DayZ Xbox One Preview

After many years of being in some state of Steam Early Access, DayZ is finally available on Xbox One. The massive open world zombie survival game has arrived on the console and it's actually not bad. I played this on Xbox One X which is Enhanced visually and for the most part the performance was solid. It was also impressive in terms of the draw distance and how well everything rendered. There were issues where items would load as you walked, but these elements were minimal and distant. The game handled grass quite well as typically the loading of grass in these types of games is not great. Generally, the verdict is that the game works well and plays good. The controls also work efficiently, yet are somewhat buggy.

Keep in mind that at this point the game is in Xbox Game Preview, so it'll be worked on over time. I believe they saw the success of PUBG and wanted to fast track this for the platform. My main issues with it thus far revolve around the inventory UI and usage. It's rather awkward and some elements don't quite work correctly. I can see that this inventory setup would work well with consoles over time as it's similar to what PUBG has, but it definitely needs additional work. I had some difficulties handling certain items which could become frustrating, at least they start you off with essentials. I recall back in the day on DayZ you'd have to find everything starting with basically nothing.

For some extra context about the game, this is a survival experience. Players get dropped into large scale servers with tons of players and try to survive. I should clarify that you don't parachute into the game, it's not a battle royale. There are no defined goals and most interactions involve players conflicting with one another. Zombies are present, but it's really other people that cause problems. You loot for weapons or generally tools that keep you alive. There are key aspects needed to live, you'll have to drink and eat while also making sure your bacteria levels keep steady. The game definitely carries a surprising amount of depth even being just a DayZ Xbox One preview at the moment.

They really did carry the whole core experience over and made it work fine. It obviously needs some refinement as I've mentioned, but I feel it's in a good state right now. Especially if you compare it to PUBG which did not run well at its launch. There's a big potential for this on the console side of things and I definitely think this will be a big one on Xbox. It's playing well and if they iron out the little problems it could also perhaps be the best way to experience this particular title. I recall many years of slow development on PC to the point I stopped playing a very long time ago, this could be a good rebirth point for it with a fresh audience. It will all depend on the support and how responsive they are to problems that arise.

Read our DayZ Xbox One X Details
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