Located on the fictional African island known as Isla Duala lie the remnants of one great country that split in to two after civil war broke out. The oil and diamond rich country of Molatia and the beautiful country of Afrene fought for years, however crossing the great dividing river between them to battle is the least of their concerns now as their fallen rise.
This 100km2 island is one of the latest maps to support Arma II zombie sandbox mod, DayZ. While zombies may now be the biggest threat, old grudges just never seem to die and players will have to battle the living and the dead as they cross the jungles and dusty plains.
The island features many towns, and two capitols which feature slum areas from the previous inhabitants - but the key point of interest on the island will be the military installations left over from the wars fought before the outbreak and the chaos.
Generally located in flat areas with little cover, players will discover that while loot here is valuable, it can quickly become a survivor's nightmare. The military have risen from the dead, now infesting the bases from every angle and players as far as the horizon can spot you moving between each of the barracks. A pattern which repeats through most of the map, leaving players with little to no cover to keep them safe our out of sight.
It's an interesting challenge provided for each player, having to utilize every small bump and hill to maneuver throughout the map unseen. A wise player will use the topography and good timing to come down on their enemy and kill them without them ever realizing how someone managed to sneak up on them in an almost completely open and flat area.
There is a lot of running between locations and loot, a lot of the map is very open and empty - giving an authentic safari feel. The downside is those who don't like to do a lot of running before they find a vehicle may be turned off by this map, the upside is that the map offers great FPS boosts due to the low object count. It's also the perfect setting for anyone who ever wondered what it would be like to survive the apocalypse in Africa.
Isla Duala is widely considered one of the most played Arma II custom maps of all time, and has been featured in several PC gaming magazines. It's definitely a very well designed map, another masterpiece from IceBreakr, however it doesn't make the top of my list for DayZ maps. While the map can be fun and interesting for a while, the towns just weren't interesting enough to hold my attention - although do check out the capitols.
To play DayZ Isla Duala, I recommend using DayZ Commander to keep the map up-to-date and to easily find servers to play on. For more information about DayZ, visit our game page. If you're looking for more DayZ maps and reviews, check out our Ultimate DayZ Map List.
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