Two years after the release of the Arma II mod, Bohemia Interactive brought us an early release purchase of DayZ standalone for $29.99.  On May 2, 2014, there was a total of two million copies of DayZ standalone sold on Steam since its release. Dean Hall, the sole creator and programmer of the DayZ mod, has stated that he plans on leaving Bohemia Interactive at the end of the year so that he can run his own studio in New Zealand.

While DayZ standalone has already been a success for Bohemia Interactive, there are still many patches and updates to come.

My Opinion:

For years, I have thrived off of survival-horror gaming.  Resident Evil was one of the first games of this genre to emerge.  Silent Hill followed and damaged me to the core.  Both of these games gave us many sequels to enjoy…or fear.  After many years of playing survival-horror games, I came across a mod for Arma II called DayZ: an actual survival horror game where you had to scavenge for food, water, medicine and weapons in order to survive.  My first experience with DayZ involved me running from zombies so far into the woods that I starved to death trying to find my way back to infected civilization.  The map is massive and is easy to get lost in.  

Every spare minute that I had was spent on DayZ.  It began to rival the total amount hours that I had spent on World of Warcraft.  There have been many instances where I have forgotten to eat because I was completely absorbed in collecting and hoarding my supplies.  All in all, I find myself constantly striving for my digital character to survive into the next day, or better yet, seeking revenge on another player that took me down a few days before.

Landon Luthi is one of MONG’s newest editors.  You can follow him on Facebook.