7 Days to Die

- Reviewed on PS4 -

7 Days to Die released on December 13th, 2013.

Developed by The Fun Pimps, 7 Days to Die is a combination of many genres, including Role-Playing, Survival Horror, Tower Defense, and more. 

7 Days to Die will put your skills to the test when your dropped into a sandbox world environment. 

This review WILL have Major Spoilers so keep that in mind before continuing...

Starting right from the beginning, the main menu's music tells you everything you need to know about how freighting this experience will be. 

In my honest opinion, the music and ambience are the absolute best examples of how a post-apocalyptic world (game) should be / feel.

Not only is the ambience and music, the highlight of the game's features, but 7 Days to Die also has an enormous focus on inventory management. 

Right as you start your world, and your rules are set (more on that later), you are put randomly into your sandbox terrain where the survival experience begins.

It can definitely be overwhelming when you first play 7 Days to Die (at least for me).

Luckily, The Fun Pimps put a lot of time and effort making the tips menu as helpful as possible. 

As you progress in your journey / world, you will acquire new skills and features such as Treasure Hunting, Mining, Scavenging, and more. Once these are acquired, the tips menu will open up a new tab for you to read all about that new skill.

This is crucial as leveling up your skills, eventually grants you skill points to spend in the same menu system (in-game). 

Gathering (scavenging) ingredients such as wood, stone, and plant fiber(s) is your gateway to survival. 

The crafting menu is where most of your time will be and in this same menu, you can see your characters stats such as Dehydration, Hunger, Temperature, and more. 

Keeping these stats in check 24/7 is crucial to survival, and even though you can respawn after death, each death will decrease your wellness by 10 points.

Wellness, in 7 Days to Die, is the maximum number of Health (red bar) and Stamina (blue bar) your character has. 

You can increase your wellness by eating well (like cooked food), drinking well (like purified water), and overall, keeping your character healthy in this cruel world. 

Speaking of cruel world, 7 Days to Die's enemies are a plenty. 

Not only are there your normal zombies, but also, you can stumble across fire zombies, cop zombies, dog zombies, and more unique zombies, such as spider zombies, who crawl up structures.  

These enemies will cause various damage effects such as stunning, killing, and / or infecting you. 

You can find / create health items, like antibiotics, vitamins, bandages, and more to keep the fight going, which is half the fun in 7 Days to Die. 

Multiplayer is a great feature that seemed to be a must have with its zombie kill count, and player kill count. Although, if you prefer single player, the zombies make for a good enough enemy even with the absence of other humans. 

The only type of "humans" (as of writing this blog post) that are included in a single player game (world) are the NPC traders who occupy prebuilt settlements. 

These settlements do have a time limit, for which your allowed in, and using casino tokens, you can buy various items ranging from weapons to even health items. 

Perks can be earned or bought using skill points during your playthrough, and some perks allow for better usage (better items) out of the trading posts. 

Earlier, I mentioned the rules of setting / creating your world. These rules are considered "modded" but as long as you keep creative mode set to off, your trophies / achievements are still active.

Some rules that don't affect trophies and achievements, that you can set before creating your world, range from, how long an in-game day is (in real time), if zombies can run or not, and even to how long containers last before being restocked. 

The PS4 version (and really, all console versions) of 7 Days to Die, does have its fair share of issues. 

Upgrading and repairing items can be frustrating when using the console cursor, and swimming is by far the worst part of 7 Days to Die (to me). 

Generally, the controls for PS4 are fine, but it does feel extremely choppy at times, and the framerate (although not bad) does act up for when hordes arrive (on every seventh night). 

7 Days to Die is an amazing survival horror game. It blends in so many different game mechanics / genres so well, that it constantly can keep you interested and playing for hours at a time! 7 Days to Die is a near perfect example of a zombie, survival horror experience. 

Pros: 

    - Outstanding Ambience / Music

    - Truly Terrifying Gameplay

    - Multitude of Various Genres / Gameplay Mechanics 

    - Great Replayability

    - Multiplayer

    - Does Not Restrict Single Player Gamers

Cons:

    - Awful Swimming Controls

    - Frame Rate Drops (At Least on PS4)

    - Choppy Controls / Sensitivity

My Rating for 7 Days to Die (on PS4):

4 / 5

-----

Disclaimer

All Reviews, Ratings, Pros, Cons, and Opinions Shared on this Blog (Press A Reviews) are my (Connor Butler) own Thoughts and Feelings.