA 2’s developer) saw their game go from obscure to mainstream within a few months, and it was all thanks to Dean Hall and his zombie mod. They knew exactly what to do. Soon enough he was part of their team, and the modification made its way to Steam so that it would be easier for everyone to install and update (which was a slightly complex process back then). So far, so good. But then it got even more popular, and they decided to take the extra step and make a standalone version, paid and with the promise of frequent updates bringing new content and new features. That’s when things went downhill, surprisingly.

One would expect the transition from a mod to a standalone title to go very smoothly, transforming something that was already pretty good into the ultimate survival game that everyone would love to play. It seemed easy enough on paper, which convinced hundreds of thousands of apocalypse aficionados to take the plunge and buy the game during its early access phase. It would only be a matter of time until they would finally be able to enjoy an even better experience, right? Except that’s not what happened.

DayZ Alpha sold 172,000 copies within the first day of release, which made them a good 5 million buckaroos. And that was just the beginning. 400,000 copies within a week, then a million, then topping the Steam charts for over 2 weeks in a row. Oh yes, the power of zombie survival games (which then became one of the most unoriginal genres). Fast forward to 2014 and it was already at the two million mark, nearing triple-A figures. Had they finally made it big?

From there onwards it seems hard to understand how a very successful title could go wrong. Excellent sales figures, good media coverage, Steam clout, they had it all. The only thing they didn’t have was commitment. The lack of updates and transparency became obvious over time, with players getting impatient and desperate for news. Their sudden leap into the 9 digit world ended up changing their priorities. Traveling the world was suddenly more important than finishing DayZ.

I bought DayZ in early 2015. I took longer to hop aboard, more than most genre enthusiasts, at least, for a reason: I didn’t have a dedicated video card back then, and the fact that it could hardly run ArmA 3 made me imagine DayZ wouldn’t run that well either, given it’s nearly the same engine. Except it did, somewhat. I wouldn’t call it playable per se, given it ran around 15-17 FPS, but I wanted to play it with my friends, and when you truly want something, performance is just a detail. And I spent over 100 hours like that, with eventual drops to 9-10 FPS while roaming around big cities like Elektro or Cherno, mainly when other players were around. It didn’t matter much, though. The immersion was unparalleled, at least to me and my standards (I couldn’t run a lot of things, so I would get satisfied with just about anything).

It was far from solid back then. Simple things such as staircases could be mortal weapons if you were unlucky enough. To be fair, almost anything could kill you if it wasn’t your day. From my earliest memories, I recall at least two incidents: the day when I found a truck with 2 other friends, and one of them hopped inside to make sure it was working (it was!). Though, as soon as the engine spooled up, the truck jumped (?) and killed me and my friend upon landing, instantly. I was devastated. Not only it was the stupidest way to die, but it also meant my first - loaded - M4A1 was gone forever. And the second time was even more unexpected, while walking down a staircase to meet a friend. It would be cool if I could say it was a game feature and my worn shoes made me slip, or perhaps the shoelace got tangled around my legs, making me lose balance and fall to my ultimate death with a broken neck. But instead, I just went straight through it, like it suddenly lost its collision properties. And there went my second M4. Gone.

Over time I realized that more often than not I was being killed by the game itself (bugs) and not by other players or zombies. It’s no biggie when it’s just once or twice, but when it becomes the norm, frustration builds up. It didn’t take long until I decided to take a break until they would ultimately fix it.

One year later, with a new laptop that could finally run it just fine, it was prime time to give it another go. Now, with fewer features than before, rather than the opposite. No more weird diseases from food or water from questionable sources like a lake. Considerably more forgiving weather, but also ridden with bugs. It was almost as if the character would either be cold or overheating, no in-between. Coat management became a very important skill: knowing when to take it off and when to put it back on. Very realistic, right? I didn’t specifically mind it, back then. The fact that I could finally run it at decent framerates and perhaps even stand a chance during PvP meant everything and nothing could take that from me.

Oh, the innocence. I thought nothing could ruin it, but then an update induced a lot of crashing and I couldn’t play it for too long without the game locking up completely and forcing me to soft reboot (ctrl + alt + del, logoff, log back in). Which ultimately meant another hiatus without further notice.

I only gave it another chance after full release, in 2018. A far cry from the ultimate survival experience that was promised back in 2013. No vehicles, almost no gun or loot variety, fewer clothes, broken features, but at least it had a new grass. Who needs everything else, right? Graphics over features, any day. Core gameplay mechanics are for p*ssies (excuse the language). If it wasn’t obvious enough, that was sarcasm. But at least they made a promise: more content soon. It’s almost as if they didn’t make that same promise back in 2012, then 2013, then 2014…

At the very least, they added server files, meaning people could finally host their own servers and even modify the game as they wished, along with full Steam Workshop support. If they can’t fix it themselves, leave it to the modding community! Worked with Fallout and Skyrim, why wouldn’t it work with DayZ, right? Yes and no. Although the mods did help quite significantly, the final product was still lackluster and miles away from the title that everyone thought it would be. A real shame that it didn’t live up to expectations.

It’s by no means a bad game. DayZ is fun, even more so with friends or other players (full server), but it’s neither special nor is it the survival game benchmark it used to be back when it used to rain zombie games left and right. There are games like SCUM that are objectively better as far as features are concerned, with active support and visible progress. A shame. I enjoyed my two hundred-something hours of gameplay, even with all the bugs and the eventual lack of purpose once you get yourself the best loot possible. The only thing left is hunting other players until you ultimately die and lose everything. Rinse and repeat.

Maybe one day It will finally become the ultimate survival game that everyone has been waiting for. And, to be fair, it doesn’t need much. The map (maps, because of Livonia), are vast, very detailed and by far the best environment compared to all the competition. Period. But that’s it. Gameplay-wise, feature-wise, it still needs plenty of work. This might mean it’s much too late at this point, unfortunately.

Do you play (or have you played) DayZ? What are your thoughts on the subject?