7 Days to Die spent a few years shambling around in alpha stages on PC, but thanks to Telltale, console players can also take part in the zombie apocalypse action. Survival is the name of the game, with nary a storyline to be found, but those who walk into it keeping in mind that the game is now not being updated on PlayStation 4 will be pleasantly surprised by the experience.
7 Days to Die has been a little rough around the edges. The graphics were far from anything to write home about, the hit detection has been iffy at times, and various glitches have cropped up now and then—sometimes disappearing as quickly as they came. Updates have rolled out somewhat frequently over the years, though—some bigger than others—and for the size and scope of the game, things have come along nicely.
7 Days to Die is a fun zombie survival outing, offering a pre-made world and randomly generated ones for players to stomp around in. Taking control of one of several characters who are dropped into a wilderness and expected to survive weather, starvation, thirst, wild animals, and of course, the living dead, there’s a Minecraft-like element to the scavenging, crafting, and building that stands strong and offers a lot creatively, which is nice for those who have found themselves in a stable position as far as survival goes. RPG-like skill trees and levels help on this front as well.
The game solves the stagnation problem many survival games face by throwing increasingly larger and smarter hordes of zombies at the player every seven days, hence the title. Most of these are the classic Romero zombie: slow, stupid, easy to lead and kill, but quite deadly in numbers. At night the zombies become smarter and faster, something seen in other games since this one’s release. Zombie animals, like dogs and bears, are always quite deadly, and various treasures and quests litter the playing field.
Besides those, there’s no story to be found, although the developers have set up various environmental tales for players to figure out—for example, one might break into a house and find a zombie locked in the basement, while a rotting corpse rests alone in the attic; perhaps one’s lover was bitten, turned, and unfortunately got their teeth on the other before they could be properly quarantined, leaving them to die alone of infection in the far reaches of the building. Of course, those afraid to venture out into the world alone can bring a friend or meet up with strangers in the game’s online or local multiplayer modes.
