The development is slow, there will be hackers and bugs. Restarts will come at unfortunate times...

But besides that this game is actually really good, it's still in "alpha" but there is enough content there for it to be playable. DayZ is a unique experience that you should not miss out on, that being said you should definetly check out the mod as well. But the standalone is nothing to dismiss simply because of slow development.

EDIT: It's been years now, and DayZ is finally at a point where I'm quite satisfied with the way it is. Of course it needs much more, vehicles can be buggy, we don't have helicopters yet, etc. But they did one thing that made the game 1000x better. They let the community MOD! Now, you can play snow maps, visit traders, build bases, use more guns, and so much. The game is enjoyable, as long as your computer can run it. So my advice to the people who are tired of the base game, would be to give modded servers a try.

The development is slow, there will be hackers and bugs. Restarts will come at unfortunate times... But besides that this game is actually really good, it's still in "alpha" but there is enough content there for it to be playable. DayZ is a unique experience that you should not miss out on, that being said you should definetly check out the mod as well. But the standalone is nothing to dismiss simply because of slow development. EDIT: It's been years now, and DayZ is finally at a point where I'm quite satisfied with the way it is. Of course it needs much more, vehicles can be buggy, we don't have helicopters yet, etc. But they did one thing that made the game 1000x better. They let the community MOD! Now, you can play snow maps, visit traders, build bases, use more guns, and so much. The game is enjoyable, as long as your computer can run it. So my advice to the people who are tired of the base game, would be to give modded servers a try.