1) Zombies. They are fast, a la 28 Days later, and tough to hit as they sometimes charge in a zig-zag pattern. Still, they are manageable unless you’re surrounded, or out of ammo. The starting weapon (junky pistol) is not good…better to avoid them if that is all you have. Gunshots, especially from rifles, will attract them. Traveling at night is the trickiest; you have to frequently stop, look, and listen, and slowly thread your way between them Solid Snake or Splinter Cell style. Much like STALKER: COP, the mod takes into account how loud or visible you are, so crouching/crawling and walking (not running) with care can usually get you around a few zombies. But it can be super scary to slowly clear corners in a desolate farm village, especially in the dark!
2) Other players (usually 40-50 per server). Some are friendly or at least not hostile. Many will group with you for shared protection. However, there are a fair number of murderers, many armed with sniper rifles they have found or stolen. They may kill you for your food/gear or just to be mean. If you are super sneaky you can avoid them, but if you waltz down the main street of the more popular urban areas, especially in daytime (or dropping flares/glowsticks if at night), then you are asking for it. Players of all types tend to congregate near the starting zones along the coast, or in the towns/cities immediately nearby. The more successful survivors make their way far inland, away from the crowds, often to the military airfield, where high-grade weapons can be found. Of course, the airfield usually turns into a battleground. I printed out one of the uber-sized Chernarus maps found online to aid with navigation.
3) Wounds/healing/respawn: Wounds are roughly as serious as in real life, which forces you to behave accordingly. You can take a few quick hits from a zombie, but more serious zombie attacks, let alone gunshot wounds, will see you die from blood loss within minutes if not instantly. You can also suffer broken bones. Bandages and painkillers are available, even blood transfusions (apparently) if you can make it to a hospital which has not been looted. If you die, you drop all the gear you’ve acquired and spawn a new character at a random spot along the southern coastline. So while there are not levels or XP per se, losing hard-won gear is painful. This also means that death can separate you from your co-op group, if you have one, by miles!
4) Hunger/Thirst: This is a bear. Hunger and thirst accrue, and more quickly than in real life. If not addressed, you will get shaky, blurred vision, and ultimately barely able to crawl. Cans of food are scare, which leads to a lot of competition. You can hunt and kill animals and cook them, but I have never managed to do that. Water is easily refilled. Both accrue (slowly) when you are offline, which I think is a bit much....
5) Day/Night: The game includes a full day/night cycle, which (controversially among some in the community) is tied to the REAL LIFE cycle for wherever the server is located. So when I (Central Texas) connect to a server in Dallas, or NYC, at 9pm, it is going to be dark the whole time I play. You will find road flares, chem glow sticks, and flashlights. You can make campfires too. However, light (obviously) draws all sorts of attention…..
6) When you log out, your character is saved and remains with his gear and same location the next time you log in.
There are also cars which you can repair and us, boats, and, apparently, a helicopter or two, but unlike others on this thread I have not seen one yet.
So what’s the big deal? Another zombie game, “Woot.” Well, the sense of immersion and hence tension offered by this mod is what makes it memorable. The sound in particular is outstanding. In fact, when playing at night you need to wear headphones or else crank your speakers, less you miss tell-tale cues that a threat is near. The closest approximation would be STALKER (w/ complete mod) but Arma’s world is MANY times larger and more realistic. The environment, combined with the realistic injury model and the high stakes of dying, will leave your heart pounding. It is awesome and I hope they don’t nerf the experience any time soon!
The core elements are: sneak, shoot only when necessary, scavenge, and try to find allies (or not). There is not much more depth to it than that, but the core experience can approach holodeck levels of immersion. The element of “who do I trust” in particular adds an amazing layer of stress to the game. Will this dude shoot me in the back as we creep along? I have not suffered any dramatic betrayals but they can and do happen.
Is it worth paying $29 for Arma2 just to play this mod? That depends. It is a singular experience as I outlined above. If sneaking around abandoned landscapes in a constant state of paranoid alertness does not sound fun, then DayZ is not for you. If you always wished there were other live players during a particularly creepy session of STALKER, then dive in!