So, I just got DayZ two days ago and I have to say that I like the 24 hour night cycle. I love how tense it gets at night because I literally have to listen to the game. I usually pop a chemlight and hold that in my hand while I crouch around and gaze intently at the treeline to see if I can find buildings. A buddy and I have been playing together and I find it fascinating how both our voices (despite the fact that we're in a steam chat and nobody in-game can hear us) grow very hushed the moment we hear anything.
The game's emphasis on stealth is also very intriguing to me. Most zombie games (Left 4 Dead is a good example) emphasize run-and-gun tactics and very brash actions but with this one I feel like if I even stand up and walk I'm practically painting a target on my head for some bandit to shoot me.
One of my favorite things I've experienced in DayZ was when my friend and I were sitting on a hill overlooking a town that we wanted to go scavenge in. My buddy was laying next to me just looking down at the town so I pulled out my binoculars so I could communicate what I was seeing to him. The town was about 1 mile away, so he couldn't see it as well as I could. That was when we spotted him. Another player had just walked out of a building and started crawling on the ground to sneak away from the zombies outside. It looked like we weren't going to be scavenging in that town after all: it had been claimed.
The guy made it about 100 feet from the door of the building he exited and then got spotted by a zombie. It roared (Or I presume it did since every other zombie in the area started chasing him) and the chase began. Every zombie in the town poured out of buildings and began to sprint after him. My friend and I watched, laughing as he flew past the barbed wire on the outskirts of the town and ran past a thick line of bushes. The instant he passed them he dropped prone and crawled behind one, losing the zombies and slowly moving away from the town. I pulled out my enfield, spotting a zombie near him but the moment I looked down the sights to take my shot my buddy told me to hold my fire. The zombie hadn't spotted our 'friend'.
We logged out shortly after, but it was an amazing feeling watching someone else outfox the zombies.
