Coming from a dedicated dayz fan.. Wow this game is actually kind of awesome.
Not even half way through development sergey titov made a sporratic decision that he wanted to release the game before the holiday season.. This was like hitting the entire development team with a sledgehammer.
The actual developers are really friendly and weekly they post new topics in the forums asking us what we would like to see in the next update. You can even see the developers responding to each players individual post. Its actually quite amazing.
Not only that but if you look at some of the developers personal profiles they look like really great people, one boy is from soviet union and has many pictures of nature and things he loves and also has some pictures of him in his army clothing and on aircrafts.. He is the guy who makes all the various guns in the game and posts in depth articles of how he uses the guns in real life and how he takes pictures of them to make them a true replication down to the littlest detail.
And from what i've seen (buying this 100% optional game for $3 on steam) i have not really seen one aspect where i have been pushed to make any sort of real money purchase. You can't even buy guns with real money, they would not allow that because it would not be fair.. I have not spent a dime and i already have banked hundreds of different assault rifles and top tier items in my global inventory.. And even if a player decides to spend a whole bunch of money on supplies and trinkets.. I can pick up a weak .22 caliber pistol and take his ass down in two well placed shots. Not to mention hammerpoint funds 700 Dedicated servers. Honestly i do not know how they are making any money. Servers are expensive.
Review:
A good reviewer should not judge a game based on these factors.
1.The developers who made it
2.The actions of the players who play it
3. The negative press it may have received during its launch.
4.The close resemblance it may or may not have to another game or mod.. (The warz team did everything within the legal statue of law and should not be criticized or discredited for its strategy of conducting business)
I AM SORRY IF THE GAME DEVELOPERS SOMEHOW HURT YOUR FEELINGS. GET OVER IT!
I have put almost 500 hours into DAYZ by dean hall. And i have been playing it before it even became popular. Just like everyone else i would make jokes "well go play warz if you don't like it!" and everyone would laugh because lets face it.. Hating the war-z was the popular thing to do.. For some reason it was just agreed on that warz was a terrible game and we should all hate it no matter what.
So just recently with the steam $3 sale i bought war-z just to see how bad it was.. wow.. Is this really the game everyone spends so much effort hating?? First off punkbuster has just been implemented a week ago and 100% of hackers are gone, there is not a single one remaining. I can however tell why people could not enjoy this game before that because i personally have seen about 100 "punkbuster global ban" messages show up already banning players who had hacks installed.. Wow i feel bad for the players who played before PB.. It must have been really frustrating.
But now people are so happy and everyone (even the dedicated players) are saying how there is not a single hacker remaining.. It is like a renaissance! Everyone is so relived they can finally begin playing the game as it was intended.
And keep in mind folks war-z is the first game to actually implement punkbuster AFTER the game had already been released. Punkbuster is not just some file they can throw into the installation directory and everything magically be fixed.. Punkbuster is a pretty big business and it takes time, paperwork, and a lot of money to actually get the ball rolling to implement punkbuster.. Punkbuster has to be carefully code by code implemented into the game engine and also the entire games code must be uploaded and stored on punkbusters servers.. If you look on punkbuster website you wil see that the only titles that support punkbuster are TRIPLE A titles like battlefield, call of duty, medal of honor.. War-z is the only smalltime game you can find in the list.
So to say the war-z developers DONT CARE about hackers could not be further from the truth.. Its almost unbelievable how fast they implemented punkbuster into their game to keep its players happy.
They also fixed the server hopping exploit, and they also implemented VOIP support and a whole new updated vegetation system in the graphics.
This game is HUGE. To me it feels exactly the same size as chernaurus.. But this game has hundreds more buildings you can enter and incredible loot like ak47's jason masks, all different size backpacks, silencers, red dot sights, canoe paddles, spiked bats, katana swords.. It really is like crack, i have already 50 hours logged in this game and i feel like i have not even scratched the surface.. I have spent all this time in only 1/30th the size of the map.. So i have yet to experience ANYTHING the game has to offer..
Not only that but the graphics are just incredible, realtime lighting, ambient occlusion, thick vegeation, dynamic shadows, and also this incredible sun glimmer effect that you can see at certain angles where the sun in the sky shines upon any metallic object.. Also the ambient occlusion, the pixel shaders, and the post processing effects have this subtle softing effect on the surfaces of the abandoned houses and runtdown trailer parks that make it look almost surreal. Honestly i think this game is a diamond in the rough.
If this game was released TODAY and was named infestation from the start, and had punkbuster from the start.. This game would recieve at LEAST a 7.0 and you would not have little babies running in circles having hissy fits.
I am just glad that people are starting to try it because it seems like just overnight the servers have all started becoming flooded, everyone is talking about how surprised they are of how fun it is, and instantly the game recieved 9,000 friend recommendations on steam.
This game is not bad. Its actually a pleasant surprise..You would like it, its almost impossible not to in its current state. And the pay2win thing is completely false, i havent paid a cent and i have like 30 guns stockpiled in my global inventory as well as like 50 melee items so i always have stuff to throw on my character before i start off an 8+ hour adventure.. this game is so much fun.