Time for another Good Bad and Ugly review. This time, the in development Arma 2 Combined Operations mod: DayZ.
Attachment 161

Bad News First

This game will destroy your faith in humanity.
People are just assholes. The only rule in DayZ is survive, nothing more, nothing less. How you go about that is your own choice, some take the path that those of us in SoX who play took- the path of grouping up and killing as a last resort. Others... Kill anything that moves on sight, no questions asked, and prey on the weak.

This isn't your big budget shooter.

There is a lot, A LOT, of walking and moving and not a whole lot of combat in this game if you aim to survive. It is not a difficult task to find a fire fight, you just have to go looking and start shooting, but survival and gun fights mix like oil and water if you want to have good stuff and live long.

This is not meant to be easy.

The main man behind the mod: a dev who goes by rocket, said he wants the game to be unfair, this is survival not happy go lucky let's go kill zombies time. This leads to a pretty anarchistic world where the big eat the little and you learn by screwing up.
Attachment 162

The bUgly:

First line of this review: The in development mod, and it shows:

Bugs are ironing out pretty quickly but Zombies do occasionally teleport while running at you which can lead to some pretty nasty inadvertent crossfire.

Brittle Bone Syndrome.

Everybody has it, maybe something that saved people from being brain eaters instead. But currently bones snap like twigs. “Oh you want to lay down on this rock, here's a broken bone say good bye to your precious morphine.”
Attachment 163

The Good:

This game is hard and rewarding:

Yes I posted this in the bad as well, take it how you want to see it this game is a challenge. Most of the bad comes from other players, but the design of this game, it's inherent difficulty, managing your well being- It is all done so beautifully well that it is a great feeling to log in and just see Chernarus Day 1. You have survived for 24 hours of real time, and you can make that something to be proud of.

People Suck:

Yes, it is a good thing that people suck, they can make stupid mistakes and be terrible and try to attack you head on giving you an easy kill if you are careful and keep your head about you. And dumb people are a good source of supplies.

Resource management in an FPS:

Yes, resource management in an FPS is a quite good thing. You need to make sure you are fed, hydrated, not bleeding, have no broken limbs, and are not bordering on hypothermia. The UI is clean and crisp and allows you to know when you need something on a quick glance. Everything goes from green to red to blinking red, and so you get an easy way to know quickly if you have to take care of it.
Large Vibrant World.
Best thing about this game being built on the Arma engine, there is an endless set of colors. When at full blood (health) you can see greens, oranges, and yellows in the trees; whites, reds, greens, blues, and beiges in the houses; green in the military bases; and everything has colors, some zombies walk around in red and brown, some look like pastors, some wear plaid light brown shirts and blue jeans. Everything is varied and colorful and a great sight to take in in this 225 sq km map.

Good Gun Play

Being built on top of a Military Simulation, DayZ has some great gun mechanics to it. Aiming at long range is a challenge, weapons are not hit scan, bullets drop, and you have to lead your shot. The guns are also bountiful, some more rare than others but there is a large list of weapons to choose from which each behave with enough of a noticeable difference to allow for various play styles.
Attachment 164