7 Days to Die

It has been 10 years since I played this as a kid, and now I'm a married man, and this game is still on alpha early access.

more like more than 7 years of being in early access

Day 1 - Got attacked and almost killed on my first night. Then I went Rambo. Fought my way out and ran to a house. Hid in the attic until the sun came up.
Day 2 - Found a few weapons and some rudimentary armor in the house next door. And the upper half of the owner. Gotta stay mobile until I find a place to settle in and make it defensible.
Day 5 - Snuck around and scavenged houses for food and potable water. No sign of...people. Am I the last one alive?
Day 10 - Found an abandoned military outpost. Made a door and barricaded myself inside of the largest tent for now. Will scavenge the surrounding area during daylight only.
Night of the 10th day - They're everywhere. Oh God. They walk right by my tent. I'm cowering in a corner behind a desk with a pistol and a wooden club that I wrapped in some scrap iron. Only 15 rounds of 9mm for the pistol. I hope that they don't decide to tear the tent down around me.
Day 11 - Began collecting resources. I think that I'll try sleeping tonight.
Day 12 - They woke me up 2 times, but never took notice of me. I'm glad that I don't snore.
Day 25 - Have been fortifying my position, dug a trench to trap the undead. Only the "Spider Zombies" can get out. I need to contain them somehow.
Day 50 - Currently I have a fortress surrounded by metal tipped log spike traps 3 deep so they can't escape. Then I just stand on my roof and snipe the spider zombies. Collect loot and smile. I think that I'll be ok.
Day 79 - Been farming. Food is plentiful now. Weapons and ammo are easy to make. I built my fortress on top of a deposit of iron, lead and potassium nitrate, with coal deposits poking out of the ground all around me! What luck!
Day 1?? - There's no end to them. I heard a scream the other night. Not one of them. It sounded...human. Female. Close. By the time I made it outside at first light, all I found was a pool of blood and entrails a half mile from my fortress. Next to the carnage I found a purse with some pictures of a pretty young blonde lady with a cheerleading outfit on in one picture, in another she was in an expensive looking dress cuddled up to who was probably the star quarterback at her high school. The last picture was her with what must have been her family on vacation at an expensive looking beach house. They looked so happy. Her driver's license said that her name was Cindy Batross and she was 17 years old. There was a notepad with illegible scribbles and crude drawings of people eating each other. I cried as I realized that she saw my lights and was desperately trying to make it to the safety of my home. What may have been my only hope for companionship was now in the rotting stomach of the undead.
Stardate 4/20 Delta V - Venison stew is good. It's lonely here. I found pictures in houses and I talk to the nice people in them. You want to be my friend, Jimmy? Ok. I promise that I won't chew on your bones.
Day whatever - What was that noise? They scratch inside my skull sometimes. I saw the cheerleader. She doesn't have a stomach anymore, but she walks around with a little smile on her face and coos sometimes. Then she screams when I try to talk to her from my roof. Maybe I should let her in. Maybe she just wants to be friends.
Night time now. She didn't want to be friends. Only my iron helmet kept her from chewing my face off. I cut her head off with my hunting knife. She didn't have any manners at all.
Hump Day - I sewed her head back on and sat her in a chair. We talked for hours while I cooked some vension stew for us. She's nice, but a little cold. I hope that she's on the pill.
Year of the Rat - I caught that ♥♥♥♥♥ Cindy looking at one of the other guys in the photos today. She denied it, but I know there's something going on while I'm out risking my life for us. Ungrateful ♥♥♥♥♥.
Judgement Day - Cindy had to go. I had no choice. I had told her too much about Mrs. Doubtfire and she was plotting a coup to reap the benefits of our trade agreement with the rabbits. I loved her, but now her bones are scattered in the ashes.
The Day I Die - Spent the last 30 winters here. I lost my mind a long time ago, though I regained some of my faculties after much reflection. I can no longer keep up with my home. It's only a matter of time before they break through. I never did find anyone else. No one came. The supply drops stopped long ago. I can only assume that the rest of the world succumbed to this hellish plague. The undead continue to march in all directions.
I have stockpiled a large amount of explosive devices, guns and ammo. Tonight I will open the bridge to my door for them and when they are clamoring to peel my flesh from my bones, I'll let them in.
The world will see the last survivor, not dying peacefully in my sleep, but raging against the darkness in one last epic battle. But I won't let them kill me. When it's finally hopeless, I'm going out on my own terms. Let them eat what is left of this shell after my spirit departs. Those damned fools won't make me one of them. My life is over.
I can hear them now. There must be close to a hundred. It's time to face my fate.
Here I come, Cindy. I'm sorry for everything.
NOTE: This is a dramatization of in game events and doesn't represent actual game play. Don't get me wrong, the game is amazing and I can't wait to see where they take it for the end game. BUT, this little story was entirely made up in my head based on my experiences in the game and a fateful first encounter with a cheerleader zombie that seriously freaked me out. And based on the positive comments so far, I may turn this into a short story.

As enjoyable as the game mostly is,
WTF Devs? 10 years and still Alpha? Not even Beta? You want to have the full release in 2050?

I love running across an 8km map to find my friends.

This game taught me that the best way to cure an infection or a broken limb is to just eat glass.
10/10.

I still wish you could say yes and no on the recommendation.
Yes. It is fun. It has evolved so much and it is addicting as hell often. Every year i come back to it and test myself again not only to see how far i still can get but how much the devs did. (Yes.. a year is.. a long time to see something new in a game but.. well it has been a few years since release of the first "Beta"/"Alpha"/WTFEVER they call it now.)
But also no. No because they always (and that is the biggest gripe i have with the dev) ALWAYS! have to take away your fun.
You had fun thinking for hours and days to come up with a really good base and strategy to fend off even the biggest endgame waves of zombies? Well fuck you! Now we change the system so they randomly attack your base anyway!
You had fun making actually really smart builds with your base to evade the horde? FUCK YOU! This is not how WE want YOU to play the game.
What you had a loadout that was effective for you? Can't have that! You actually found a way to be somewhat ressourceful with everything? Can't have that!
Nearly every "major" (lol) build they release they try to highlight the "good" things they change by barely mention all the nerfs and what not they also implement all the time.
You had a good way to fight the infection with honey? Not anymore! Take away the honey! You had a good way to get food by actually skilling into farming? Not anymore! Changed farming so you often get barely anything out of what you planted!
And now? Now they take away the water.
I am now just as fucking braindead as the zombies are by not knowing that i could use cans and other things to collect water and make it drinkable by puryfying it.
No no! Can't have that. Now you need to cheer if you find toiletwater and drink the piss to survive. Eventhough there is a massive river right next to your base.
I should absolutely say no to the question "if i recommend the game?" from Steam, since slowly the "Fun" Pimps need to realize that they more and more piss off everyone by these changes, but i will be fair and say i still do recommend it since it is still as fun as back then once you somewhat get to manage all the nerfs they brought in with the recent "update".
The biggest problem i have with the recent update is the level/skill system.
Back then you decided for yourself what build you wanted to play. Now the GAME dictates for you what you can play.
What do i mean by that? Back then you got a level and were able to choose which weaponskill you want to take. You wanted to go for spears? Shotguns? Pistols? All choices you could make. You wanted to be the builder? The hunter?
All were important steps you had to go through.
Now the game has this new system with books that level these skills. So you randomly find something. And from then on out the game "decides" for you what you will level up.
Yes you can somewhat influence it, but i barely seen it working for me. I put so many points in shotgun skills and still have mostly found pistols and spears instead of shotgun books.
And that is.. awful. I can no longer decide what i want to play but have to hope the game drops me the right skillbooks.
But i will absolutely change it to a no if they aren't going to stop to nerf even the last few remaining good things the game has going for it.
And sorry. You can defend it all you want. Even without a can or anything that could hold water, i could at least sit down next to a river and try to drink from it directly if i am desperately trying to survive. Even as bad as it is. (And honestly. It can't be as bad as drinking pisswater form a toiletbowl)