Game Engine

Survival Elements

Dayz, Dead Z might be a better name. This game will kill you, over and over and over until you rage quit or figure out how to live.  What will kill you , well everything all the time, and then there are other players.

Food, yes you will immediately need to find food on a regular basis.

Water, and not just water but fresh clean water 

Heat, you can be effected by heat, but is not much of  a problem as long as you don’t dance in your campfire.

Cold is miserable and you will be cold all the time and have to manage it.

Status effects, there are many many status effects, Everything from the common cold to Salmonellosis. There are just as many injuries from a burn to  cuts and scrapes, broken bones, bleeding and even overeating is a problem. If you are looking for a real life problem management simulator this is going to be close. 

Also noteworthy, when you die you restart in a random location so until you learn the map whatever you had on you will be dropped and not recoverable. 

You will die a lot, you probably already have. 

Base Building 

Dayz has base building and building reinforcement mechanics, it doesn’t have the material selections of most games like this, it is modeled toward accuracy and in real life building a base out of other peoples leftovers take time. 

Crafting

Dayz has crafting, it can be difficult to get a grasp on because it doesn’t use your standard blueprint formula. You will need to craft a bunch, to repair clothes and armor and make bandages plus all of the other things normally found in these games. Most items need a tool for example to make rags you need a knife. This alone can lead to your death if you haven’t found clean clothes to make bandages out of. 

Looting

There are various containers that will be looted along with your standard interior furnishing items. Many items are simply laying on counters or the floors and of course the less fortunate will drop loot as well.