7 Days to Die

With its more recent updates, 7 Days to Die feels like a game that’s still unsure of what it wants its core experience to be. While the developers continue to rework major systems in the name of balance and accessibility, the end result is a gameplay loop that, at least for me, has become far less enjoyable than it used to be. Many of the latest updates focus heavily on restructuring progression and perks, pushing players into a more guided, almost checklist driven experience. Early and mid game progression now feels slower and more restrictive, with fewer meaningful choices and less room to experiment with different playstyles. Instead of naturally discovering tools, weapons, and crafting paths through exploration and risk taking, progression feels increasingly artificial and gamified. The quest system and trader focus exemplify this problem. Recent changes encourage a loop of accepting jobs, clearing prefabs, returning to traders, and repeating the process. While functional, this loop quickly becomes repetitive and starts to overshadow survival, base building, and emergent gameplay. Scavenging and exploration once the heart of the experience now feel secondary to running errands for NPCs. Combat and horde nights have also been affected by ongoing balance passes. Zombie behavior and pathing changes often feel less organic and more like puzzle solving against predictable AI rules. Base design has shifted from creative fortification to exploiting systems, and when those systems are inevitably changed again in a future update, entire playstyles are invalidated.
While the developers’ commitment to updates is commendable, the constant reworks make it hard to invest long term. Each major update feels less like refinement and more like a reset, and it’s increasingly difficult to tell whether feedback is shaping a clearer vision or just prompting another overhaul. In its current state, 7 Days to Die isn’t a bad game but it is one I no longer enjoy playing. The modern gameplay loop feels repetitive, overly structured, and at odds with the sandbox survival experience that originally drew me in. For new players, the current design may feel streamlined and accessible. For returning players like myself, it feels like the soul of the game has been slowly sanded down with every update.

It’s ugly, clunky, and full of bugs. But somehow, it’s also one of the most fun survival games I’ve ever played. Absolute garbage.

I've played this game on and off for nearly a decade. I'll burn out on it (mainly because I throw myself into it and spend so much time in it) but after I buy a new game, spend a few weeks playing it, I always come back to this with a new idea I want to try or start a new game with a new version and see what all has changed. The premise of the game is nearly perfect (build yourself up, arm yourself with better weapons than just close range items, build a better way to protect yourself every 7 days and kill zombies). The game is never quite the same each time you start a new game, and you can think of new/better ways to kill more zombies...for example, the last blood moon I managed to kill 352 zombies and pick up 54 dropped backpacks of multiple colors....this time during the blood moon I got overran, so thinking of changes to my setup. Oh, and btw I am 60 years old, but a kid at heart.

i recommend playing alpha 16.4, new versions changed the game too much

After 140 hours I can only say, it's good fun until it's not.
The moment you reach your "end-game", the fun mostly stops.
The problem lies in that "end-game" doesn't really exist. It all depends on when you personally feel like you've achieved everything you want from a run.
You can always keep grinding endlessly, which only reminds me of Vaas from Far Cry 3 asking me if I know what the definition of insanity is.
The game is great overall but there are some major negatives.
It's either too easy or too hard.
The game is pretty boring for the easy part, just 1 or 2 tapping zeds you spot,
OR you will be rushed by so many zeds you have to run and kite your way to safety, which is a pain with how dodgy these c*nts move.
Which brings me to my next point.
Stealth... it exists.
You get a small damage bonus when attacking enemies from the shadows, bigger bonuses with certain weapon types.
Now you'd think that in a post-apocalyptic world stealth means everything. Stay hidden and you'll never be spotted.
Well, The Fun Pimps think otherwise by implementing "trigger points" in every POI (yes, all of them), where zeds will just spawn in and aggro you.
For this reason stealth is something you can completely ignore in this game.
Enemies are well designed up until the demolition zombie. Which, if you hit it in the wrong (or right) spot will beep and explode seconds later dealing massive damage to anything around it. I mean, why not give them a beard and call them something else. It's just agonising and another weird design choice by The (at this point not so...) Fun Pimps.
Forget about the red-eyed wolf if you're not gonna cheese him. Whoever decided to give him a 1000 hp pool should be fired.
Now for my biggest gripe and the reason I'm writing this review, a bug.
Sometimes quests won't complete.
This happens cause The Fun Pimps want you to explore POI's exactly how they designed them.
As I mentioned earlier, all POI's have trigger points, where if you reach that point in the location a wave of zeds will spawn and aggro you. When these points won't trigger, the zeds won't spawn and you won't be able to complete the quest.
This happened to me 3 times in 2 days.
Now bear in mind, tier 5 quests are only in specific locations, and probably a fair distance away from your base.
So you'll have to drive 2-5 miles, spend over an hour clearing a 15 story building or a school, only to realise at the end of it that something isn't right cause the quest won't complete.
First of all, in my opinion, a mechanic like these "trigger points" shouldn't exist in a game like this in the first place as it completely negates the feeling of freedom and obliterates any use of stealth.
Second, if you do decide to implement this mechanic, at least make sure it's working as intended.
A bug like this shouldn't exist in a 1.2 version of a game.
The combat.
Combat is mostly sluggish. Trying to hit enemies with melee weapons can be as hard as hitting them with guns.
Mostly because of how these Rushy McGee's move.
As I mentioned earlier, it's mostly boring 1 tapping them in the face, but the ones who don't die from 1 hit immediately become annoying cause of the dodgy movement and the attack animation bug.
It's a solid open world survival game with good crafting mechanics but I would only recommend if you hate being stealthy and don't mind the bugs I mentioned.

After 11 years and over 5000hrs I never thought I would uninstall my favorite game. The Fun Pimps seriously need to change their company name...
For the newbies, please enjoy the game.

The only game that I've played with my dad & son simultaneously. Not sure what that means but it's fun.