Previous Next

It's clunky, ugly and requires a ton of patience to enjoy, but it's hard to deny the appeal of 7 Days To DieonPlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Its survival-horror crafting simulation is something console players have wanted for years, and its incredibly deep gameplay systems are fun and rewarding for those who invest time in learning them. But this PC to console port is anything but competent.

First thing's first:7 Days To Dieonconsole is based off an earlier Alpha build. It's still an Early Accessgame on PC via Steam, but the price-tag and retail case for the game doesn't say so. Knowing its PC roots, I prepared myself for a port with less content and features.What I was unprepared for and what console-only players will likely be disappointed by is the terrifying sight of low-res muddied textures, reduced view distance and heavy fog surrounding the world: much scarier than the bloodthirsty zombies which inhabit it: and the instability and game-breaking bugs which plague the game even past its first few patches.

But let's talk about the strengths of the package, first. The core gameplay in 7 Days To Die will be appealing and familiar to anyone who enjoys voxel-based crafting mechanics, open-world exploration and sandbox-approaches to gaming: similar togames likeArk: Survival Evolved,Minecraft, andTerarria. The gameis played from thefirst-person perspective, and players can interact with the world via crafting, destroying, looting and manipulating the environment and its objects, all attached to working physics system which keeps things in check, such as unstable buildings. The unique hook here is the zombie hordes and the increasedemphasis on desperate scavenging and fortification of safe bases to survive the world's undead threats.

LikeMinecraft, the two main game modes: Survival and Creative: offer different experiences for different moods and tastes. Survival represents the basic survival-horror-crafting package players expect, and creative is essentially 'cheat mode', offering players limitless materials and customisation. You can go solo or host a multiplayer game, but be aware there are no dedicated servers yet: so progress can only be made when all players and the host of the world are online.With the main draw of the console port release being full 2-player split-screen support and up to 4-player online co-op or PVP,the experience is definitely best with friends.

Things kick off when youspawn in either a randomly generated world or the preset world of Navezgane with one simple goal: survive (or mess around, if in Creative). A shorttutorialintroduces players to the many basics: how to find and scavenge plant fibers, food, stone, wood, how to eat, drink and sleep to keep your character's needs in check, how to build basic structures and how to craft items necessary for survival: before letting you loose into the world to make your own objectives and your own priorities.

Zombies are relentless in 7 Days To Die.Theirdesire and tenacity to kill you is reminiscent of fast-moving zombies seen in other media like 28 Days Later and the 2004Dawn of the Dead remake: they can climb walls, dig under your fortifications, destroy walls, push down doors and even run at you during thenight, which proves a particularly a challenge given they also get increased strength with their speed compared to their sluggish behaviour in during day-time.

All crafting is done within a menu-based system, displaying a short description of the item and what materials are needed to craft it. The menu is a little clunky, no thanks to the slow moving cursorhaving to navigate the ton of sub-categories of items you can build while worrying if a zombie attacks you during. Within the menus is also a skills screen displaying abilitiesunlocked, a map and a character screen displaying your current inventory and tool-belt, active effects, food, water and well-ness points and other stats such as how many zombies and players you've killed. Character customisation is severely limited compared to the PC release as you can only pick from a small range of pre-made characters (with low-quality models): at the very least, you can equip them with clothing you craft but it's still a shame this feature didn't make it over from the PC version.

But it's the other documented technical faults: zombies clipping into the environment, save files corrupting upon connecting with multiplayer servers, game refusing to play at all after equipping a hat on a certain character: which limitedmy ability to play this game in time for review. It baffled me to experience such an unpolished game receive a retail release, and even with the latest patch fixing up general stability, there's plenty of bugs and glitches remaining that will (and should) turn away potential buyers from paying full-price.

7 Days To DieonPlayStation 4 and Xbox One is a sub-par port of an unfinished PC game. The gameplay systems which drive this survival-horror open-world crafting experience are as super deep as the original PC version, but the constant bugs, crashes, glitches and other technical let-downs may deter a large portion of home console players from becoming dedicated fans.

Primary Format: Playstation 4 Game Genre: Strategy Rating: MA15+ Game Developer: Iron Galaxy Game Publisher: Telltale Games

A super-deep zombie survival crafting simulator ruined by a sub-par PC-to-console port effort, resulting in endless bugs and glitches and an ugly game which struggles to run competently.