7 Days to Die" 50-Hour Play Review! A classic survival craft game that has been in production release for almost 11 years!

In this article, we will provide a review of this work.

Fight the onslaught of zombies while enduring hunger and thirst

The story takes place in a world that has collapsed due to World War III. Due to the war, large numbers of zombies roam in various parts of the world. Players will seek a way to survive in the harsh world in a city called Navezgane in the U.S. state of Arizona.

Immediately after the game begins, players are thrown out into the field looking like cavemen, with only the bare minimum of equipment and items. The realistic survival element is one of the features of this game, and if left unchecked, a variety of threats will attack the player.

The first two that players face are "food value" and "moisture value. Both of these values gradually decrease over time, and as they decrease, negative effects such as reduced maximum stamina and recovery are triggered, and in the worst case, starvation is a possibility.

In order not to die, the first stage of the game is to hunt wild animals to obtain raw meat and drink water from ponds and lakes, but consuming raw meat and unpurified water can cause dysentery, which increases the rate at which food and water values decrease. However, if they do not drink or eat, they will first die, so they have to make do with raw meat and unclean water to sustain their lives, even if they are frightened of dysentery.

Therefore, until they can cook raw meat or acquire facilities to purify sewage, they must always be concerned about the possibility of disease. Even if you do get dysentery, the items needed to cure it are not readily available in the early stages of the game, and you must wait for the disease to heal itself. At the beginning, the basic rule of thumb is to earn money by completing requests at NPCs in the field and buying necessary items.

However, if you buy food and water to prevent diseases, you will soon run out of funds, and without weapons and equipment to fight zombies, you will not survive the Blood Moon Horde, which will be discussed later. When I first played the game, I was constantly plagued by dysentery as I went about my business and was finally killed by a dog I came across in a burnt forest. He somehow managed to live a paper-thin existence, enduring hunger and thirst on the fly, but four days was still his limit. The difficulty level of this work is quite high, as there are so many things to do: preparing food and water, building a base to gather more collected reserves, and building another facility in anticipation of the Blood Moon Horde.

Not only hunger and thirst are a threat, but also the zombies that roam around us. Zombies will attack you when they notice you. They are not only humanoid, but also birds, dogs, and various other types. When attacked, the zombies not only lose their strength, but also become infected at a certain rate. If left unchecked, the zombies will turn into zombies, so it is essential to treat them with honey from stumps and antibiotics that can be obtained from houses and other facilities or by trading with merchants.

In addition, zombies are activated from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. every day. During the day, slow-moving humanoid zombies will come running, making it likely that they will catch up with you and attack you. In addition, during the same hours of the day in multiples of 7, a phenomenon known as the "Blood Moon Horde" occurs, in which a large number of zombies appear out of nowhere and attack the player.

However, this game does not impose any serious penalties for dying. If you set up a server before starting the game, and if you do not modify any settings at that time, even if a player collapses, he or she will lose some of the experience gained, and will only lose some of his or her belongings on the spot. Experience can be earned again, and lost belongings can be recovered. There is no limit to the number of times a player can be resurrected, so it is possible to learn by dying many times. When resurrected, all food and water values are also restored.

Survival is difficult, but the trial-and-error required to learn the know-how to do so can be done without hesitation. Although the difficulty level of this work itself is severe, thanks to the ability to die and start over as much as you want, you will gradually get the hang of the game and be able to conquer it. In this respect, I felt that this work is well-balanced.

A sense of accomplishment as the number of things you can do increases little by little.

The environment in this work is too harsh for players, but as mentioned earlier, if you take the time to explore and continue trial and error, what you can do will gradually increase. By using a stone axe to gather materials from grass and trees, building blocks and bows for building bases can be made. Building blocks allow the player to construct a base at will, while the bow allows the player to attack zombies from a distance and kill them before they are detected by wild animals, so there is no need to worry about missing the prey.

Exploring houses and other facilities throughout the field, players can obtain medicine, ammunition, and even guns and other weapons. In addition, reading the occasional book will accumulate points based on the type of book you read, and once you reach a certain level, you will be able to make more equipment. In addition, by allocating the skill points gained as your level increases, you can gain various benefits, such as an increase in the speed of stamina recovery and an increase in the attack power of certain weapons.

As you become better equipped, you will be able to ride a motorcycle on long trips, attack approaching zombies unilaterally with handguns and machine guns, and blow up hordes of zombies with bombs. The number of tactics that can be taken increases as well, such as attaching huge bladed fans to bases to intercept zombies, or building defense lines by burying mines that explode when enemies get close to them.

However, there is a long way to go before you have enough equipment and bases. There are only one or two books that can be obtained by exploring an entire house or facility to increase the number of items that can be built, and there are more than 40 items to which skill points can be allocated when leveling up, each with a level from 1 to 10. Although it takes time for the enhanced status and abilities to take effect in a way that the player can really feel, the sense of accomplishment gained in the process of improving the inconvenience of life is very rewarding.

Zombies hide in houses and facilities and attack nearby players.

In this review, I played for about 50 hours. As a result, I am now able to collect and purify water on my own, have a full set of military-grade armor, collect materials with an iron axe and shovel instead of stone, and fight enemies with machine guns and rifles. Although there may be individual differences, it is estimated to take about 20 hours to be able to obtain food and water stably and to search with powerful equipment such as iron.

A high degree of freedom to decide the conditions for clearing the site yourself.

Although the objective is to survive the Blood Moon Horde, it is one of the goals presented to the player. Even if you achieve it, it does not mean that it will be the ending. Therefore, it is up to the player to decide what constitutes completion.

Of course, surviving the Blood Moon Horde, which is the main goal, is fine, or making full use of building blocks to create the base of operations you envision. You can create as many conditions as you like to complete the game, such as traversing a vast field, building an elevated road so that you can easily pass through rugged terrain, or improving your weapons so that you can easily annihilate the zombies that tormented you in the early stages of the game. In other words, you can enjoy an endless life of survival.

The building process is especially deep, and time passes quickly just by changing the placement of pillars and the shape of the base, while considering the distance that blocks can be placed without support.

For those who like to play games with a clear goal, such as defeating the last boss to clear the game, this title may be too much for them. On the other hand, those who can set their own goals and stick to them will be able to enjoy the game for dozens or hundreds of hours.

Fighting zombies while taking care of food and water values is very difficult, at least in the beginning. However, the sense of accomplishment you get as you progress through combat and exploration, as you read books to increase the number of things you can make, as you level up to strengthen your character, and as you play more and more slowly, the more you can do, is indescribable. The fact that you can revive and start over as many times as you like is also very kind. We recommend this title to those who like survival games, those who are looking for a challenging game, and beginners who are interested in such games.

Title Information

7 Days to Die

Release date: July 26, 2024

Price: 4,900 yen (tax included)

Maker：The Fun Pimps, Tell Tale Games

Supported platforms* PS5/Xbox Series X|S/PC (Steam, Microsoft Store) *PS5 not released in Japan

Genre: Horror

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Natsumu Uchiyoshi

Freelance writer with about 10 years of active experience. After graduating from a technical college, experienced writing articles for a major game magazine and creating strategy books for an editorial production company. After working for a weekly magazine for a long time and rewriting press releases, he recently started writing for Akiba Research Institute and other web-based magazines. Basically an omnivore, he plays everything from RPGs to action, simulations, and FPS.