Upon starting Survival, the first thing you'll notice is that you enter Matchmaking with other players, you get the choice of PVP or PVE, I chose the latter, simply for less frustration, although PVP might get just a bit MORE intense. It takes a while but then you board a helicopter in your Hazmat gear, before you finally hit the cold, hard, concrete, waking up with your arm punctured by a real dirty piece of metal, thus infecting yourself with the virus. The storm is in full effect and has taken over the city, draw distance is horrible, it's nighttime and generally something you would see in a late 2015 NYC anyway

The start is somewhere on the map where you have no time limit yet. You can read notes where the mode is explained and how it works. 1-2 loot places for crafting before you have to go outside. You are now in the city, message appearing "17 agents left", a number that is bound to get lower by the time you move on. You search for the usual crafting materials, only this time, you get cold, at the start, this is really quick, so avoiding combat is the best choice equipped with only a green pistol. I managed to kill a bunch of guys and get some mats, so I had the DZ Mask pretty quick. I started on the bottom right so I moved a bit in a zig zag variation but still had the goal of reaching the right side of the DZ, agents kept dying at this point, some of them were so far away so I didn't even try to revive them. I kept moving through the cold night, finding the occasional fireplace to warm up at or a shelter. Checking hideouts regularly to see if I could craft anything of use. At this point hunger and thirst has hit and the loot has gotten more scarce. I got by though and understood the mechanics a ton better now.

Water shows any nearby loot locations and helps the character to avoid suffering from negative effects. I also used the occasional medicine and painkiller, which I had a lot of by the time I got halfway to the DZ. One delays the timer, the other stops it, this lasts a very long time if you use it right. Eventually I tried to kill two bad guys before venturing into the DZ because I didn't know what to expect, I nearly died and had hoped to improve my gear even more. Now the dark part begins, the same feeling you get when you go to the DZ for the first time. You now have to find the cure. Completely undergeared I knew I needed to use my classic "solo DZ" play and had to step it up even more now. By that time I had "Pulse" so I could scan the area quick and avoid any contact. I haven't had any player encounter except for one at the hideout, I didn't group up either because they didn't want to it seems. I was at the library in the DZ and by a scan I saw a named enemy around, level 30, three guys. I wasn't looking for this so I went around them, eventually found more purple and red guys which I avoided too. Entered the hideout and saw many more crafting possibilities, yellow guns, mods, everything you needed (level 163), including the flare gun you need to get out. But I needed Div Tech and yellow crafting mats. So I had to go, outside I heard explosions and went there, only to find a player facing an NPC but ultimately getting ganked, but I managed to revive him and he continued his own journey from there.

I had to find the cure, I saw many opportunities for Div tech and chests, but all of them ridden with yellow enemies, so I was left with scouting the streets to get what I needed, needless to say I found a lot (caches), just not what I needed (mats). Once I got closer and more into the area of the high level enemies I heard someone calling in a helicopter but suddenly something in the distance popped up, a yellow beam. I ran over there only to find a certain weird silence and two massive loot beams with tons of gear. A yellow gun, some more yellow gear, mods, everything at my disposal. I took it and geared up with this (also went down the subway for more loot, after I had already crafted my mask before the DZ, good preparation), I found my way to the cure, with a lot of bad guys in the parking lot, but I somehow ninja'd past them and got away safely without them noticing. Just like in the old DZ.

I went back to the extraction place that was shown on the map, only to realize this is where I got my upgraded gear from, two beams, obviously by players. So upon calling in the helicopter by flare, I was doubtful and ran outside of the area to see what happens. I already called a helicopter a good 10 minutes before that, I knew what to expect. It's one guy, the guy has a wolf badge on him, is quick, can use ANY abilities, heals up and wants to kill your ass. By the time he got closer, I already had my PP-19 and LMG M60 ready to gank him, he hit me a bit but not enough, so I could kill him. Happy and still very nervous, I waited for the helicopter to arrive, land and entered. Mission complete.

Now the scoring began:

Score: 8825
1st Player in the Chopper (since I was the only one left... by the time my story unfolded)
Never downed
Never unconscious
Hunter dead

Now I already saw what I was going to have on me, my DZ bag was full of caches, in the end I had 10! Caches, 2 Weapon Caches, the rest was gear stuff.

All 256, some of them really useful and great improvements. Now on to the quick and dirty reviews:

FAMAS -> 900 RPM of awesome, brutal
256 L86 -> didn't like the 229 variant of this, but now it hits pretty hard for pinpoint accuracy
got a USC machinegun as well, seems nice, although it felt underwhelming in comparision
Rhino snub pistol -> hard hitter, got it before Survival mode
Deadeye and Striker gear sets -> combination of the two for bullet stability and regular stability, increasing the awesome levels of my old guns and the new ones. I now have several key guns and sets for various playstyles.
Underground may have gotten new parts, I played it once and had the impression there was a new one in the mix.

tl;dr

It may become repetitive, but the first play is awesome, dark, gritty, claustrophobic and intensive. It's exactly what I loved about the game's setting and story in the first place.