In 2013 7 Days to die was released in it’s first alpha stage of development, since then it has been through a further 19 major alpha updates and many smaller patches. The developers The Fun Pimps have consistently added new content to it over the years, always working to make it a better game and to improve the enjoyment for the players.
7 Days to Die is a survival horde crafting game, which is a mouthful but to break it down, you are a survivor of the nuclear apocalypse, the world has been left an irradiated crater all except for the area of Navesgane, you will have to scavenge to survive. As you move through the empty towns you soon realise there is a bigger threat than starvation, the previous occupants of the towns and cities have all been turned into zombies, so to add to the aspect of trying to avoid death by starvation and exposure you will need to be quick witted and stealthy to avoid the undead.
Once you have found food and water you will need to find shelter, which you can either take refuge in one of the buildings (after clearing out the current zombified residents) or you can strike out and build your own. Using the Voxel based building aspect you can construct a simple shelter in minutes, but this is when the game becomes interesting because when the sun goes down the zombies become faster and more aggressive, during the daytime they will shamble around but at night they become sprinting menaces, breaking down your doors or smashing through the walls.
Another aspect of this game is the RPG elements they have added recently, as your character levels up from doing different things like killing zombies and scavenging supplies, you will find that you now have a list of skills that you can invest your newly acquired skill points in, now will come the decision what gameplay style do you have? are you a sniper killing from a distance or do you like to get up close and personal with a sledgehammer? you can customize and change the skills to suit your character, using the skill list you can unlock new recipes and increase your survival chances.
Once you have built a basic shelter the next task that will be essential is to build defenses to make sure your survival won’t be a short lived, you will probably start to become confident in your survival. Having armed your self and while still being careful you will be able to explore buildings and live to tell the tale, this is when 7 Days to Die lives up to it’s name.
On the night of day 7 you will immediately be aware something is wrong, the sky will turn blood red and a storm will start with lighting and thunder announcing the beginning of the blood moon, the sound of a directionless scream will begin a night of continuous attacks by wave after wave of zombies some types that you have never seen before, from the spider zombie that will leap at you and can climb over any walls that you have constructed, to the infected police officer who will vomit acid at you and if they get too close to you will explode. If you can fight and survive the whole night you will welcome the comforting sight of dawn breaking as the hordes of the undead will abate.
But that is not the end, as the longer you play the stronger the zombies become and the harder it will be to stay alive, every subsequent 7th day you will have to contend with another blood moon with stronger enemies to contend with, but using you ingenuity by building stronger fortifications and defenses, and your will to survive you may make it another day.
This is what I love about this game, it has a unique ability to constantly challenge you, so many other survival games will challenge you until you have acquired the most powerful weapons or built the strongest fortifications but with 7 Days to Die every day is a new fight for survival. The difficulty is always escalating to keep the game a challenge.
