DayZ Standalone Review - Is it worth getting?

[carbine781 (DayZ) 131]

This review is pretty long. If you want a quick summary, Scroll down and just read the Pros/Cons section. You can also read my rating if you like.

I've been a fan of the DayZ mod since the Summer of 2012, when I began playing. The reason I really wanted to get it was because I watched a video of 3 of my friends running away from 20 zombies while they were heading to Stary Sobor. From there on, i went through all the trouble of trying to put a windows partition onto my mac (yes i have a mac. Please don't give me crap for it, and I know i am going to regret saying that I have a mac because you probably stopped reading and are making a comment now...) and I eventually got the game.

 

Finally, the DayZ Standalone has come out, and I bought it the day it came out. I am going to tell you my personal thoughts of it and wether it is worth buying or not.

 

 

Note: This review is based on my personal experience with the game. Also, the review is based on the stage the alpha was in when i wrote this (less then 48 hours after release). I know the game is a pre-alpha and that the game has many bugs in it (Rocket even warned us), i'm just reviewing the game in it's current state to let you know if it is worth getting now, etc.

 

Concept:
Incase you didn't already know, DayZ is a game about survival. Set in a 230 sq km world (thats actually quite big), you must explore the world, find resources, and survive the harsh zombie apocalypse. You must go into dangerous towns, and find supplies. If you meet somebody along the way, you can team up with them or betray them (or both). Basically, this game is your own story that you can create. It's all unscripted. You make all of the decisions (that is unless you were kidnapped ingame. Then, you are probably screwed).

 

Performance/Optimization:
Performance wise, I was actually disappointed. It didn't seem that much different from the actual mod. I was a bit disappointed when i was getting 15 fps in some cities (specifically, Chernogorsk and the 2 cities north of Chernogorsk). My laptop specs aren't very good (Nvidia Geforce GT 650M Graphics card and an intel Hd 4000 Graphics Card, Intel Core i7-3615QM CPU, 2.30 GHz processor), but they were able to run Arma 2 Operation arrowhead in single player (and on domination/Takistan Life Revolution servers) on High/Very High settings with a solid 30 frame rate. On DayZ servers, I would have to lower my settings down a lot, and still, my framerate would often drop below 30. I really hope that the game is optimized a lot more. Thankfully, it is just a pre-alpha, so we have time. I just hope that the DayZ team are working on optimizing the game.

 

GamePlay:

Animations feel a lot smoother. It is a lot easier to control your player. Not only is it easy to move around, but you can now jump while running, change weapons while running, and more. The team also added new animations for eating, bandaging, etc. The map of DayZ is gorgeous. Not only does it look great on good visual settings, the specs of the map are impressive. It is 230 sq km big, and 95% of the buildings are enterable. A big problem with the DayZ  mod was that everybody would attack you on sight. I have not encountered this in DayZ standalone. Infact, before i wrote this review, i teamed up with 3 people I met in a town north of Cherno. Note: That doens't mean there aren't bandits (this one guy, who i was met and was playing with for about 20 minutes, hit me in the face with a shovel when I told him i was about to die of blood loss). Additionally, since DayZ standalone just came out, I am not sure if this friendliness aspect will stay much longer. Once people get comfortable with the game, and if it becomes too easy to survive by yourself, people will grow less friendly. This is what happened in the mod; it was confusing at first, but then, people realized how easy it was to surive. The new inventory system is very easy to use. It has been transformed into an easy drag and drop system. However, it can be a bit confusing at first. Basic things, such as turning on your flashlight, took some people some time to learn. Also, there were a couple of glitches I encountered where i accidentally somehow made one of my items vanish. Also, switching items was hard to do, and seemed confusing. Gameplay wise, the 4 biggest problems I had (besides some fps issues) were: Almost no loot found, zombies act weird, the melee system is very bad, I was constantly in need for water and food (and this problem is even bigger when I couldn't find any loot). Zombies no longer zig zag as much, but thats about it. They can hit and move through walls, and they aren't very threatening. Then they get to you, they stop, and then 1 second later, claw at you. Then they stop, maybe look around for a couple seconds, and claw at you once more. There also seems to be a lack of zombies in cities. As for the melee system, it does not work at all. It was very hard to hit even a stationary zombie. I would also find myself hitting objects (or other people accidentally) right next to me when I swung. In some cases, I could've sworn i hit somebody behind me. If the melee system acted more like that of Left 4 Dead 2, it would become an extremely affective way of survival. As for lack of loot, thats pretty self explanitory. Remember that group of me and 3 other guys i was talking about? we were looting every single house in a town, and we couldn't find any food or water. Besides these for main problems in the game currently, I found that it was also hard to pick up some loot, and it was hard to get in range of something to complete an action (ex: if i go near a ladder, i will have to position  myself a few times until i see the icon that says I can go up the ladder). Also, an old glitch where you can warp through a wall in the firestation tower by jumping onto the ladder on the other side is still there.

 

 

Pros:

Amazing open world

Friendly people (as of now)

New items such as clothes

Zombies don't zigzag anymore

New animations

New Inventory system

Many fun moments with random survivors you meet in the game.

Many more features to come ( I didn't mention this, but they are adding more animals to hunt, vehicles, more items and weapons, basebuilding, etc. Lots to look forward to)

 

Cons:
Big FPS drops in big cities

Although they no longer zigzag, zombies are almost not a threat and they are glitchy.

Lack of zombies.

Melee weapons are buggy and don't work well.

Lack of loot.

Inventory system is a bit buggy.

Fast starvation and dehydration.

Firestation ladder glitch.

 

To quickly sum it up:
The game has a lot of potential. The map is great, and it is a great experience when you meet people and you go on an adventure with them. The game has many new items to find. Optimization isn't very good in big cities, and while there is a lack of zombies, glitchy zombies, barely any loot, some bugs, and a bad melee system, those can be fixed with some work. My biggest concern is optimization. I really hope they find some bugs that when fixed, will give fps boosts. With many good features to come, the game has some serious potential. I am looking forward to seeing how it evolves.

 

Ratings (as of the game's current state):
For a new unexperienced player: 3.5/10 - I do not recommend that you buy now. Get something else for Christmas.

For somebody who enjoyed playing the mod, but didn't play often: 5.5/10 - It depends on how much you want to play the game. It may be worth getting now to save the money.
For a fan who has played the mod for a long time and loves DayZ: 7/10 - If you have been waiting for what seems like forever for this game to come out, then I would get it. Just remember that it is an alpha and that it won't be the great zombie survival game just yet.

 

 

 

Please give me some beans if you enjoyed the review :)

Edited December 20, 2013 by carbine781

[carbine781 (DayZ) 131]

Wow this post is long...

[carbine781 (DayZ) 131]

I may rewrite this after they fix a few bugs.

[Zephira 0]

i love they have done with the standalone and i hope it goes well for them i bought it and its always night time but it will get fixed soon so ill wait for that but all n all a fantastic game

[ninjacalypse 551]

DayZ Standalone Review - Is it worth getting?

 

TL;DR;Bought DayZ

[BAHADIR 124]

Thank you for the post, but Meele system works very well for me right now. Anyone else ?

[AP_Norris 1017]

Some may think of lack of loot as a pro.

If there was twice as much loot end game would take half as long.

I think of lack of loot as a pro

I think of the current zombies as probably the biggest con for me, honestly only seen about 20, I find melee good enough though and I have only really been hit by a zombie once.

I speak from about 8 hrs experience.

[AP_Norris 1017]

Thank you for the post, but Meele system works very well for me right now. Anyone else ?

Hits are a bit over the place, but I'm guessing thats more to do with stability issues than anything.

I'm very thankful for the time put in to make the change from the old system though.

[ianramos 47]

At first look I found the melee system a little bit bugged. But now, after some days playing, I gotta say: it is bugged as hell. :P

 

Anyways, about the loot, not only because it's a pre-alpha and the loot balance, probability, etc., is messy, but the lack of loot it's also because they don't really respawn (realistic idea), so if you want to loot places the best it get out of the coast and head up north because there you gonna find some houses that people havent looted already. The loot only "respawn" when the server restarts. So... :)

[Paciello 1]

Cons:
Big FPS drops in big cities - This is actually a problem, but I really believe they'r working on it.

Although they no longer zigzag, zombies are almost not a threat and they are glitchy. - They are working on it, remember, it's alpha.

Lack of zombies. - Work on progress.

Melee weapons are buggy and don't work well. - For me they work pretty well.

Lack of loot. - Working :D

Inventory system is a bit buggy. - I just got lag problems, nothing else.

Fast starvation and dehydration. - Stay without running or walking in the game to a test. If you do this you'll not get hungry and thristy. If you run like a bitch, you'll get dehydracted and all. For me that's pretty real.

Firestation ladder glitch. - This is bad :/

[GriefSlicer (DayZ) 84]

tip: Do not review alphas

[Azrail (DayZ) 211]

tl;dr

 

if you don't like bugs, don't buy

if you like dayz, JUST FKIN DO IT

 

/thread

[splinter2k 23]

Carbine781,

 

No personal disrespect intended, but I think it's absolutely ridiculous and meaningless to write a review regarding an Alpha release. Especially when it has been clearly stated that it is only an "Alpha" release and is a work in progress.  

 

You put a lot of time critiquing aspects of the game and systems that aren't even finished yet.  Perhaps your time would have been better spent submitting bug reports and leaving the review until after the product is officially launched and ready.

 

Just my opinion of course.

 

Regards,

 

Splinter

Edited December 19, 2013 by Splinter_2K

[carbine781 (DayZ) 131]

Carbine781,

 

No personal disrespect intended, but I think it's absolutely ridiculous and meaningless to write a review regarding an Alpha release. Especially when it has been clearly stated that it is only an "Alpha" release and is a work in progress.  

 

You put a lot of time critiquing aspects of the game and systems that aren't even finished yet.  Perhaps your time would have been better spent submitting bug reports and leaving the review until after the product is officially launched and ready.

 

Just my opinion of course.

 

Regards,

 

Splinter

I stated in the review ""Note: This review is based on my personal experience with the game. Also, the review is based on the stage the alpha was in when i wrote this (less then 48 hours after release). I know the game is a pre-alpha and that the game has many bugs in it (Rocket even warned us), i'm just reviewing the game in it's current state to let you know if it is worth getting now, etc." I can understand why you may not like the review. I just wrote it to let people who have not bought the game yet what to expect. I also hoped that this could help bring awareness to some bugs, which I have submitted in the bug report part.

[carbine781 (DayZ) 131]

tl;dr

 

if you don't like bugs, don't buy

if you like dayz, JUST FKIN DO IT

 

/thread

I know. I wrote at the top to skip to the Pros and Cons part which basically summed everything up if you didn't want to read the entire thing.

[JustPassingBy1 0]

Carbine781,

 

Just wanted to take a second to thank you for taking the time to write a detailed review based on your experience, as it was one of the factors that I considered when deciding if I wanted to try out the Alpha in its current state. Based on your experience and a few others I've seen, I think that as a new player I'll probably hold off until next December and check in then to see how the game is progressing.