Zombies have always been the subject of countless video games. After all, bashing undead skulls, cutting off their limbs, and the thought of trying to survive an apocalypse make for an entertaining game. Just look at how many players the Left 4 Dead duology and Dead Rising have.

Many zombie-themed titles stand out from the crowd; Days Gone and DayZ are fine examples. Let’s say you’re thinking of adding both games to your backlog, but you can’t decide which one to get. Well, even if their titles are pretty similar, both games are different from each other.

Days Gone is a whole singleplayer experience while DayZ is co-op PvP

First off, DayZ is a multiplayer co-op/PvP game. In a nutshell, players are placed in a sprawling map with other players where they can scavenge for gear, look for food to try and survive, and deal with threats, ranging from other players to zombies that will attack sight. It is best played with friends because it’s pretty challenging to find new people to trust in-game. For some reason, established DayZ players made it a trend to kill everyone on sight, and most of the player-base followed suit. When your character dies, you’ll have to start over from scratch, making it a bit tedious to play.

Meanwhile, Days Gone is a full single-player experience where you get to play as Deacon St. John, a biker looking for his wife who was separated from him during the early days of the apocalypse. You don’t get to dive in with other players and instead traverse the harsh terrain of Oregon with your bike, dealing with hordes of “freakers” and murderous drifters. You’ll have to do the traditional singleplayer nuances of obtaining new skills, materials and boosting/customizing your bike.

Days Gone has a plot; DayZ makes you create your own story

DayZ is an open-ended game where there’s barely any in-game plot. Essentially, you’ll end up creating your own character’s story in a desolate wasteland full of the undead. Along with other players, you’ll decide their fate and how they interact with the world. This leads to some exciting roleplay scenarios; some players go for the pacifist route instead of killing on sight.

In contrast, Days Gone is a linear experience. As Deacon, you’ll face many of his trials and tribulations, and unfortunately, it’s not open-ended, and you don’t get to decide what his fate will be as it has been set from the start. It’s important to note it was designed as a game with multiple endings, and you can chart Deacon’s course.

Zombie hordes

Most of the time, you’ll have to deal with just individual enemies in DayZ; although there are groups, they are something you can easily deal with if you have the appropriate gear.

This aspect pales in comparison to what Days Gone provides. Hordes are called “Swarms,” and the game’s freakers move like a single unit, chasing you down in multiple directions. They number between 50-500 individuals, and you need meticulous planning, traps, and a huge amount of preparation to deal with them effectively. It also doesn’t help that they’re incredibly fast and can catch up with you unless you manage to put Deacon on his bike. Even if you have a machine gun and countless explosives, failure will always be a distinct possibility.

In addition, zombies in DayZ are what you’d call standard humanoid ones. In Days Gone, the freakers aren’t essentially “dead”; they are mutated humans with uncontrollable bloodlust. There are also some varieties, including ones built like tanks, screamers that attract other freakers and even infected bears and crows.

Survival elements

Although you can argue Days Gone is a survival game, it does not go into depth, unlike DayZ. You don’t need to feed Deacon nor have him change his attire according to the weather. Plus, any medical and health-related issues can be solved with just a bandage or medkit.

Apart from the undead, you also have to deal with the elements and the bounds of human physiology. DayZ players have to make their characters look for food and water to keep their energy up and seek shelter whenever there’s cold weather and rain. Medical issues will also arise; a wound may fester from an earlier encounter, and if you can’t find medical supplies, your character may not survive. In addition, effectively navigating around DayZ’s world will be a bit of an issue, considering you’ll have to do so via a compass and maps you’ve scraped from the environment. This is in contrast with Days Gone, where you have a bike and an almost complete feel for the surroundings, especially if you manage to locate a map lying in one of the world’s many bunkers.

Overall, Days Gone and DayZ provide totally different experiences and can cater to two different types of players. If you’re looking for something you can play on your own and is story-driven, then Days Gone is something you need to add to your backlog. Meanwhile, if you’d like a co-op and PvP game, DayZ is undoubtedly something you’d need to pick.