14 DAY TRIAL // Bohemia Interactive has released a video celebrating the one-year anniversary of the standalone edition of DayZ, the popular first-person shooter survival game.
DayZ started out as an Arma 2 mod that became hugely popular, so Bohemia Interactive, the maker of the military first-person shooter the game was built on, picked it up and decided to create a standalone version.
The game shared the extremely popular (at the time) zombie survival theme, was released on Steam Early Access one year ago, and despite the developer's plea for people not to buy into such a barebones experience, the title quickly rose to the top of Steam's best-seller chart.
The game offers a harsh experience, where you step into the world with nothing and gradually accumulate experience and gear, making use of a very robust crafting system to create pretty much everything you can image.
In addition to this, you also have to constantly scavenge for food and supplies, and although you would think that the ungodly zombies are the main enemy, as evidenced so many times throughout the year, your worst nightmare is other people.
The fact that when you die you lose everything and have to start over is a strong deterrent for many people who would otherwise give the game a go, but the unique gameplay opportunities DayZ offers are a pretty strong draw for the numerous gamers who supported Bohemia Interactive's development process by purchasing the Early Access edition.
A constantly evolving experience
Bohemia has been steadily releasing updates for the past year, introducing many of the most requested features of the community, including the ability to give up the life of adventure, settle down and become a farmer.
The unique vision of the apocalypse brings both frustration and highly thrilling moments, and gamers from all across the world hopped on board and decided to spend their free time exploring the ample gameplay opportunities afforded by DayZ.
Game Director Dean "Rocket" Hall along with several developers at Bohemia Interactive decided to put together a nice anniversary video to celebrate DayZ's first proper birthday, offering some insight into the development process.
The video speaks of some of the events that preceded the launch of the standalone edition of the popular survival game, noting that the valuable feedback from the close to three million players is what drives the game and shapes its future.
Bohemia Interactive confirmed last month that it was looking to launch the full version of DayZ sometime in 2016, and revealed some of the things it planned for 2015.
Among the most important features to be added at the beginning of 2015, players can expect to see basic vehicles, better loot distribution, enhanced zombie intelligence, the introduction of a stealth system and diseases.
[YOUTUBE=http://youtu.be/uyZV3F6Vkho
