Recent reviews by <eVa> Boss Llama

A simple concept, executed extremely well. The scaling is polished nicely so that the challenge curve always feels appropriate for the level you're at, and the world is fascinating. The gradual development of improved conditions and, eventually, life as you terraform is nicely executed. There are a few minor imperfections, sure, but far fewer and far less problematic than the average new release by a much bigger studio. There are no enemies (except the basic needs of hunger/thirst/oxygen), so it's a nice little survival sandbox. Definitely recommend for those who like to build and explore.

I heartily recommend this game with two very specific caveats:

1) I am playing on a modded and white-listed server that is actively administered to make it a bit more like the original mod rather than the pure SA, plus some bonus environmental stuff to make it more immersive, and...

2) I am the kind of player who has no problem at all with a slow-paced "walking simulator."

DayZ, like ARMA from which it was derived, presents an expansive and open world, with very few limitations on where to go, when to go there, and what to do. Crossing the map at a sustainable job can take a couple hours in one cardinal direction, and just as long again if you turn by 90 degrees. This world is beautifully detailed, and feels more "real" than almost any other game world I've been in - probably because it is actually based on specific places in the real world.

The type of game you experience is massively reliant on the other players on your server. Unfortunately, a lot of servers, especially the public ones, have a bunch of idiots playing like a battle royale, trying to blindly murder everybody they see and hunt newbies for "fun" on the beaches where they spawn. This game is not meant to be a battle royale, and suffers hugely from these murder hobos. PvP is a critical part of what can occur in game, but this isn't an FPS - it's an open world survival game with other people in it. Some can be friendly and helpful, some can be neutral, and some can be "bandits" and murderers. Don't be one of the jerks who makes it worse for everybody by ignoring 90% of the map in order to try and troll the spawn beach.

The base game itself also suffers from a lot of bugs and glitches - things that shouldn't be in the game after this much development time. This is also similar to both the original mod and to ARMA in many ways, but again - some of these can be resolved by mods, and some you just live with. You have to be willing to accept that these occur and move on.

If you are looking for a stat-based KDR fest to show off your l33t skillz in a balanced competitive environment, you're in the wrong place. If you want to explore and survive in a massive open world, where disease, temperature, starvation, and zombies compete with your scavenging abilities, firepower, stealth, and strategy, the right DayZ server can be an absolutely marvelous place to be.

Pros:

1) Conceptually, there is a lot to recommend it, if you’re in to the sort of “open world, survival, crafting” genre that is so popular. The originally presented concept is good, and the basic core programming of the game seems solid.

2) Crafting is straightforward, construction is easy to get the hang of, and the controls are intuitive if you’ve ever played any sort of first person game before.

3) The game has nice textures, and is visually attractive up close. The render distance is a bit too low on animations though, so players look blocky and animals simply don’t animate until they are a bit closer than they ought to be.

Cons:

1) This is no longer the survival game it started as. This is a PvP blender, where the people who got lucky enough to be online the moment a particular server resets annihilate everybody else repeatedly. There is absolutely no penalty for high powered people being aggressive and/or murderous, and no incentive for anybody to permit the survival of, much less assist, players not in their own group.

2) The community is dominated by the faction that wants to focus on killing others and raiding others’ property, and which shouts down and insults anybody who expresses an interest in less-dickish gameplay.

3) There is no single player option, no tutorial, and no way to learn the game or experiment except to try and find a multiplayer server that is empty and hope for the best.

4) Solo players are screwed (and mocked by both devs and the community). If you want to actually play the game, you either need to be in a group, or find the emptiest servers you can. As a solo player on a populated server, if you are seen or make noise, you will almost certainly be killed.

5) The developers are extremely dismissive of anybody who doesn’t share their “vision” for the game, and participate in mocking people who suggest issues with the current direction of the game. Basically, the developers are acting the same as the trolls and aggressive PvPers, turning away from the originally presented vision.

6) There is no character customization. Your race, gender, and physical aspects are unchangeably generated by your Steam ID. Despite declaring that they want to make a game where people are identifiable on sight rather than by names over their heads, they failed to make a game where people can identify with their own characters. Critics of this are called racist, sexist, or afraid to step out of their own real-life role, instead of acknowledging that in order to feel attached to a character, people want some input on creating it.

7) There is a lack of thought given to item balance. Many items are useless or inferior to cheaper equivalents, and material cost is often not linked to utility.

8) The first two tiers of materials used for construction are utterly pointless. If you log off with anything less than a tier 3 (stone) base with metal doors, your base will be raided while you’re offline by people who can simply chop their way in without consequence. Key locks function both directions, so you can literally be locked in your house with no way out if you are killed outside with the key. Additionally, there is no terrain modification or digging possible.

9) The “Tool Cabinet” functionality (build protection) is extremely vulnerable, since anybody can add and remove people from any cabinet they reach at will. If a raider reaches your cabinet, they will simply remove you from the authorized list and add themself, then wall your cabinet in and take your stuff, so that you completely lose the ability to use your own base without going and building another one somewhere to support you while you reacquire the supplies and equipment to raid your own empty home.

10) There is almost nothing to slow people down from rushing the highest tech levels, except for other people who rush them faster. It only takes a couple hours from a server coming up for at least a few people to have achieved the highest level tech, and turned it on everybody else they come across. As of this writing, most servers retain their populations for only a day or two after a wipe, because there is absolutely no point to playing beyond that, and the most important play is all done within the first few hours.

Conclusion:

This game basically feels like an inferior clone of 7 Days to Die, minus the zombies. It has better textures, but a far worse community (openly hostile almost every time, both in game and out), fewer options for construction and crafting (both in terms of materials and items, and the inability to alter terrain), smaller maps (equivalent maybe to 7DtD’s original alpha map), less depth (most environmental elements are purely aesthetic and unalterable, whether stone in the ground or cars on the streets), and to cap it off, devs that are less interested in making a good game, and more interested in attacking those who mmake suggestions or challenge the changes away from what was originally sold. Considering the two games debuted at nearly the same time, I am at the point where I’m going to uninstall Rust and go back to 7DtD, which gave me many hours of enjoyment without the unpleasantness and frustration I’ve experienced here. This is a huge pity, because Rust could have been amazing.

A simple little time-waster that gives you the satisfaction of playing a game, without trapping you with a multi-hour commitment. I do get somewhat annoyed with the inability to set a proper ATC pattern, with flight levels and approaches, but that's not the point of this game. It isn't a sim, it's just little pictures of aircraft zipping around, and you need to guide them home. Worth picking up if it's on a good sale.

A challenging puzzle game that always has you thinking "I bet I can do that even better!" Some of the levels are quite difficult, but there isn't just one right way to do things, so a mix of creativity and patience can lead to deep satisfaction. A brilliant thinker.

It may be a little old and buggy, but this game has great atmosphere, a good story, and hey - you get to be a vampire AND blow the living crap out of things. Not some sissy sparkling vampire - your choice of a variety of classic and deadly vamps from civilized to psychotic. Also, though I'm told the unofficial patch does make everything better, I fully enjoyed this game in its retail original form - enough so that I just bought it again so I could have it on Steam. Gameplay is similar to Deus Ex, though a bit darker.

I wouldn't call this a "game" so much as a self-paced audio tour. It's gorgeously rendered, well scored, and beautiful in every way, but from a gameplay perspective it's pretty much a slow walk in a straight line with no influence on the environment, the ending, the story, or anything else (there are no interaction keys). Takes about 90 minutes start to finish at a slowish explorer's pace. At $2.50 sale price, a definite recommendation for those who like eye-candy and art-house things. If you're the sort who thought Myst was boring or pointless though, you will hate this even more.

Grand strategy on a suitably epic scale. Massively addictive, infinitely variable, and so many facets I'm still running in to entire new aspects I didn't previously know existed 50 hours in.

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Updated: hundreds of hours played, and years passed. I'm still discovering new ways to play, and Paradox is still releasing new content. Not just cosmetic stuff - full on expansion packs that change the game in significant ways. I love it even more now than I did before.

Dragon Age: Origins is probably the best RPG I've ever seen. Control is extremely precise, the story is deep, the world is open, and unlike it's unfortunate successor DA2, DA:O does not suffer from consolitis. If you like RPGs, play this one.

This is an immersive and well thought out game, with loads of detail added in out of the way places to answer all the questions you might have, without forcing your hand if you don't care. If you enjoyed Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, you'll love this game. The feel is amazingly similar, but without all those frustrating bugs.