7 Days To Die Review

This PC sleeper hit has finally arrived on consoles thanks to Telltale Games, but is 7 Days to Die even worth your attention?

Developer: The Fun Pimps

Publisher: Telltale Publishing

Platforms: PC, PS4 (Version reviewed), Xbox One

Release Date: June 28th, 2016

At first glance, you might think 7 Days to Die was another cheaply made Minecraft rip-off shamelessly riding on the popularity of the survival-crafting genre that Notch’s indie hit originally created. Indeed, 7 Days to Die’s ugly visuals are pretty unacceptable for today’s standards on consoles, but behind the unattractive surface lies a deep and surprisingly compelling experience that reveals why Telltale decided to publish the game in the first place.

Let’s first get this out of the way; 7 Days to Die looks horrendous. Textures are blurry, object pop-ins are frequent and character models exhibit the animation range of a window store mannequin. On top of this, the framerate on the PlayStation 4 is questionable at best, and the game will straight up freeze for a few seconds every time it auto-saves (which is pretty often). The already unaccommodating UI menus haven’t been translated with particular finesse to the consoles either, and navigating them with the analog sticks is a constantly frustrating experience that shouldn’t be as awkward as it currently is. Combat also feels icky, whether you’re repeatedly bashing a zombie in with a club or figuring out how exactly those damn bow and arrows are meant to work.

To be honest, it’s almost like developer The Fun Pimps intentionally avoided even bothering with the visuals of 7 Days to Die, because they were too busy focusing on the survival aspect of the game. Even the artistic aesthetic of the procedurally-generated worlds looks just drab, mediocre and uninspired, though some of the sound design works effectively to contrast the day and night cycles. Still, the game’s technical problems are a serious shortcoming, especially when these issues directly inhibit the quality your playtime. That said, 7 Days to Die is almost the inverse experience of a game like Star Wars Battlefront, in that it is all substance, and no style.

The Fun Pimps are unashamed in borrowing their inspiration from Minecraft, since 7 Days to Die takes the survival aspect of that game and uses it as the basis for their entire experience. You can break down or collect anything and everything in the world for resources – trees, rocks, birds’ nests, cars, mailboxes, toilets – which are then used to craft tools and objects for survival. There’s an impressive variety of items you can build, and the game (which places you in the open world from the very beginning) allows you the freedom to prioritize whichever you want, though there is a series of initial quests which act as tutorial for those who are unsure how to begin.

You could set up a series of spike traps to defend yourself from the various enemies of the world (zombies, dogs, hornets etc), or you could work on your culinary skills and get cooking atop a fireplace to ensure you have enough food to stay alive (your character has various needs related to hunger, hydration, stamina and the like). Alternatively, you could find a dilapidated house to renovate into a more secure bunker, or you could locate a good spot and build a completely new fort from the ground up.

And security is the name of the game here, because 7 Days to Die doesn’t hold back on the promise of its title. The walking dead will turn into the running dead come night time, and will even hunt you down in packs every few days, tearing your infrastructure apart in the process. It is in moments like this, where you find yourself surrounded on all fronts in a slowly degrading house, fending off the undead with up to three other players, in which 7 Days to Die feels most alive.

Speaking of other players, 7 Days to Die provides plenty of options for multiplayer, whether you want to host a public server of play local split-screen co-op with a friend. The only unfortunate limitation is the missing option to play split-screen while in a multiplayer game, which is a disappointing omission for those who wish to play with friends both in the same room and online simultaneously. All the same, 7 Days to Die is an inherently better experience with friends, not half because it makes it easier to laugh together at the game’s bugs and technical glitches rather than get understandably annoyed by yourself.

Next: Deadlight: Director's Cut Review

As for replay value, 7 Days to Die contains a number of features to keep you engaged while surviving the wasteland. You can level up and upgrade your character through an extensive skill tree system, and the game seems to always have something new and unexpected around the corner (even if that something is a zombie bear that’s out to kill you). There’s no story or any hidden secrets as awesome as The Nether, but you certainly won’t find yourself lacking in something to do, even if it takes a while to figure it out.

A copy of this game was provided to App Trigger for the purpose of this review. All scores are ranked out of 10, with .5 increments. Click here to learn more about our Review Policy.