After the experience with True Staker, I was pretty full and wanted something similar.
I’m not really tempted to return to the vanilla parts yet (however, if GSC, in light of the release of the trilogy on consoles, is attached to the Steam version of the achievement, I’ll immediately rush to make platinum), and therefore I remembered my youth in the vast expanses Chernarus .
In the Far 2013 year, YouTube (there weren’t really any streams back then and many interesting things came to our attention through let’s plays) put up a video in which a character in a cap appeared on the coast and briskly ran inland with cities, military bases and JUST A COLLOSAL amount of forests.

But these are just flowers, the berries appeared later in the faces of generally quite ordinary people with scary faces and groaning sounds (some moved on all fours, so it was extremely difficult to call them ordinary) and the entire gameplay was built around these components: respawn => running as far as possible from the spawn point (if you played it alone, then everything was aggravated by finding yourself in the area and transferring this valuable information to your friend, so that unite and experience the hardships of survival together) => search for equipment => optional domination over everything alive and not so much on the map, which more often ended in a terrible death in textures\stairs\dehydration-hunger-bleeding, because no matter how charged a survivalist you were, the loot spawn system had its own ideas about justice.

The gameplay was so innovative (or is it the case now, when survivors come out every 15 minutes) that it spurred sales of Arma 2 with additions to some unimaginable values, and this is understandable: those who want to reliably do pimp-puff are several times less than those who want to knock zombies between the eyes.

Amid all this success, a group of people spun off from the core development team led by Dean Hall, who came up with the whole concept based on his experience serving in the New Zealand Army. Updates to all aspects of the game rained down: survival, diseases, construction, transport, etc. d.
However, the developments became too cramped within the framework of the FASHION, so already at the end of 2013 a STAND-ALONE version of the mod appeared on Steam.
This is where the story of my complex relationship with the game begins.
Alpha was absolutely scanty, so much so that even some of the functions from the mod did not migrate to it, but the plans were Napoleonic!

Narration through the environment and notes https://luckukcasino.co.uk/withdrawal/ (in the best traditions of many modern projects), an advanced disease system (there were even stories about Dean Hall’s consultations with infectologists, in order to more accurately convey the behavior of the local infected), base construction, clans, reliable physics.
It all sounded incredibly delicious, coupled with statements that “guys, give it a year, we’ll get everything ready for release.” Of course, after a year, nothing was released. There were lengthy articles about what the studio was doing, and then an update came out with several new pants and a flashlight for the Kalash.

Sales reached 2 million six months later, which clearly signaled to the developers that their development strategy was correct. But I still didn’t find significant changes and was tired of dying in the protected forests from thirst and dehydration without any sane loot, I threw this product, considering myself thrown into the haymaker by Dean Hall (who some time later left the studio to make some of his next survival game)
What is the game like after 11(!) (JUST THINK) years after birth?
Oddly enough (especially after such a lengthy introduction) this is a completely solid project, in which FINALLY all the mechanics have been synergized into something digestible and even moderately casual.
I’ll make a reservation right away: my current experience is based on the Vanilla version of Chernarus without any mods. At first glance, everything remains as it was: the same shore, the same cast-offs (there is minimal customization, but in general you are unlikely to appear in some kind of sheepskin coat and durable boots), the same open houses, because players take out everything at least somewhat valuable and useful for advancement, but now even after them you can find a couple of useful “artifacts”.The logic of loot is no longer completely lacking in ideas, although weapons are still quite often found in “civilian” buildings.

They, by the way, have not undergone any changes either and are still divided into “accessible”/non-accessible”, which they promised to abandon in the alpha version, giving the opportunity to climb anywhere. However, with climbing it became much better! The survivor has mastered a number of parkour techniques with good animation, making travel more enjoyable, and annihilation of the infected easier (any hill in the form of a concrete block or car makes you practically invulnerable) and since we’re talking about transport, it’s not a sin to tell about it.

It…is, but the vehicle fleet (namely, the vehicle fleet, t. To. There are no helicopters in the game other than Helicrashes, but in the files there are those and even a whole plane)
very modest: 4 civilian cars and 2 military ones in the form of a Hummer and a Military Truck, which you can enjoy driving after putting them in order by collecting parts and fuel. I don’t think it’s possible to assemble a vehicle solo (you’ll still have to find the skeleton), so unfortunately there’s nothing to tell about the control features at release. There is nothing to say about the construction, other than to confirm its existence, and judging by the details and components lying around in the locations, it is at least NOT WORSE than what was in Fallout 76 and clearly fits into the surroundings. Here you have lanterns, generators and some kind of frames, although given the bloodthirstiness of the local population (both in the form of players and NPCs), such construction sites need to either be guarded 24/7 or built completely on the outskirts. When talking about bloodthirstiness, I refer mainly to past experiences. T. To. now the survivors have either become extremely dangerous and experienced predators, making it impossible to notice them, or (and what is more likely) moved to Livonia\Custom servers. But as for me, this only benefits the experience and familiarization with the current Dayz.
Kojimovsky Death Stranding praised for conveying a total feeling of hopelessness and loneliness, when you are climbing rocks under Low Roar, and for kilometers around there is not a soul. So Daze’s work is no worse, only instead of licensed soundtracks there is the creaking of trees, the sniffing and grunting of the infected, the sound of water, and distant shots that clearly do not promise anything good and even frighten not only you, but probably the shooter himself.

The nagging feeling is also developed by the abundance of empty houses beginning to decay, half-looted remains of transport and the realization that there will be no happy ending. And if it starts to rain, you’ll want nothing more than to hide in some hole/trailer/tent, it’s so atmospheric. Strangely enough, the closest project with similar sensations was the first Stalker, even though getting caught in the rain did not promise hypothermia and a cold. In addition, the developers have also more or less solved the problem with food (so the probability of starving after an hour or two of wandering around abandoned places no longer tends to 100%), not forgetting about Hall’s promises regarding some kind of simulation of diseases. Nobody forbids you to eat from the floor, but such a meal is unlikely to go in vain. The menu has a wide range of gifts of nature: vegetables, fruits, mushrooms, meat, fish (obtained as it should be from reservoirs and animals), in addition there is a good selection of “store-bought” food and canned food (my favorite from a visual point of view is the pate, which is drawn as accurately as possible)

And what, exactly, should we do with all this splendor??
Well…to survive? for once, as was intended back in 13, master the mechanics (seasoned daisists recommend about 500 hours) in order to calmly integrate into community servers with different whistles, you can try to walk through the “places of military glory” if you are a veteran of the project and, like me, left it for a long time. Elektrozavodsk, Chernogorsk, Old Cathedral, if these names resonate with you with warmth around the fifth point, then this is an excellent challenge!

About 20 hours into my “return” call to Chernogorsk for the sake of a beautiful screenshot, I still didn’t get there… In the end, you can wait here until the release of something like that, be it Stalker 2 (which still doesn’t inspire much confidence) Metro (which, according to rumors, has been forged for a long time, and for owners of VR helmets the seed will arrive this year) will eventually be released sometime this year PIONER .

Yes, the game still has bugs, a couple of times I crashed out of the textures of the house, and the infected, on the contrary, seeped into the house through the walls and doors, but they are not critical, updates are made quite often and now these are not the addition of a couple of items, but quite tangible changes in the system of animations, sounds, etc. d. Core gameplay outside the city is still a walk through the forest (which can be optimized with a toothpick stuck into the keyboard), but thanks to the introduced animals, such walks can also provide the opportunity to experience ADVENTURES similar to the very first entry into the game. Unfortunately, the price tag for Dayz has jumped to some disgusting heights since its release (~3k), but sometimes at a discount you can grab it for a much more affordable price. So if you are close to the romance of post-Soviet abandonment and hopelessness, then take a closer look. And if you lure your friends, then you can safely try “shootout” gameplay involving technology and all the ways to control other people’s characters (be it handcuffs, a bag over the head, blood transfusion and much, much more)