The Ultimate Zombie Survival Game Already Exists and it's 7 Days to Die.
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Getting Started
7 Days to Die is one of those games that falls by the wayside. It's a case of being trapped in it's alpha phase of development for eight years with other games like Rust and Ark Survival Evolved surpassing it in popularity and player base. It's not like The Fun Pimps have missed any items in the survival game checklist. What you have in 7 Days to Die runs from basic survival to advanced crafting and even RPG style quests and perks. The game takes place in the zombie apocalypse so the ever addictive cycle of "what's in the box" style looting rivals even games like Fallout 4, at least in my opinion. Overlooking 7 Days to Die means overlooking a lot, so let me get into detail.Before you can play a game like Minecraft, you first need to either pick a procedurally generated world or generate one from scratch, 7 Days to Die is no different. You've got a handful of pre-generated worlds to choose from along with the option to construct one from scratch. There's a bit of meta game going on here, you could give yourself an advantage by playing on a map you've already explored once, or fly by the seat of your pants and be thrown into an unforgiving, unexplored dangers and loot. If you're new to the game, it won't make much difference, but the option to come back to the same map later is nice. Either way, there's still more options to look at before diving into the game itself.
The pre-game customization continues into a suite of options, some of them
being literal game-changers. All manner of options ranging from the day-cycle
length to the frequency or absence 7th day hordes do more than just shift the
difficulty from noob friendly to nightmare. You could theoretically speed up
the day cycle and xp modifier, turning 7 Days to Die into a faster, action
focused game. I'd recommend playing the game on vanilla settings, but changing
the zombie run-speed from "Nightmare" to walk during night time is advised.
Dozens of zombies sprinting to your position on sundown is too unforgiving,
even for me. Surviving will be hard enough when you first start the
game.
Aside from the zombies there are plenty of hazards to contend with in the apocalyptic lands of Navezgame. You've got the typical survival game issue of food. For some reason it takes 20,000 calories per day to fight zombies, so staying fed will rely on hunting, looting and farming to sate your player's insatiable hunger. Sadly you can't eat zombies, so the long-term strategy to surviving will require farming. Not the Stardew Valley kind farming, but a more crude simplified form of it. Due to crop growth speeds and low yields you'll cherish every discarded crop seed like a gold nugget. The issue of staying fed remains a pretty big issue throughout the game, though starvation won't be the only danger to contend with.
Bears and wolves are more afraid of you than you are afraid of them. This may be the case in Minecraft, but in 7 Days to Die these woodland creatures are coldblooded killers. Slaying the more feisty fauna still offers the chance to harvest some meat, leather and animal fat. The same goes for chickens and rabbits, they're more flight than fight, but yield less resources per murder. You really do start at the cave-man end of technology early on, debunking the mainstream view that veganism would have been a viable alternative for your undeveloped ancestors.
Eating their raw meat can lead to yet another way to lose your health. There are both infections and poisoning that can afflict your character in 7 Days to Die. Both of these effects will slowly increase in severity until you perish of the ill effects, that is, if you can't get your hands on some antibiotics or vitamins to counteract and cure the infections and poisons that come from battling in the wilderness and drinking suspiciously murky water. The need to boil water before drinking it is fair enough, but you'll still find yourself concussed, lacerated and infected if you're going to fight your way through the game.
On your various raids to gain more loot and supplies, you'll be traversing the environment of 7 Days to Die. It's voxel based and dangerous, with it's semi-physics based buildings, fall damage and other environmental hazards. Falling trees can't kill you like in Valheim, but your mine can cave-in on you if you're don't reinforce it with some support structures. Falling far enough can cause a sprained leg or worse. This is all pretty harsh in a post apocalyptic world where there's no workers comp. Poking around other structures can have you stepping onto spike traps, land mines, or falling through rotten floorboards. Just getting around is dangerous and by the end of the week it'd be nice to relax in your well crafted base, although...
The zombie circus has come to town and they've brought the freakshow with them. You've got spitters, crawlers, tanks and animals that while not being trained to perform have the animal instinct attack you and your survival hideout. Simply having walls and closed doors won't be enough, as enemies without projectile attacks will climb or even fly to meet the player on their level. Even the most generic zombies will pile up at a wall and whack on it until it starts to crumble. With enough damage they can bring entire structures down. There's a need for anti-zombie architecture in 7 Days to Die and it plays into the crafting system that this game has to offer.
So you'll be either fortifying an old house or building your own. Lining it with wooden spikes and right-click upgrading key blocks will make all the difference come horde night. You'll notice right away that if you're really building that there's always a shortage of something. Stones, sand, clay, wood, iron, etc. There's a bunch of materials that need to be harvested with the sweat of your brow and the tools at your disposal. Sure there's chainsaws and augers to speed things up, but getting your hands on one isn't always guaranteed. You'll spend a good deal of the game doing things the old fashioned way, and I do mean old-fashioned.
Aside from questing and treasure maps, 7 Days to Die has a fully featured leveling system with base stats and perks. Once you've built, looted, or killed the right amount of things, you get a skill point to spend. The usual suspects of Strength, perception, vitality and others make their appearance, each having a load of associated perks that unlock new skills, buffs, abilities and crafting recipes. Leveling up is a huge part of the game and so is choosing the right abilities. It's all part of that scramble to keep ahead of the zombies hordes and learn the skills to survive the escalating threats of the apocalypse.
Aside from the zombies there are plenty of hazards to contend with in the apocalyptic lands of Navezgame. You've got the typical survival game issue of food. For some reason it takes 20,000 calories per day to fight zombies, so staying fed will rely on hunting, looting and farming to sate your player's insatiable hunger. Sadly you can't eat zombies, so the long-term strategy to surviving will require farming. Not the Stardew Valley kind farming, but a more crude simplified form of it. Due to crop growth speeds and low yields you'll cherish every discarded crop seed like a gold nugget. The issue of staying fed remains a pretty big issue throughout the game, though starvation won't be the only danger to contend with.
Surviving the Elements
Another main element of survival is surviving the elements. 7 Days to Die has weather conditions for each time of day and area, so it's possible to be freezing cold at night or be dying heat exhaustion during arduous daytime labor. The clothing and armor system affect temperature, but things like holding a torch or standing near a fire/forge can warm you up too. It's a nicely immersible way to handle the unforgiving environmental elements. Not that hot and cold are the only things in the world that can ruin your loot run.Bears and wolves are more afraid of you than you are afraid of them. This may be the case in Minecraft, but in 7 Days to Die these woodland creatures are coldblooded killers. Slaying the more feisty fauna still offers the chance to harvest some meat, leather and animal fat. The same goes for chickens and rabbits, they're more flight than fight, but yield less resources per murder. You really do start at the cave-man end of technology early on, debunking the mainstream view that veganism would have been a viable alternative for your undeveloped ancestors.
Eating their raw meat can lead to yet another way to lose your health. There are both infections and poisoning that can afflict your character in 7 Days to Die. Both of these effects will slowly increase in severity until you perish of the ill effects, that is, if you can't get your hands on some antibiotics or vitamins to counteract and cure the infections and poisons that come from battling in the wilderness and drinking suspiciously murky water. The need to boil water before drinking it is fair enough, but you'll still find yourself concussed, lacerated and infected if you're going to fight your way through the game.
On your various raids to gain more loot and supplies, you'll be traversing the environment of 7 Days to Die. It's voxel based and dangerous, with it's semi-physics based buildings, fall damage and other environmental hazards. Falling trees can't kill you like in Valheim, but your mine can cave-in on you if you're don't reinforce it with some support structures. Falling far enough can cause a sprained leg or worse. This is all pretty harsh in a post apocalyptic world where there's no workers comp. Poking around other structures can have you stepping onto spike traps, land mines, or falling through rotten floorboards. Just getting around is dangerous and by the end of the week it'd be nice to relax in your well crafted base, although...
What's in a Name
7 Days to Die is a zombie horde game. You've got some random zombie spawns and sleepers occupying the ruined houses of the landscape, but they're just sleeping off the 7th day horde hangover. Every seven days is the blood moon horde night and it's complete chaos. Waves of zombies will spawn until daybreak while red-tinged lighting sets the scene. It's an escalating threat that worsens over time, so the game has a kind of frantic strategy to match the arms race between yourself and the zombie hordes. Escalation doesn't just come from bigger hordes of monsters to contend with, but a variety of apocalyptic horrors.The zombie circus has come to town and they've brought the freakshow with them. You've got spitters, crawlers, tanks and animals that while not being trained to perform have the animal instinct attack you and your survival hideout. Simply having walls and closed doors won't be enough, as enemies without projectile attacks will climb or even fly to meet the player on their level. Even the most generic zombies will pile up at a wall and whack on it until it starts to crumble. With enough damage they can bring entire structures down. There's a need for anti-zombie architecture in 7 Days to Die and it plays into the crafting system that this game has to offer.
Crafting and Tools
When it comes to finding shelter from the elements, you've got the choice to either squat in an abandoned structure or build your own. After clearing out a large concrete structure you could hide inside. It's already reinforced walls and use the lights, containers and furniture to save time and crafting. There's no perfect base, but keep in mind that the larger a base is, the more security holes there will be to patch later on. Making a base from scratch will feel a lot more badass, though it's not always practical early on, as it will take a lot of raw materials just to get started. Collecting those materials takes a lot more sweat and tears than you'd expect for a survival game.So you'll be either fortifying an old house or building your own. Lining it with wooden spikes and right-click upgrading key blocks will make all the difference come horde night. You'll notice right away that if you're really building that there's always a shortage of something. Stones, sand, clay, wood, iron, etc. There's a bunch of materials that need to be harvested with the sweat of your brow and the tools at your disposal. Sure there's chainsaws and augers to speed things up, but getting your hands on one isn't always guaranteed. You'll spend a good deal of the game doing things the old fashioned way, and I do mean old-fashioned.
Climbing the tech tree starts in the stone age and slowly opens up more
options for tools and weapons. You'll find that it takes more than just
collecting some scrap iron to make your first Forged Iron pick, but once you
do it's a huge milestone. Just like going from a bow and arrow to the
home-made blunderbuss weapon. All of this DIY zombie survival is great, yet
it's a slow grind that can be limiting tech wise. No matter how many things
you unlock there's always a chance to find something better in the
wasteland, so there's an addictive risk-reward relationship to be had, so
put on your scrap iron pants. It's time to go looting.
In an interview with the creators of 7 Days to Die Joel Heunink admitted that he was somewhat inspired by the Fallout series when outlining the initial design to this zombie horde game. I've played Fallout 4 and can saw without a doubt that the looting in 7 Days to Die is far more satisfying in this department. It's a case of the things you find actually being the difference between life and death. That one jar of water or half-eaten sandwich could save you. A schematic could hold the secrets to crafting some game-changing item or just be a profitable item to trade. The looting in 7 Days to Die impacts gameplay far more than other games that just have you hoarding things you don't need or want.
If you didn't quite find enough supplies in your latest looting excursion, then there's a care packaged drop every 3 days by default. A plane noisily flies overhead and drops a crate full of goodies to stave off infection and starvation. I actually don't know if it was Dying Light or 7 Days to Die that did this first. Regardless of the origin, this crate-drop is a much needed lifeline with randomized loot and supplies, if that weren't enough there's one last place to find that hard to find item you need.
Looting
One mans junk is another man's treasure, that's the motto of any apocalypse survivor or homeless person. The burning wreckage of post apocalyptic north America is an absolute goldmine for all kinds of loot, from life saving to game-changing. You can't just waltz into an abandoned shopping mall and steal a katana, there's some hazards to contend with. Of course there are more than a few zombies to kill, they lie dormant and spring to life once you've wandered deep enough into a structure that there's no easy escape. Clearing a building of enemies while searching every nook and cranny for valuable loot turns 7 Days to Die into a dungeon crawling looter type game, and that's a good thing.In an interview with the creators of 7 Days to Die Joel Heunink admitted that he was somewhat inspired by the Fallout series when outlining the initial design to this zombie horde game. I've played Fallout 4 and can saw without a doubt that the looting in 7 Days to Die is far more satisfying in this department. It's a case of the things you find actually being the difference between life and death. That one jar of water or half-eaten sandwich could save you. A schematic could hold the secrets to crafting some game-changing item or just be a profitable item to trade. The looting in 7 Days to Die impacts gameplay far more than other games that just have you hoarding things you don't need or want.
If you didn't quite find enough supplies in your latest looting excursion, then there's a care packaged drop every 3 days by default. A plane noisily flies overhead and drops a crate full of goodies to stave off infection and starvation. I actually don't know if it was Dying Light or 7 Days to Die that did this first. Regardless of the origin, this crate-drop is a much needed lifeline with randomized loot and supplies, if that weren't enough there's one last place to find that hard to find item you need.
Post Apocalyptic Capitalist RPG
For everything else, there's Trader Joel. 7 Days to Die spawns at least one trader on the game's map and points you to it in the starting quest. The trading outposts cannot be modified or camped in, and they are only open from 6am to 9pm, so getting there on time is essential to make the most of every trip outside the confines of your own hideout. The in-game currency is poker chips and the shop not only sells but also buys. As you'd expect there's all manner of different items of different qualities and prices. There's even a "secret stash" section that has all sorts of odds and ends to buy. Traders don't just trade though, they also have some basic quests to do, something that you'd find in an RPG, which is kind of what 7 Days to Die is, an RPG.
Aside from questing and treasure maps, 7 Days to Die has a fully featured leveling system with base stats and perks. Once you've built, looted, or killed the right amount of things, you get a skill point to spend. The usual suspects of Strength, perception, vitality and others make their appearance, each having a load of associated perks that unlock new skills, buffs, abilities and crafting recipes. Leveling up is a huge part of the game and so is choosing the right abilities. It's all part of that scramble to keep ahead of the zombies hordes and learn the skills to survive the escalating threats of the apocalypse.
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