ayZ first began as a mod that quickly blew up thanks to its combat system and intense survival horror mechanics. It sort of cultivated a cult following early on and immediately took the gaming community by storm. The developers took note and decided to convert the mod to a separate game.
DayZ brings you into a world abounding with zombies. You play a survivor and constantly crave food, water, and other essentials. Your primary aim is to kill, attack, and even avoid zombies to stay alive.
For starters, you begin wearing a simple layer of outfits, a rag-like cloth, and a road flare. Here you begin your quest to investigate places, find supplies, and kill zombies you come across. Weapons are also available so you can easily finish off the enemy.
Today, we go over other games that play out like DayZ and require you to stay alive in a hostile world. So, if you’re into this kind of genre, then you should try out the games below. Below is a list of games like DayZ that we recommend.
You can enjoy these games on PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC, Android, Mac, iPhone, or online.
1. Dead Frontier
Published in 2008 by Creaky Corpse, Dead Frontier is an amazing browser-based co-op horror survival video game. The game requires you to sign up for a free gaming account through which you can interact with other gamers and access other functions provided by the creators.
An extensive character-building screen follows where you have to build your character from the ground up. You’re thrown into Fairview City, which is teeming with zombies and you’re required to team up with other players and fight these monsters.
You must choose an occupation for your character to earn resources so you can buy your character better arms and armor. In the game, these are known as “drugs”, so tread carefully.
Dead Frontier is a DayZ-like game you’ll fall in love with and it’s absolutely free to play, so by all means give it a try. You’ve got nothing to lose!
2. Dead Rising 3
The third major game in the Dead Rising series, Dead Rising 3 was created by Capcom and released by the same company in conjunction with Microsoft in 2013 for Microsoft Windows and Xbox One systems.
The game boasts an expansive campaign that’s playable by two players in a co-op environment and takes place in an open wide world that’s thought to be bigger than the combination of both the first and second Dead Rising game.
Dead Rising 3 has a very similar setting to DayZ’s, but the gameplay isn’t actually similar. As such, DayZ fans won’t feel out of place in the world of Dead Rising 3. For the most part, the gameplay centers around traveling through the open universe in search of arms and upgrades that’ll help you survive longer.
The game also makes use of the Kinect feature in which zombies and their artificial intelligence is made more alert to the player’s state and if the player makes any loud noises, it’ll cause zombies to react.
3. State of Decay
This is a stealth-centered action-adventure horror survival game created in 2013 by Undead Labs. It was released by Microsoft Studios the same year. The main idea behind the State of Decay is to stay alive by recruiting folks to your hometown and using resources wisely while building coalitions with other characters.
You can either stick to the game’s actual storyline or decide to carry out certain activities that will guarantee your people’s survival. At different stages in the State of Decay, you’ll get the option to coopt survivors from the world outside. Here, there are two bars—one stands for the relationship meter which shows whether you can bring in people and the other bar shows whether you’ll be able to control them.
Moreover, State of Decay also gives you the option to establish a base wherever you want and then take charge of the town’s resources so as to expand and stay alive.
4. Dead Island
This is an open-world horror survival game created by Techland and released by Deep Silver. The game thrusts you into a zombie-infested world and you must hang on to dear life by creating items that you’ll use to further update your weapons.
But for almost half the game, you won’t have to use your weapons that much as Dead Island focuses on close-range fighting, where you focus on melee weapons. Moreover, you must maintain a stamina bar and each move you make in the game drains the stamina bar.
To resume your activities, you must lay low and quiet for quite a while to renew your stamina. You can upgrade your weapons to boost their stats and you can also mod most weapons to suit your needs.
Dead Island comes highly recommended for fans of horror survival games and especially fans of DayZ.
5. Contagion
In Contagion, zombies roam all over the place looking to kill you. Going through various maps, you come across these zombies but your goal is to protect your torso from being bitten and getting infected. After selecting one of three game modes, you may launch your gaming in the multiplayer setting.
Make strategies and join up with other gamers to hunt together and cut off all those dirty heads. The game modes here help you avoid boredom by trying out various settings and fighting zombies with fellow players. As you progress, you continue to identify more and more of these zombies and survive easily.
6. Fallen Earth
In Fallen Earth, you’re thrown into a wasteland with no life, but the settings all seem to have outstanding graphics. To access Fallen Earth, you must buy it, but it’s worth your every penny thanks to the stunning environments all around and the ultimate survival category. Here, you also have access to vehicles if you don’t want to explore on foot.
Gameplay begins with getting really impressive character customizations and getting in the MMORPG world. Your progress allows you to update your stats in order to get additional abilities and skills. You’re also allowed to take up weapons and craft.
7. The Abandoned
You end up in the abandoned world as a result of a helicopter crash that throws you into a zombie-infested world. The basic tutorial teaches you the essentials of everything to help you find your path.
In addition, you need to store essential supplies like fire materials, food, and weapons to protect yourself from danger.
The gameplay assigns you the goal of survival based on days and every day you complete a new task. At the end of the day, you get what you’ve achieved, such as killed monsters, wood collected, crafted items, and other items in a summary form.
8. Killing Floor
Killing Floor is about slaying a bunch of zombies that could kill you if you aren’t careful. There are various maps to check out and hunt the zombies down as well as find supplies and use them to survive. Maps include various locations, including abandoned buildings, farmland, and streets, so you won’t get bored roaming the same kind of environment.
The Killing Floor gameplay lets you select your difficulty level in each map where you may control the power of foes until you’re able to play like a professional. Also, you can generate currency and spend it on arms and armor to protect yourself.
9. Nether
Nether is a slightly fast-paced survival game, so you must make decisions quickly and use them on opponents. While the map isn’t large, the enemy is quick, so you should take control over those smart AIs. Your enemies are known as Nethers and can eliminate you within seconds.
During gameplay, you must manage your supplies like water, food, and weapons. If you don’t do so, you won’t survive a minute since Nethers are always on the lookout for weak characters. But if you accomplish your mission, you’ll be rewarded and be able to improve yourself so you can survive.
10. Don’t Starve
Don’t Starve boasts wonderful gameplay that unfolds in a dark setting, and there are various known and strange creatures always waiting to eliminate you. The motive of this game is to stay alive by gathering resources and crafting things to aid your survival.
In this game, the incredible thing is the background music and visuals that play depending on the situation. Don’t Starve is available on various platforms and it continuously keeps improving. There are creepy creatures and monsters, but you must stand up to all of these. You’ll depend on your tools to protect you from your enemies.
11. Unturned
Unturned lets you explore the map to uncover what’s there while watching your back for foes. So you have to manage supplies as you protect yourself from zombies. On the map, you pass through several locations like farmlands, towns, and others in which you come across the operation.
For a multiplayer gameplay experience, you can play with friends. Unturned sometimes plays out like Minecraft where players look for supplies and food while slaying other creatures. There are also non-playing characters that allow you to take on quests and traverse those dead zones filled with zombies.
12. Rust
This game takes place in an open world with unlimited exploration and there’s a great deal of adventure. In that world, you have to collect food and other vital supplies and then craft items. There are also animals waiting to slay you at any time, so you have to look after your loot and character.
You can join up with any player and enjoy the game since it doesn’t limit you to killing enemies but there are also areas to explore. The more progress you make, the more advanced the materials you find to slay the enemy.
13. Dying Light
In Dying City, a large city awaits you in which you can show off your jumping, climbing, and other skills while cutting zombies into pieces. Dying light has a role-playing feel to it as you play a zombie slayer by identifying infested areas and getting rid of zombies instantly. This is quite a challenge since zombies are all over the place and one mistake could put you in serious danger.
Gameplay lets you perform parkour in order to escape zombies and take a tour of the city. There’s a day to night cycle that helps make the game thrilling and you can enjoy it on your own and in a multiplayer mode.
14. Scum
Scum is an amazingly realistic survival game in which you must craft things to help you stay alive in a vast open world. In the game, you play a prisoner with nothing but clothes on and a vast open world.
Scum is very realistic and you must maintain a well-balanced diet that includes all the essential proteins and vitamins that maintain your type of body. Based on your nutritional plan, you can get slim or fat, which will affect your endurance and the overall gameplay, so be sure to collect and keep food whenever you get it.
Scum’s looting system is also very diverse, allowing you to craft and create anything to your taste. But it’s not all absolute realism because there are some funny elements to the gameplay thanks to these realistic environments.
Scum requires you to also get a handle on your bowel movements and if you don’t discharge your waste within a specific timeframe, your character will begin discharging it automatically, completely unaware that you’re being pursued by a giant mech.
Scum is one of the best realistic survival games you can play and to be honest, the wealth of its gameplay options will leave you quite overwhelmed in the beginning. Oh, and did you know that the game also contains zombies?
15. Project Zomboid
This open-world horror survival game was created and released by The Indie Stone. Set in quarantined land known as Knox County, you’re required to manage things such as hunger, mental stability, pain, and fatigue to have the best chance of survival.
In a typical zombie survival style, you must steal supplies while evading zombies of varying difficulties and speeds. You can play either sandbox or survival mode, the former of which lets you change mechanics such as the number of zombies, weather conditions, and so on.
16. The Forest
As the name suggests, The Forest takes place in the forest. In this game, you’ve just survived an aircraft crash with your son. Now you’re facing the challenge of being hunted down by a bunch of cannibals…or you’re doing likewise to them!
The enemies in The Forest range from downright tactical to purely bloodthirsty and some smarter enemies will execute a siege or stalk you home. But who’s actually hunting who? Be sure to play this game to find out.
17. Hurtworld
Hurtworld contains a bit more depth than your usual zombie outbreak survival if you’re looking for something similar to DayZ.
The weapon selection is very impressive and you can decide to stick with your simple weapons or look deep inside expansive environments for new items to craft. Here, map control is the focus and it’s widely accepted that it’s designed for the most diehard of players.
18. Hunt Showdown
While survival horror games like DayZ above have you simply trying to protect yourself from some sort of zombie infestation, Hunt Showdown, as implied by the name, lets you play a bounty hunter who goes out of his way to hunt down a pair of the game’s four bosses to get a bounty.
With the help of Dark Sight, you’ll be able to find monsters and kill as many as you can. You can work on your own or team up with a couple of other players to look for clues about the location of the monster in two maps.
19. Days Gone
This is an action-adventure open-world game that takes place in an unforgiving wilderness two years following a devastating worldwide pandemic. You assume the role of a bounty hunter and drifter named Deacon St. John, who rides on the broken road, trying to survive while looking for reasons to live.
Days Gone is basically all about survivors as well as what defines them as human: betrayal, madness, loss, desperation, brotherhood, friendship, love, regret, and of course, hope! The game’s about how survivors find reasons to live even when facing such a huge tragedy. Never give up hope!
20. Rising World
This is an open-world survival sandbox game with haphazardly created, completely destructible environments.
Beginning with the most basic tools, you gather resources to live in the wilderness. Change your world to build a gigantic castle or one of the largest ever cities, or just let your imagination run wild. If creativity is a problem, just join up with your pals and seek their assistance.
Rising World is one procedurally created world, with completely textured landscapes, more than 200 building materials, plenty of tools, and other things to help you build or wreck your world with abandon.
FAQs About Best Games Like DayZ
Question: Are There Games Like DayZ?
Answer: Yes, of course, there are many games like DayZ. One of them is Rust. This game puts an unprepared player in a world in which being prepared for any situation is important for survival. You begin the game with hardly any resources and you have to face the wildlife and other players in an open-world environment to survive.
Question: What’s the Most Lifelike Survival Game?
Answer: The most realistic survival games include Among Trees, No Man’s Sky, UnReal World, Rust, 7 Days to Live, Pathologic, Minecraft, Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead, Kenshi, Starbound, Frostpunk, Project Zomboid, and Oxygen Not Included.
Question: Which Games is Better: DayZ or Rust?
Answer: DayZ is deeper, boasts more mechanics, is more difficult, and focuses more on survival. Rust boasts better building and focuses more on-base raiding. Rust also has smoother movement and is easier to control, while DayZ’s movement is a little harder but it’s worth buying.
Question: Is DayZ Worth Buying?
Answer: Yes, DayZ is totally worth buying, especially if you have pals that play it. It’s also cheap and you can have an utterly immersive experience on role-playing servers compared to regular servers.
Question: Is DayZ Cross-platform?
Answer: While DayZ runs on various gaming platforms, it doesn’t support cross-platform play.
Try Out These Best Games Like DayZ Today!
These are some of the best games that share similar characteristics with DayZ. Some mainly revolve around survival, some take place in a sprawling open-world environment, and others pit the player against hordes of zombies or otherwise monstrous foes.
It’s our hope that we’ve helped you decide on what game to play next when you feel like playing games where your survival depends on collecting resources, battling zombies, and taking on other gamers in post-apocalyptic wastelands.
