HomeEditorialDayZ Is Insane: Why It's So Hard to Keep Playing

DayZ Is Insane: Why It’s So Hard to Keep Playing

It's not a game for the faint-hearted or a quick play.

This scenario might resonate with you: You start the zombie survival game, excited to gather excellent gear and delve into compelling stories through deep social interactions, but then, you’ll soon be proven wrong…why is DayZ so hard?

 

OK, let’s try again. But this time, you’ve got yourself a zombie fan club. Try to shake ’em, but whoops – down you go off a cliff. Leg? Broken. And, oh yeah, you’re bleeding. Great.
MacGyver time! You whip up a knife and tear your shirt into rags for bandages – except they’re dirty.

Thirsty? That stream water looked safe, right? Wrong. It’s cholera-infested. And would you look at that – it’s raining, and you’ve caught the flu. Awesome. Now you’re hungry – that food? Rotten. And you’re stuck with poisoning. Next thing you know, you’re unconscious, and as you slowly pass out, the screen turns black.

Why is Dayz hard? In this scene, we, as players, are lying in the middle of the forest in with a broken leg and bleeding.
Broken legs in DayZ (Source: Bohemia Interactive)

 

DayZ demands everything from you

This is hardcore post-apocalyptic survival in one of its most brutal forms. Fighting off hunger, diseases, zombies, and other people – it’s a full-time job. No wonder some players say, “Nope, I’m out.”

Feeling lonely? No worries, DayZ got a slap for that, too. You spot a player, wave hello, and they wave back – but with bullets. Nice to meet you, too!! Another player appears. “Friend or foe?” Spoiler: It’s foe. You die, respawn, die – until you eventually pull the trigger first or uninstall. Trust issues? DayZ is your therapist.

Toxic players are everywhere, and friendly encounters are rare. It’s often you against the world, and the world hates you – not everyone’s cup of tea. Ever watched a cool DayZ video and thought, “Yeah, that’s gonna be me!”? Well, buckle up. It’s a long road to that fully loaded pickup and epic gear.

Here, we are shot at directly by another player so that the screen gets bloodstains, and a black vignette shows up.
You encounter many toxic players in DayZ (Source: Bohemia Interactive/Zesty Polvo)

 

Get used to dying in this game and keep learning from it

You’ll taste dirt, lots and lots of it. But hang in there! When you finally gear up, you’re hit with the ultimate fear: dying and losing all your progress. The map is enormous, and when you’ve spent hours accumulating wealth, someone suddenly blasts you from afar, and you have no idea where the heck it came from.

 

It is one of the most time-intensive zombie survival games

And that, friends, is the typical DayZ dance, and why it’s hard to keep playing this title. It’s not for the faint-hearted or the speed-runners. It’s for the dedicated, the hard-liners—and the ones who know that they’re just getting stronger with every respawn. DayZ is like that intense relationship: put in the time, and with some skill, you’ll reap the rewards. A little slap every now and then doesn’t hurt anyone, right?

We see a sniper in a ghillie suit in the profile at the edge of a forest, looking through the scope. The sky is cloudy.
Ghillie suits in DayZ are often used (Source: Bohema Interactive/TopeREC)

 

But as it’s quite an old game and seemingly a little too harsh for the mainstream, is it a dead game? Quite the opposite!

 

DayZ is anything but over

The post-apocalyptic zombie game is thriving, constantly updated with fresh content and new features—thanks to Bohemia Interactive’s ongoing care while listening to their community. The latest patch, 1.24, is well received, with quality-of-life improvements, the new Vikhr rifle, smoother weapon handling, an official Linux server version, and much more. Check out the official blog post for further information.

Here, we see a green rising curve against a black background, representing the number of players in DayZ.
DayZ lifetime player count history (Source: Steamdb.info)

 

So, keep being on top of your survival, ballers, stay hydrated, and never give up. Who knows, maybe the next respawn will be more successful and the loot even juicier.

 

Hungry for more brutal shooters?

If you want to meet the undead in other exciting worlds, you can find top-notch titles in our Zombie Games or Survival Games ranking.

Do you miss the fear in new horror titles? Read more about why horror games don’t scare me anymore.

What’s been your wildest DayZ encounter? Let us know in the comments!


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