I really liked finding the individual clothing items and stowing a wardrobe of them to swap out when the weather changed. It was super fun to go and put on my big coat if I was going to the snow or the weather was getting cooler. Now i’m dressed as a pastor rain or shine.

Having a small selection of outfits that decide your entire look for you is so boring and killed any real character customization the game had. I often find myself looking absolutely ridiculous for the sake of stat bonuses.

Do I like the XP boost? Yes! Do I want to wear a f*cking propeller hat in the apocalypse? Not really!

Ate at a kfc because it was the only decent option where we were staying, the exit was entirely red for some reason and it caught me so off guard

Testing out my new hybrid base with a screamer horde when I phased through the bottom and fell... any ideas on what happend or just a bug?

Nuova base orda

When bleeding, lacerated, or just generally Hurt. It takes 3-5 seconds for the game to ACTUALLY register that you're trying to heal.or stop bleeding.

Lets not talk about the second shot.

Day 35 and this thing I’ve had since day 7 or so still beats any AK ive found/made and any tactical AR I can make by ~10% damage and 7% rate of fire- finally switching anyway cause of the mag size but all days before this I stuck with the pipe gun lol

I’ve spent around a hundred hours or so (around 107 more or less), I wanted to share my thoughts and opinions. The good and the bad. Mostly because I want to empty my head of these thoughts, and maybe sharing them would help! And a small part of me wants to see if my thoughts are echoed to others.

I will write everything else beyond this is translated using a translator, as I have greater proficiency in my native language, so sorry if things read weirdly.

To start with, I want to divide this into two parts: the good and the bad. I’ll start with the good, with the things I liked or that gave me a good first impression:

- The tutorial challenges: The problem with starting a new game, especially a survival game, is not having a starting point to rely on, but the challenges solve that by at least teaching you how to get started. Although somewhat clunky and a little intrusive, they helped my experience quite a bit, and I think they helped convince me to stick with the game. On top of that, the rest of the challenges continue to teach you more or less about the different qualities and features of the game, which is great for newcomers.

- The skill system: The second thing I really liked after finishing the tutorial was gaining access to so many cool skills that would affect my decisions in both the short and long term. I love this kind of thing because it allows me to customize how I play to a much greater degree.

- The building design: Although they confused me a little at first, I actually ended up loving them. Having a clear beginning and end is fascinating, and I really like how you can explore them at your own pace or even skip certain parts. Then, when you activate a task or quest, they get reset, which leads into the next point.

- The quests/tasks: I’ll admit that these didn’t really convince me at first, since they were very intrusive and shoved right in your face, but I have to say that I eventually grew to like them. It’s a neat system that gives you another way to progress through the game, and the fact that they can now be disabled through Sandbox mode turns them into nothing more than an optional bonus.

- The combat: Frankly, combat is one of the things I usually look for in games like this, and it is rarely done in a way that feels satisfying. But the gore and combat in 7 Days to Die, while simplistic (it isn’t particularly complex), are very, very satisfying and entertaining. The weapons feel pretty good to use (especially once you get the relevant upgrades), and the melee weapons are quite decent, with a good amount of variety.

- Building variety and system: I really like the number of different block shapes you can use, and while the weight and gravity system does place some limitations on you, I think it ultimately benefits the game and allows many builds to look cool while still being relatively realistic. I also really like upgrading blocks, having different tiers, and the various trap systems, especially the turrets. I expected them to be mediocre, but the electric trap turrets ended up being really good.

- Vehicles: Although this isn’t anything particularly groundbreaking, I think it’s a really nice addition that helps make such large maps more manageable. The motorcycle in particular is pretty cool, although I’m a bit more skeptical about the 4x4, since I found it to be quite slow.

Now, for the bad things… They’re mostly little details rather than major issues, but they have also made me incredibly frustrated over some of these stupid little things:

- Lack of quality-of-life improvements: There’s no quick-stack feature, nor is there a way to pick your spikes back up, among other issues. It feels weird that after 13 years, things like these still haven’t been addressed. It’s frustrating, and it’s something I’ve partially solved with mods.

- Performance issues: This game can run horribly at times. I currently have several things installed to improve performance, and my PC is relatively decent, but it baffles me that a game which, to be fair, isn’t particularly complex is causing me so many problems and heating my PC up to 70°C and beyond. On top of that, random crashes and annoying bugs happen every now and then.

- The HUD: This is the FIRST thing you see once you enter the game… How the hell is it this ugly? Who decided to keep a HUD like this? The interface was one of the first things that put me off when I opened the game, and while it is functional, I find it incredibly brutalist and unpleasant to look at. It was the first thing I changed as soon as I could.

- The magazines: They don’t really bother me personally. I’m playing with them, and because I use Nerd Armor quite a lot, I don’t usually have many problems with them, but there’s no doubt that this is a pretty bad progression system. It can be fixed with mods, but I don’t consider that an argument in its favor.

- Zombie appearances: Is it just me, or do the zombie appearances repeat themselves a lot? It’s surprising that a zombie game has so little variety in this regard. I don’t think it would have been that difficult for the developers to add more models. I’ve been looking for mods to fix this, so if anyone has any recommendations, I’d really appreciate them.

- It feels incomplete: Robotics feels extremely incomplete and underpowered considering how much it asks of you. I have to dedicate an enormous amount of time to it, and even then, it still doesn’t feel worthwhile. The farming system is also extremely simplistic and feels rather half-assed. It’s nice not having to overthink a system you don’t particularly care about, but that could easily be an optional feature that you can enable or disable, and I think the game would benefit more from having that option.

- Intrusive traders, quests, and challenges: Although these three elements I just mentioned genuinely help a lot, I think they feel way too intrusive and hurt immersion. Fortunately, you can disable them, but doing so means losing a lot of their benefits, so it ends up feeling like a pretty brutal nerf. I think they could at least be introduced into the game in a slightly more natural way.

- Mod Workshop: It feels strange that there isn’t one. I’ve heard that the reason is to prevent mods from updating automatically and potentially breaking something after a game update or something along those lines, and frankly, those just sound like excuses to me. I’m used to using Nexus Mods, so it’s not really a problem for me, but I can imagine it being a bit excessive for other players.

- The price of the game: The price is unacceptable for what the game actually offers. I was able to buy it on sale, but it rarely goes on sale, and even then, the discount isn’t particularly generous. For all the cool things the game has, it feels terribly outdated and plagued by problems, and I don’t think it deserves such a high price tag of €40. Terraria, Minecraft, Subnautica, and other games in the same genre cost less and offer much more.

- Strange design decisions: Why doesn’t honey come from other trees instead of tree stumps? Why are there so many rock-throwing zombies in the winter biome? What’s with the incredibly clunky transitions between biomes? Or the fact that you’re basically forced to complete several challenges just to acquire the equipment necessary to even go into other biomes?

And those are my thoughts. Frankly, half of these flaws would disappear if the game cost around €10, but because of the price it currently has, I’m going to judge it by a much higher standard. The fact that the game has been in development for 13 years makes this even worse, but it’s undeniable that I’ve had fun with it and that the game has everything it needs to be enjoyable.

Overall, it’s a cool game. But the quality and amount of content it offers simply do not match the price it demands.