Image: Bohemia Interactive

DayZ was, at one time, the biggest survival sandbox on the block. An uncompromising, cutthroat multiplayer world infested with zombies. And then, between developer and publisher shenanigans, it fell from grace, dropping to under 2,000 players online at one point, according to SteamCharts. And then it bounced back. And grew. And grew. And has been massively popular for years now. Today, that resurgence continues with DayZ Badlands, the game's biggest expansion yet and a change of pace from its Eastern European roots.

As is standard for DayZ, the new expansion is designed with persistent online MMO-lite gameplay in mind, with players able to help or hinder as they see fit, building their own territory and stockpiling gear. The desert environment is even more inhospitable than the rainy, often-chilly environment of the base game, with direct sunlight potentially flattening you with new debuffs like heatstroke, and sandstorms giving you silicosis. Finding shelter and water is important, with a bunch of water sources and shelters (5000 scattered around the map, according to the devs) able to restore and fall back on between sorties.

There's also an interesting new gameplay mechanic - treasure-hunting for abandoned bunkers, which broadcast their access codes via radio, but need to be decrypted from Morse code. They've also added a bunch of systems for building and maintaining underground facilities, which are debuting with this expansion but are available in the other maps now, as the basic feature set grows.

But as this is DayZ, I think that my experience is likely going to be hunted like a dog by fully-geared-up players that find sniping newbies more fun than fighting back the undead hordes. I'd love to try the game sometime on a server run by a more cooperatively minded community, but between all of the MMOs and survival sandboxes (plus, Enshrouded just left early access today), this one might be sitting on my rainy day pile for a while. But you can be sure that you'll never have a shortage of players or servers, given that the game currently has a very respectable 35,000 online on Steam alone right now.

DayZ Badlands is out now for £22.50/$25, with a 10% launch discount until October 29th. You'll need the base version of the game, of course, which clocks in at £40/$50. And if the Middle East isn't your scene, the game's other expansion, Frostline, is set in the frozen north.