Day-Z Standalone: What to expect?

Described as one of the scariest games of all time, as well as one of the best zombie and survival games of all time (Ed: By those who have never played early Resident Evil's or System Shock 2 no doubt..!), Day Z is a frankly epic game. The ARMA II mod, originally designed by New Zealander Dean Hall, aka Rocket, Day Z has clocked up 1.6 million unique players, 11 and a half million zombie kills and over 2 billion dead zombies. That's a lot of killing. As the tag-line suggests, the original premise of Day Z is to scavenge, slay, survive through a zombie apocalypse and players do, though once they've gotten used to surviving, it becomes more about grouping up, fighting with other survivors, finding cars and vehicles, and generally having tons of fun. If you haven't played Day Z before, the huge shot of adrenalin that hits you when you hear a gunshot nearby jacks up your heart rate and puts all your senses utterly on edge, as you don't want to see the character you've spent hours, if not days building up, die. Because if that happens you to have to start all over again from nothing. If you're still unfamiliar with the premise, take a look at FRANKIEonPCin1080p's action packed and humorous Day Z series, which is also full of tips and thought processes. As Day Z is a mod for Bohemia Interactive's ARMA II, it has its limitations, which is where the idea of Day Z standalone has come in. Thanks to the mods popularity, Bohemia hired Dean Hall to help them make an actual game, built from the ground up with a lot of time focused on implementing user suggested ideas from the Day Z forums and Reddit. The standalone is about to enter its Alpha phase, allowing some 100-200 selected users try it out and report back with suggestions. Confirmed so far, we have a complete redesign of the user interface, or UI. While nothing is concrete, we have heard rumors that the list and tile set-up from ARMA II is disappearing and being replaced with something entirely new. The scavenging, or loot, system is being changed, so that you actively have to hunt around a house for food or supplies, whether it be opening cabinets, looking behind sofas, or crawling under tables, making it feel more realistic and that you actually earn your supplies. In terms of weapons, we've been told that there will be fewer weapons in the standalone than in the mod, but to supplement that, there will be more weapon customization, such as fitting different scopes or silencers. Weapons will now also jam, and receive damage, one example given was that if a player has night vision goggles on and is shot in the head, the goggles will end up badly damaged and require repair to make them functional again. Vehicles will be similar, with you being able to take parts, such as doors and engines, and put them into other chassis to make functional cars. Clothing is now also going to make far more of an impact that in the mod, where you will actively have to way up how visible a piece of clothing against how it keeps you warm or how water proof they are. This leads into the discussion of disease and illness, which has been hinted at in various blog posts, such as spending too much time in big cities, where there would be a higher concentration of people would lead to a greater chance of picking up an illness. Finally, on the health front, there will now also be different broken bones, and a rumour of the ability to perform quick, on the fly fixes such as placing a splint, made from bandages and wood, on breaks to allow for a player to be able to walk or hold things. Finally, one big problem with Day Z mod, was hacking. It made the game borderline unplayable and downright irritating at times. Rocket and the Bohemia team have said that hacking is currently their main priority to get right. While we aren't yet sure exactly what is being implemented, rest assured that they're going to put every effort into a stable, fair playing environment. The game will be supplied via Steam, to allow Rocked and the team to update the game with new weapons and fixes on a weekly basis, this should put an end to having to hunt around to find out what revision of the mod you need to run. On top of this, there are many hundreds of tiny tiny changes that have been suggested or hinted at by the development team, but until we see alpha footage, nothing seems set in stone. Are you excited for the impending zombie apocalypse? Let us know in the forums.