7 Days to Die Review (Calfmax)
You can definitely enjoy the game for it is, I'm just massively disappointed with the direction it took after so many years and prefer many older aspects that were phased out for things that did not interest me. I do actually like the game, and it's nostalgic to me, but that's kind of what upsets me: So much untapped potential turned into a sea of "mid" :(
7 Days to Die constantly reworks things like whole mechanics into different versions, with very mixed results in terms of feedback and of actual game-loop improvement. The only thing that I can say constantly improved was the graphic quality.
Every version adds like one or two interesting things after a very long period of waiting, but also generally changes some other preexisting mechanics in ways that can be frustrating. The glaring lack of optimization is also quite frustrating, especially after more than a decade of game dev. To me, the reason is because although they DO try to optimize it, that effort becomes unimpressive because it's followed by some graphical change that makes the game more demanding and then it sort of equals out in my experience. PC issue, I know, but is it so wrong to expect an old game with more than a decade of development to run okay?
It feels like, over time, the game shifted from the older crafting-based base builder with exploration, to the newer looter-shooter quest-based type progression with some block building.
Except, at least to me, even the old POI's exploration felt better than the new ones, since now they are based on zombies just hiding at every little crevice, wardrobe and the occasional falling floor dropping you on a deadly basement. This sounds cool, but it gets stale when it happens in almost every single POI that isn't a random shack in the woods. I do like that you can explore them both by a specific route and have a little adventure, or just build/break/dig your way into things and just do your thing if you feel like it (this way you dont have to deal with constant zombie ambushes of the intended path!).
Also, crafting is much more loot and quest reward gated nowadays compared to the linear gather, learn and craft progression you could take if you wanted back in older versions. That craft heavy playstyle doesn't work so well now, and I dislike this >:(
when it comes to the horde night gameplay, you always had a bit both styles of gameplay: making a base or adapting a structure, but as the zombies eventually were coded to counter most things you could do to be safe from them without giving many alternatives for base designs or interaction, the base building part became very challenging to do as they also just kind of counter most of what you can do and build, besides some specific little AI exploits. It quickly stops being worth to make your own house just because of how much it costs to build and to maintain.
You can still build very secure bases to survive hordes... as long as you watch a horde base tutorial on youtube and construct an uglyass abomination of a structure that makes the AI constantly fall down slippery geometry like railing or similar stuff because they think that it's more efficient than breaking blocks in the specific circunstance the base puts them in. Other than that the base building experience has become: Too many Zombies? get more gun. strong zombie? get strong gun. zombie breaks blocks? Fortify literally every single inch of space because they KNOW where the weaknesses are and WILL absolutely cram 16 zombies in a 2x2 space to efficiently dig a small hole in your wall. God forbid if you build uphill without strong floors or dig all the way to the depth limit; they know. They always know. They will dig to you on the seventh day.
Listen, I don't have a problem with the fact that the zombies can jump blocks up to you (although when they climb vertical ladders it looks very silly since you both don't have animations and just a s c e n d up like gmod);
Nor do I have problem with them breaking blocks to get to you, this is actually the cool part, very scary and makes you build more than just a floating square in the sky.
My issue just comes from how they counter most thing WAY too well without giving you alternatives that aren't either statchecking them with more firepower and block strength for defense... Or just fortifying a different premade building every horde night because it's honestly very time and resource consuming to repair things after a big attack. (it's fine at first, but can get stale to spend a whole IRL hour toiling away at your base with right click.
I dislike how noninteractive base defense and general horde combat is.
There is SOME variation to zombies, since the bloodmoon enemy roster is: zombie, fast zombie dog, fat zombie that spits acid in your face and explodes on death, spider zombie that can climb, vulture zombie that flies and pecks your head from above, and the late-game zombie equivalent of a Minecraft creeper.
There is also a few enemies and animals you just find exploring, like the immense fucking zombie boar you can find in a POI, the fucking zombie bears (scary as it sounds), the local wildlife, and a zombie that screams and attracts (spawns) daytime hordes. The screamer can make things go bad real fast.
That is all pretty cool, but what sucks is that the AI is always the same. The weak early game zombies are just as intelligent as the late-game ones, which feels like a big missed opportunity to add a lot of engaging stuff to the game.
Don't worry though, the human zombies do get stronger... if you get many levels and live long enough, eventually they even reach their ultimate form: They become green! (scary!).
You will often enter combat, but it will always be the same. There is variety in enemies, be it shooting up at the vulture, dodging the spit of the big guy that explodes on death and killing the other guy the explodes on death and wants to grief you, or missing the zombie dog and proceeding to shit your pants because GOD DAMN THEY ARE FAST. But even then, you just... shoot them all, with a gun... or punch them if you want to...
I guess I just wanted to have more creative options for building and dealing with enemies, having do change strategies and adapt, but it's just: shoot/hit head. Run if danger. If big danger, use blocks to either make a little minecraft pillar to regen stamina and sprint for your life before they knock it down, or just pole up a building and chill for a while (so long as no roof zombies/vultures spook you).
On the plus side, 7DTD has many mods that mix up the gameplay or even fully convert it. The game also has some bulti-in options to customize your experience like game difficulty and zombie parameters.
You can also disable bloodmoons, the 7th night horde where they spawn until daytime and just turbo march (or sprint) towards you with ruthless efficiency and engineering omniscience. Add some mods like wandering zombies and that changes the game loop enough to be quite refreshing (besides the item progression, that'll still suck >:C)
Additionally, this game morphed so much during the years that you can roll back to old alphas and get a completely different game vibe, which is kind of cool. Also, the older versions can run MUCH better than the current version, in case your PC is poopy but you are determined to play it... And I don't blame you, the specific niche 7DTD fills is quite unique. This makes the game very unforgettable for me, since it scratches an itch that other games don't, even if I'm dissatisfied with how it shifted away from made it so fun for me.
Overall, temper your expectations for any further updates, enjoy the game for what it already is (or was, if you use old versions) and grab some mods or friends! (or both, but I've yet to find friends that want to play it for more than 5 hours, let alone mod the thing).
Thanks for reading, I've wanted to get this out of my chest!