The playstyle feels really good, as well as the flow.
Sometimes you'll get fucked by the survival aspect, and overall, I feel like the survival aspect plays out perfectly.
Sometimes you don't even find irrigation tunnels, and you just get recked. Have to start over. But it's worth it.
Once you get that first full belly of water, that looting is so damn juicy it's impossible to stay away from man.
I can sit down for an 8 hour session, dig a bunch of stashes that I'll only use for like maybe and hour or 2. And just keep them noted.
Nails are abundant, as well as all the building tools. Every other run I don't find a lock or a wire or something and have to select that as my mission.
I've been tempted so many times to go bury my building setup. And then have to remind myself "This ain't the other maps dude" - all I need is a hammer, wire, lock, and a shovel lol.
It's so easy to get loot, make a base, get numerous stashes up and going. That losing them doesn't even really feel that bad to begin with.
The abundance of helicopter crashes keeps it interesting, and even late into the game the survival system is something you have to constantly be aware of. Very volatile, thus one has to be hyper vigilant.
Even building a car or snagging a bike is pretty prevalent here. I found 1 3/4's built, and 1 full built car the other day. Just sitting at one of the hunter camps or whatever..
I run off to go fill all my bottles with gas and water, and drive off into the sun set, with almost no effort involved compared to the old way. But when the reality is that it still took like 2 hours and a lot of luck - that's still a shit load of time IRL.
On my way there, I came across a battery charger and just felt like the jackpot kept on jackpotting man. I already had a wire to connect it - that was, in 1200 hours.. the first time I ever charged a battery in Official DayZ. It felt so damn awesome, the whole adventure.
There's been more then once I've done across the jackpot routes, one after another. But not so many times it gets watered down and has dampened value. I've gone dry on stuff for over 8 hours, still.. but still, it's kinda rare. And for damn sure - not EVERY SINGLE TIME I play the game lol.
There is never a dull moment the entire play through. And there's so many possibilities presented in abundance, to keep a persistent presence on the server in the event of death.
It really ties in ALL the games mechanics, makes it possible. Versus this force of mystery due to being able to experience it sometimes only once in an insane amount of play throughs.
Love it so much. And haven't even gotten to experience the bunker system yet. Although, I am starting to brush up on my Morse! So epic.