6. DayZ

DayZ gameplay

The ex-soviet country of Chernarus has seen better days. Infected by an unknown virus, the majority of its population have been transformed into ravenous flesh-hungry zombies. Meanwhile the few surviving humans have taken to fighting each other over precious resources, rather than banding together to weather the storm. DayZ is an open-world, horror, survival game with a big focus on PVP and the desperation a scarcity of resources can produce.

One of the original open world survival games, DayZ has gone from a janky ARMA 2 mod, to a fully featured standalone game. Zombies are now much deadlier, the weather is a real enemy, hunger and thirst are more unforgiving than ever, and deadly infections and animal predators pose a whole new threat. But throughout it all, it’s the other players that provide the game’s main source of tension. Get it right and kill an enemy squad and the rewards can be immeasurable, fail and you lose everything. The atmospheric setting, authentic gun-play, deep simulation, and active modding community; sets Dayz apart as one of the stalwarts of the survival genera.

One of the things that makes DayZ so special is the sense of community a server can build over time. Players who kill others indiscriminately are known as "Bandits" and sometimes the whole server can band together to hunt then down and execute them.

The Zombies have gotten a serious upgrade since the days of the mod, both in visuals and lethality. As a fresh spawn without any projectile weaponry, they can be a real danger, and you're better off avoiding them.