The release of the zombie survivalist 7 Days to Die is a big and significant event for many, deserving of a nomination in the spirit of “The latest release from early access.”. The game appeared in Early Access back in 2013 and only 11 years later it reached version 1.0. All this time, apparently, it was in an “alpha” state: all major updates were called that way – Alpha number such and such. The authors also approached the release as carefully as possible, talking only about approximate dates – they say, sometime in June. As a result, the historical event happened on June 24.

Stock up on resources and time

Events 7 Days to Die take place somewhere in Arizona in 2034, in the midst of a catastrophic pandemic that is claiming millions of lives around the world. The cities were filled with the living dead, and atomic bombs had already been dropped on many of them.

We’re just trying to survive in the middle of it all. The whole game is described by the meme “I may dig, I may not dig”. You have to dig far and wide, wide and deep, sometimes very deep – both to extract resources and treasures, and to ensure your own safety. And believe me, it’s worth it, so it’s better to dig anyway.

Both in the early version and in the release version 7 Days to Die stands out for two fundamental points. The first is that digging and extracting resources, cutting down trees, and chopping stones here is long and tedious. And this is mainly necessary to rebuild and strengthen your shelter. The process of its construction is also difficult and long. Here the authors remained true to themselves and did not look back at more modern and player-friendly representatives of the genre like Enshrouded, where in the first hours you can build yourself a nice village and drive a couple of specialists there.

Dawn of the Living Dead during the Blood Moon

And all because – and this is the second fundamental point in the game – once a week real hell breaks out here. All those infected with the zombie virus reach their maximum strength on the seventh day. Therefore, at the end of each game week we are faced with a very serious test – the so-called Blood Moon rises.

First, lightning strikes, the clouds turn bloody, then a bloody fog descends again, visibility deteriorates sharply. At 22:00 a siren sounds and strong zombies start running out at you from all sides. Up to four dead people appear per second, there can be a maximum of two dozen of them, and the higher your level, the stronger they are.

Zombies know where you are, see perfectly and never get tired – they pursue you to the end, no matter where you are. And if you try to get away from them in transport, then wild animals and monstrous-looking birds will start attacking and slowing you down. And so – until the morning, when the dead stop running and turn into walking again.

You can, of course, get smart, climb the tallest skyscrapers or dig deep, very deep. You can turn into A-Train from the TV series "Boys" – inject yourself with steroids, gain effects or pieces of equipment that increase your speed in order to quickly run away from zombies, and then shoot them. But these are all unreliable methods.

It could all end quickly like this. After death, you lose all items from your inventory, but you can return for them at any time.

The most effective way is to build a shelter. Moreover, this must be done correctly and in the right place. Some build fortified houses on supports rising above the lake, others dig long and deep tunnels, install steel hatches, and cover it all with traps and turrets. And so on – there are a lot of options.

The main thing is to remember that 7 Days to Die uses voxel technology, which makes it possible to construct and destroy buildings. This is also actively used by zombies, who are capable of destroying almost any building. Especially if they are poorly designed – it is important to install columns and walls correctly – if they are a weak point, they will be destroyed faster, and the entire building can collapse with them.

Books and magazines against zombies

The whole game actually boils down to the fact that we are preparing for the Blood Moon in order to survive it and not receive a penalty to experience if we die. There are very flexible settings here – you can adjust the frequency of the Blood Moon or even turn it off completely or remove the penalty when a character dies. But it’s better to play the way the authors intended or even complicate your life – it’s more interesting.

To prepare and create a reliable shelter, you need to collect resources, loot, hunt, craft useful items – on the move or at workstations and workbenches, as well as in forges. There are simply a huge number of varieties of resources – even paper and bones will be used.

There is a long list of what we can create. To craft simpler items, it is enough to have initial resources; in other cases, recipes, skills and workbenches may be required. You can make robotic turrets and various types of transport, including a motorcycle and even a helicopter, also known as a gyroplane.

Reading books and magazines will also help – the former unlock permanent skills, the latter increase the quality of the items created, and the skills associated with them increase the chance of getting the corresponding loot. In general, there are many different skills for almost all occasions (more precisely, survival). They are divided into groups that relate to key characteristics such as strength, agility and intelligence. Plus, a separate group is allocated for manufacturing skills and skills unlocked by reading books.

For almost every sneeze in the game we get experience. There are also tasks for six merchants, for which we are also given “exp”. But still, gaining experience and gaining new levels that give skill points is not a quick process at all. In addition, there are many skills in each category, and they are also divided into separate thematic skills. For example, in the “Fortitude” category there is a group of life-supporting skills, and there is the “Hunter” skill, which allows you to hunt more efficiently and collect more meat, bones and skin from animals. So, it has five more levels.

How scary it is to live..

So it will take a huge amount of time to study everything and reach the maximum level of 300. Meanwhile, zombies will not do you any favors right from the start, especially if you foolishly set the difficulty level to “Warrior” or higher (there are six in total).

IN 7 Days to Die many biomes – forest, snow, wasteland, desert, scorched earth. And each is full of large and small settlements, themed areas and points of interest, where you need to search everything in search of useful items. But in almost every house and in open areas there are monsters attacking you from different directions. The higher the level of the location (1–5 stars), the more dangerous the enemies, but there is also more all kinds of loot there. Plus, the chance of finding something rare increases – for example, parts of armor for making equipment sets.

Then more advanced types of dead people appear. Some of them spit acid, banshees scream and call for other creatures, crawlers attack from the grass and crawl into places where ordinary enemies will not go, and spiders, on the contrary, can climb higher.

Add to this the fragility of the character himself. He needs food and water (unless he depends on sleep), he can get dysentery if he drinks dirty water or eats something wrong. And the blows of zombies can stun, blind, injure, and this will affect various indicators. Antibiotics, splints for fractures and rather rare drugs will help.

In the rain, the character gets wet and freezes, so he is forced to dress warmly and warm himself by the fire – this is especially true in the winter biome. But in the wastelands and desert, on the contrary, we are forced to run almost naked. Character loses stamina faster and moves slower if carrying too much load. And all items, including weapons, can break.

In such conditions, it seems better www.nonukcasinosites.co.uk/ to survive with friends – the game supports co-op for up to 16 people. It’s really more interesting and fun, but it’s not a fact that it’s easier. The danger, including during the Blood Moon, increases in proportion to the number of players on the server.

Crafting and loot come first

In the release version 7 Days to Die the difficulty has even increased. The authors not only updated the enemy models, making them a little more diverse, but also added health points to many of them. They also made the horde’s behavior more consistent and dangerous.

At the same time, the developers reduced the influence of traders. There are more quests from the “Bring/Dig up Supplies” series (now 10 for each huckster), and completing each one goes towards the merchant’s reputation – and as it increases, new tasks open up for us, giving us more experience and money. But now you can’t buy many rare items, resources and weapons from them. This is done so that players are more involved in crafting and loot, that is, exploring locations where, accordingly, the chance of finding valuables has increased.

But the merchants themselves have become more talkative and periodically share lore. Also, each of them is tied to their own biome – they are sequentially sent to another colleague as you progress on their quests. And now there will be no situations when trader Joel from one region sends you to the same Joel in another.

All traders have been completely re-voiced – 1,200 unique lines were recorded for them. True, not all of them have been translated into Russian.

The developers have also added as many as 16 new sets of light, medium and heavy armor, distributed by specialization. They basically changed the principle of creating armor, added modules that can be installed in headgear, but most importantly, they allowed the crafting of equipment of the highest, sixth level. True, this requires legendary parts, and finding them, even taking into account the increased chance of dropping rarities, is very difficult.

The authors did not forget about newcomers. At the start, the new system of achievements/challenges immediately catches your eye. Completing anything, even a simple one, from the series “Create a torch”, “Cut up an animal carcass”, gives a certain amount of experience. This, of course, is a great help – as is the opportunity to build buildings on asphalt.

Also 7 Days to Die prettier in appearance – not as much as I would like, but overall looks nicer. This is especially true for animation and effects during explosions and dismemberment. The most important thing is that optimization has become better, and random generation of the world is faster. This is despite the fact that cities have become larger.

In version 1.0 many new locations, zones and points of interest have appeared, including the fifth level. Some of them, like the Minotaur Hotel and Theater, are truly amazing. This is generally one of the main arguments 7 Days to Die — all important locations are made in detail and with high quality in terms of design.

What’s next?

Of course, the authors still have a lot to improve and add. For now they call version 1.0 experimental – a “stable” build will be released at the end of July.

I would like to see new types of zombies, and not just old friends in new clothes (as happened with the jailer). Many animal models remain the same. And obviously something needs to be done with melee combat – while with firearms everything is more or less normal, then fights using melee weapons look as primitive as possible.

Finally, the developers admitted that at the time of release in version 1.0 there are several critical and a dozen serious bugs. We can only hope that they will fix everything by the release of the stable version at the end of July, when 7 Days to Die will be available on all platforms.

In version 1.0 also rebalanced loot distribution at different stages of the game to make progression smoother.

In any case, the fact that after 11 years such a large and complex game finally made it to release deserves respect. In an environment where younger, more comfortable and attractive competitors for modern audiences are constantly coming out, 7 Days to Die managed to survive and remained one of the main representatives of the genre – not the most convenient and beautiful, but fascinating and in many ways unique.

Pros: complex, deep and interesting survival mechanics; many opportunities for shelter construction; variety of locations and regions; many correct innovations were added in the release version; the game looks better; optimization has become better.

Cons: primitive melee combat; the game may seem too slow and stuffy; there are quite a lot of bugs even in the release version; graphics still look outdated.

7 Days To Die

Best comments

I really like the fact that each building is, in fact, a road with obstacles to caches in which valuable loot can be hidden
Here you see a building completely boarded up, but a street lamp illuminates the passage to the basement, through which you can enter the building, be it residential, industrial, a store, or even a bunker for the military, scientists, or some rich people (each house has a degree of complexity)
Going down to the basement, you notice landmarks placed by the developers where you need to move next, an open door, a flickering torch, footprints, etc.n.
On the way to the cache, you come across zombies who are sleeping peacefully or waiting for you in ambush, ready to jump out at you from literally all the cracks, there is also the possibility of getting caught on a rotten floor, which will send you to the beginning of such a “dungeon”
At the end, a strong crowd of dead people will await you, but the reward, depending on the complexity of the “dungeon”, will be more valuable
And then you get to the end… and then there’s a safe, a strong, large one, or a military case with a lock, and then you either open it with master keys or hammer it for about 10 minutes to unlock it.

Where are the markings??

The main thing is to convince the developers of this, otherwise they claim the opposite. And don’t phrases about Duke Cassador or Noah immerse us more in the lore of the game??

To be honest, it sounds like a big emergency that you have to “lend” to.

You’re kind of aggressive. All complaints can be expressed calmly.

The text is written normally, as for me, and I also played, if anything.

Good review. But still, for me the main feature of the game is absolute interactivity. Any object, building, any surface can be destroyed or changed. This is something that no other game with a realistic style has.

Now, putting my hand on my heart, this is in some sense brilliant.

Yes. 6 days to die x)

And this mechanic, that you get to the final loot and pick at it for 10 minutes, is perhaps the only thing that saddens me in this game. This is especially painful at the beginning, when there are few master keys, you can’t craft them, and you don’t have the picking skill

well, in fact, it is still in early access release, because the launch comes from the experimental branch)
Therefore, by the release-release, something will be corrected

The game is good, but there are a few things… 1 Shitty testers version 1.0 and asshole streamers who did not report errors in the released version.2 With every major update, developers seem to forget and remove a sea of ​​delicious mechanics, features, items and NPCs..3 It’s like a summary of the first and second – Heat and cold were crossed out and forgotten or they screwed up and forgot to insert?))

That’s the news! I remember playing this toy with the guys in 2016. Among themselves they called it “croissant” (after the sweet of the same name).

It was fun to play with a group of people until they built a cheating house, when zombies entered the door and quickly fell onto the stakes and were destroyed. All we had to do was quickly craft new traps.

After that I lost interest. It felt like the game had been completed. Cars and all kinds of jokes available at that time had already been assembled. It’s interesting how relevant the game is now

This is already a prequel, it turns out)

Based on the bugs, I can say that the player (the host, if MP) turns off the overload at night, if you are greedy, then you will not be an easy prey at night, because.To. 22:00 and you are a world-class sprinter 🙂 I can also add that a set for lvl 6 things is not so rare (with 100% loot you can consistently get 1 piece from a couple of houses) on the 12th day of the game, and there are already about 20 sets (p. With. lucky seeker is pumped up to 5/5, the huntsman set is on)

Regarding the “rare” things from the merchant – motorcycle and 4×4 parts, workbenches, chemical laboratories, solar panels are rarely on sale, but there are. I assembled the jeep on the 10th day, money is everything 🙂

Regarding the difficulty – it’s strange that the “invasion eliminated” on lvl 2 quests spawns cops and radioactive zombies, the stage of the game is too low for such zombies.

It also took many times longer to progress through quests. In Alpha 21, playing in multiplayer together with a teammate, you complete quests – both of them counted, the progression was fast, after a couple of days you could already get lvl 5 quests, but now it feels like completing your specific quests counts… Before the first bike, 3-4 days had to take lvl 1 quests.

I don’t know if this is a bug or a feature, but previously it was impossible to place more than one “pouch” in 1 piece of armor, but now it is possible, but provided that they are different (single, double and triple)

I noticed that there are no lvl 6 items on sale, most likely there won’t be, forcing the player to make them himself.

I stopped seeing different sets in loot or I’m just unlucky (in A21 I opened them every now and then and sold out everything)

Optimization is good, but sometimes it plays a cruel joke – several times I came across a situation where if you quickly “break into” a building, glance around and not seeing anyone, you move on – zombies with a slight delay of a couple of seconds can spawn in front of your nose, behind your back, right before your eyes… Don’t run into buildings, enter gradually, don’t repeat my mistakes 🙂

The locations have become more saturated, but for the most part – with all sorts of rubbish, in principle, as it was in A21 🙂

There is a book on removing overload at night, so this is not a bug.

It was always possible to build on asphalt; there were problems with markings on asphalt, which are not always available on roads.
And can I please have these phrases that immerse us in the lore?

I pointed out mistakes without making it personal. You can simply say “thank you for finding the inaccuracies” and that’s all. I haven’t read the articles section for a long time and am used to the level of text in blogs. So I’m sorry, I need to be more lenient.