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Telltale Games may not have the Midas touch, despite all their successes, but to publish such a shoddy console release seems completely out of character for one of the most popular studios around. In fairness, this is the first game Telltale has supported beyond its own roster of story-driven adventures, but with such an eye for good quality, the decision to take 7 Days To Die under its wing just doesn't add up.

Developed by The Fun Pimps, it originally launched via Steam Early Access back in 2013 following a successful Kickstarter campaign. With half a million dollars to play with, the Dallas-based indie set about creating its own take on the burgeoning survival horror franchise. It's a genre that continues to expand even today, and getting their foot in the door early certainly helped 7 Days To Die reach its 1.5 million sales milestone.

Like The Forest, H1Z1, and non-horror games such as Rust, there's a large emphasis on crafting. Whether playing alone, with a buddy via splitscreen, or online, those first few minutes are always spent gathering resources. This can be done in a number of ways, though beating plants and trees with your bare fists seems to work just fine.

For example, to purify murky water, it can be safely boiled used a campfire and the correct materials. However, gathering these specific resources and crafting them at designated stations is where the game stops being fun. The more advanced the end product, the longer you'll spend pounding on trees, rocks, and other nodes, ticking items off an ever-growing shopping list.

For this reason alone, 7 Days To Die is incredibly hard to recommend for anyone but fans of the genre - it's a long way from the engrogging stories that having Telltale's name attached might imply. The time and effort required to reach the game's top crafting tier is pretty huge, even with four players working together in tandem. For one lone survivor, 7 Days demands an inhuman level of patience, and that's only if you can stomach its many other issues.

This ties into the game's overall presentation which, even for a budget current gen release, remarkably poor. Iron Galaxy's port is disappointingly buggy, for one thing, and the game's graphics are terribly basic, from character models to textures and lighting. Wherever you step foot in Navezgane, you'll come across some truly garish sights, especially if you dare to venture underwater. The audio is just as bad, with music and sound effects cutting in and out, failing to create a meaningful atmosphere.

Although not entirely intuitive, one of 7 Days' few merits is its transition to gamepad from mouse and keyboard. Remembering the various inputs can take time though they allow for shortcuts to certain important windows, reducing the time spent cycling through menus.

1. Works surprisingly well with a Gamepad.
2. Fun frolics to be had with friends.

1. Lifeless combat.
2. Shoddy, outdated presentation.
3. Crafting quickly becomes a grind.
4. Solo play just isn't fun.

When buddied up with three fellow survivors, there's certainly some fun to be had. However, these moments will usually stem from the hilarious situations you'll find yourselves in, enhanced by the game's dumb raft of bugs and glitches.