Heavy focus on atmosphere and tension. It doesn't last.

New players will become immersed in the massive map. This is good. You will die and learn over and over, and start to make your way inland. This is good. Eventually, one of these times you will find food, a melee weapon, and maybe a gun. This is great.

You will continue and very likely not reach anyone only hearing distant gunshots even in military areas. Soon enough, you'll walk to the edge of the world. Then the immersion and the sense of exploration and mystery is killed. This isn't so good.

DayZ is a tense game, and it's interactions with players are fairly good. I'll admit it, even I found myself in wonder sitting at Electro's PD and watching freshies fumble around in the dark. Just observing people in this game feels interesting, and like an actual apocalypse. Unfortunately, you can't count on it (most people will drop you on site, geared guys and newbies alike), nor can you count on the game (ping spikes will instantly disconnect you, vanilla servers have a 2hr day 1hr night cycle [not much fun unless you have nvgs or specific hours to play]). The main reason to play this game is for the one in a million encounter you meet someone similar to yourself, who still trusts people, and potentially wants to stick with you. These moments feel great, but they don't happen often.

DayZ is not worth it's full asking price for most people. Extreme discipline and interest in the IP is required to keep interest on vanilla servers. Modded ones exist, but I hear those are mostly battle-royale types.

Heavy focus on atmosphere and tension. It doesn't last. New players will become immersed in the massive map. This is good. You will die and learn over and over, and start to make your way inland. This is good. Eventually, one of these times you will find food, a melee weapon, and maybe a gun. This is great. You will continue and very likely not reach anyone only hearing distant gunshots even in military areas. Soon enough, you'll walk to the edge of the world. Then the immersion and the sense of exploration and mystery is killed. This isn't so good. DayZ is a tense game, and it's interactions with players are fairly good. I'll admit it, even I found myself in wonder sitting at Electro's PD and watching freshies fumble around in the dark. Just observing people in this game feels interesting, and like an actual apocalypse. Unfortunately, you can't count on it (most people will drop you on site, geared guys and newbies alike), nor can you count on the game (ping spikes will instantly disconnect you, vanilla servers have a 2hr day 1hr night cycle [not much fun unless you have nvgs or specific hours to play]). The main reason to play this game is for the one in a million encounter you meet someone similar to yourself, who still trusts people, and potentially wants to stick with you. These moments feel great, but they don't happen often. DayZ is not worth it's full asking price for most people. Extreme discipline and interest in the IP is required to keep interest on vanilla servers. Modded ones exist, but I hear those are mostly battle-royale types.