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DayZ is set in an apocalyptic zombie-filled world where you team up with strangers in the multiplayer-only game while trying to survive against zombies, even more zombies, wild animals, hunger, and thirst.
You have a higher chance of dying from hunger than from zombies so the survival gameplay mechanics kick in hard, which is where DayZ makes its name, other than the multiplayer and roleplaying.
And while DayZ is great, it gets monotonous after a while.
Here are 9 games like DayZ that stick to either survival or multiplayer or both and deliver their unique gaming experiences but on the same plane.
There are no spoilers ahead in case you haven’t played any of these titles so dig in.
Best Games Like DayZ To Play Right Now
9. Project Zomboid
This is a 2013 release but in 2021, Indie Game released Build 41 to bring more relevancy to the game and PZ completely changed from a rollover zombie-madness to a concentrated survival experience.
The Meta immediately changed from experimentally fiddling around with character building to calculated gameplay tactics augmenting your current skills, items, and goals. PZ lets you clean your clothes in a lake, get back home hungry, cook a meal, eat, sleep, and get up the next day to go shop for more food items, all this while fending off zombies.
It’s open-world. With multiplayer, you can build a whole society in the game, if you have the right set of peeps joining in. PZ needs another update to make it relevant till 2025. But this is still a must-play.
8. Hunt Showdown
Hunt Showdown is one of the most critical games out there. You’re hunting hideous monsters with your mates, surviving the odds, and keeping an eye out for other bounty hunters like you.
But what really gets to you is the level of detail in the soundscape and the gaming design. There’s rustling leaves, burning wood, and then an abomination from around the corner. You have a musket to deal with it and you sit down again to listen to the crackle of your fire.
Hunt Showdown is worth ‘living’. It’s a curated experience unlike any other. There’s no hurry, no Battle Royales circles, no timer, but there’s constant tension, staying alert to hunters and your bounty.
7. 7 Days to Die
You have 7 days to build a strong enough base and fend off a zombie horde that will hit you hard. Grow crops, build defenses, craft weapons, design a strong base and you can do it. And right here, 7 Days to Die will bring down your base without a whimper, show you where you went wrong, and make you go back to the drawing board again.
7DTD puts a lengthy timer on your mind when you start off creating an illusion of sufficient time. But you know you need to hurry and as it draws, you’ll find the urge to do more and that’s where 7DTD starts becoming a memorable tryst.
7 Days to Die lives up to it. But that’s also its limitation. After you survive a wave, hacking and slashing your way through, your next mission is to prepare for the next wave. 7DTD is a classic till a few playthroughs and then you’re done.
6. Escape From Tarkov
EFT is the best multiplayer FPS out there by a distance. It is intense, realistic, honest, and heart-thumping and makes COD look like kids with water guns.
If you haven’t played EFT yet, you must, now. The IRL-kind brutality is what we always wanted in these games but never wanted at the same time since it would be too difficult. Split-second decisions will carry too much weight. In EFT, you’re dead means you’re dead and there’s no way back.
This can easily be the best game around, by a distance. But with the hackers, and the consistent performance issues let alone bugs, EFT is too good and too bad, averaging 1 rage-broken keyboard every hour or something close to that. This is one of the best games like DayZ, miles ahead in gameplay and bugs.
5. SurrounDead
Simplicity – any survival-zombie genre game needs this in aces. Gamers who love this genre want a variety of things to do, items to collect, and gameplay to enjoy. But underneath it all, they want a simple enough system that they can learn and enjoy.
SurrounDead is another indie in this line-up and it’s above EFT. You get the basics of base-building, item collection, open-world exploration, gunplay = everything that these games have. What you also get is an easy learning curve and a consistent reward to it.
Few games can substitute grandiose for the original enjoyment of playing a game. SurrounDead does it and even though there’s a long way to go for this indie, it’s an overnight sensation and the continuous upgrades are welcomed by a growing gamer base. Multiplayer up next.
4. Miscreated
Sometimes, you must pay ode to something that was good but never worked out well enough. Miscreated played like a distant cousin of DayZ with fewer dev hours to spare. But it was fun while it lasted.
Miscreated had a lot going for it starting from a well-balanced map size, which is difficult to get done, and a simplistic items or inventory setup. Multiplayer in Miscreated was fun with the gameplay mechanics scoring true hits only.
But the graphics was sub-par and there was just not enough content to keep the base growing, which is why DayZ worked out so well. Miscreated was a time spent well and the closest like-to-like to DayZ.
3. Rust
Rust is the sandbox survival game of this era. It’s a Fortnite smoothie with Minecraft and PUBG mashed in for a gaming experience that’ll either make you never come back or drastically reduce your active sleeping hours.
Everyone starts with nothing, learns basic survival skills, builds a base, crafts weapons and defends the base, or goes into ‘offense is the best defense’ mode. But at each of these steps, you can die without any warning, out of nowhere, taken out by one bow from out of nowhere.
Rust is unforgiving.
It’s only for those who’d want the hardcore toxic gameplay mechanics for the fun of it. Progression is hard and losing all progression is harder unless one fine day you end up overlording everyone else on the server, with an auto machine gun while everyone else is throwing spears. Play it to see if it’s your cup of tea.
2. Icarus
Icarus just launched with new wings, a new DLC update and additional updates to the base game. I’m hooked. This is arguably the best-looking survival PvE game out there bar none and despite the seeming difficulties in an excruciatingly detailed gaming system, Icarus is one of the best games like DayZ you can play today.
You can solo Icarus for the fun of it although the best that this game offers is in co-op where you’ll drop with up to 7 other players in a single session. Start with basic foraging, weapon-crafting, and base-building. It is a team effort and Icarus has an excellent base-building format.
The survival part kicks in with random wildlife attacks that will happen day or night. Icarus will demand constant attention and a few hours of it at a stretch. Too far off the base and you come across valuable build items or you’re taken out by a bear or worse or both in that series.
Icarus is a must-play if you’re itching for pure PvE survival.
1. Metro: Exodus
Metro Exodus is not multiplayer like DayZ. It’s everything else though and better at it.
Rarely do we get sequels that are better than prequels. MetroE is one such rarity. Almost no other survival and zombie apocalypse game can match the gaming environment, the zombies, the consistent lack of sufficient ammo and a coagulated fear of dying at any moment like you get in this.
There’s humanity falling apart. There’s old-school gunplay and guns that don’t cause sufficient damage unless you get nasty headshots.
And every single moment you spend in the game trying to survive, you know you’re not there yet. This fleeting tension in a world that’s beautifully barren makes this a must-play even today and one of the best games like DayZ if not the best.
I’ll finish up by saying just this – DayZ is probably the best multiplayer survival game with post-apocalyptic and zombie elements. Only Icarus comes close since it has multiplayer co-op. EFT is better to play but not zombie enough and not should it be. Only Metro: Exodus can outdo DayZ. But it doesn’t have co-op and unless that matters, check out these games like Dark and Darker.
