news

* This article is translated from IGN US related content, the original author is Justin Koreis, and the translation is Tony. Reproduction without permission is prohibited.

Seven Days is a surprise. It's a free-to-play, open-world survival crafting game that stitches together several of the most popular genres of recent years, and it simplifies those familiar concepts down to a more basic level. And yet, after playing it for dozens of hours, I still don't want to put the controller down. It's so fun and so weird that I can't help but imagine the next supply run, or the next battle with alien monsters, or the tasteful suite that will make my small home even more perfect.

There are many post-apocalyptic survival games on the market, such as Fallout 76, Corruption, and 7 Days to Die. But the end of the world in 7 Days comes from an alien invasion, rather than the classic zombie crisis or nuclear war, which makes it very unique and interesting. This is an interesting setting (looking back now, I feel that this setting is underutilized in the survival game world), and 7 Days cleverly plays to its strengths.

This alien creature can transform just about anything—living or dead—into a grotesque monstrosity. The shambling, twisted figure certainly looks like a zombie, but when it turns around, it reveals a stage spotlight head. I've fought giant spiders that turned into lightbulbs, evil trees, and even a bus with a bunch of giant legs that ran down the road like the biggest, yellowest, weirdest centipede ever. These enemies are completely unexpected, which makes Seven Days full of surprises.

These weird creatures aren't all enemies. You can also capture creatures called "anomalies" and after capturing them, you can have them help you in battle or do work for you in your territory. Basically, they are the apocalyptic version ofPokémon。

You can put an anomaly in your backpack and take it into battle, such as my old friend "Living Gel" which can be used as a temporary shelter after being thrown out. Some anomalies are more suitable for working at home, such as "Ore Boy", which is very suitable for mining. They are cute, practical, and weird, which fits the tone of this world very well.

In comparison, your weapons are pretty basic, mostly simple melee weapons (like camping knives and baseball bats) and small firearms (regular pistols, rifles, shotguns).

However, weapons and armor have an interesting ownership system - only things you make can be enhanced and repaired, and things found in the wild cannot be repaired, and equipment found in the wild is often stronger than what you have. However, you can use them until their durability is reduced to zero, and then dismantle them to obtain crafting blueprints. This cleverly encourages players to try new equipment, while avoiding the dilemma of players finding out that things are not useful after investing a lot of time and resources.

While the weapons are fairly standard, the enemies you use them to defeat are anything but. You'll encounter monsters with traffic cones for heads, shadowy behemoth bosses that feel very much like God of War, and more. While most battles are resolved by swinging melee weapons or running around shooting while losing health, boss battles all have unique mechanics, such as having to kill the monster spawner first to weaken the boss.

The various monsters are the best-looking part of Seven Days, with an eerie combination of organic and inorganic elements that feels a bit like "body horror." But everything else about this world is a bit bland. The colors and lighting are uninspiring, and there are a lot of reused tree materials in the forest. The urban areas are covered in monotonous concrete everywhere, and although they show some signs of decay, the atmosphere is far less than that of The Last of Us. This is a bit of a wasted opportunity, as it could have further strengthened the feeling of being overrun by alien creatures.

The largest monsters are placed in the dungeon, similar to the classic "World of Warcraft》. These battles are designed for teams of up to four people, and the team-building function of "Seven Days World" is very convenient. Just click a button to open the server-wide team finder, and you can browse other people's teams or initiate a team of your own. Once you choose the activity you want to do, interested players will apply to join, and you can freely choose to accept or reject. Although I am more socially anxious and have never liked to form a wild team (usually I team up with friends), I can also form a team smoothly, and there is no need for any text or other forms of communication throughout the process, which is very friendly to "i people" like me.

I just wish I could take my character with me when I transfer servers - at this stage, if you want to play with a friend but you are not on the same server, one of you has to start from scratch, which I think is a regrettable mistake.

In addition to combat, "Seven Days World" has a simple linear main storyline and a small number of side quests. There is not much in the main storyline, and its main purpose seems to be to guide players to new areas rather than to tell a complex story.

The quests themselves are basically a loop of "go to a zone, activate a few plane anchors, fight a zone boss," which does get a bit tedious towards the end, but I do like when Seven Days World dives into the weirdness of the world, like when I had to hunt a monster that kept turning pregnant women into trees (seriously, it was that weird).

The map is very large, with areas roughly divided according to enemy levels and terrain. More importantly, the map is large but not empty. Every block or institute has a large number of monsters for you to kill, a large number of supplies for you to collect, and every open space is a potential territory.

Hiking to another point on the map can take a long time, so I was glad that an early quest gave me a motorcycle that I could summon at any time and ride around on. You can also unlock teleportation towers and even hang gliders to make long-distance travel easier.

The difficulty curve needs some adjustment though. It's easy to keep up with the increase in difficulty in the early and middle stages, but in the final area, the enemy level suddenly becomes very high and you are likely to be killed in one hit. You can only choose to bite the bullet or grind for a few hours to close the gap in combat power. There's nothing wrong with the design of "getting beaten up by the enemy, working hard to improve your strength, and finally getting revenge", but the sudden increase in difficulty can easily demoralize players instead of inspiring them.

But the good news is that the survival crafting system that helps you become stronger is quite simple and straightforward. At first, the things you can make are very limited, but as you level up, you will get "meme keys" that can be used to unlock nodes on four skill trees. As long as you have the keys and enough materials, you can quickly make high-quality food and equipment. This simple and clear design allows you to quickly, and I am very happy about it.

Gathering materials is still done in the classic "running around and chopping down trees" way, but at least the early supplies are quite sufficient, and going out to mine doesn't feel time-consuming and laborious. Resources seem to refresh quickly, and as you level up, you can also unlock more technologically advanced equipment, such as automatic mining machines or rainwater collectors, allowing you to quickly move away from the hunter-gatherer stage and stride into the industrial revolution era that you have started, which is very rewarding.

Buildings follow a similar upgrade curve, with more advanced building materials available as you unlock the corresponding meme skills. It's easy to find the building parts you need in most cases, thanks to the intuitive and logical building menu. I'm not a skilled tinkerer, but even I could easily build a split-level river view mansion.

The hardest part of building a house is getting a piece to face the right way, and aligning the roof was a pain. You can see other players' houses, so it's nice to have a reference if you're lacking inspiration. I also like that I can save the blueprints of my house so I can pack up everything, move to a new place, and rebuild it in no time.

Since Seven Days World is a service game, there will be more content updates in the future. Currently known include the next plot chapter, technical updates including controller support, and special events. Most importantly, at the end of each six-week season, the server will be reset, which is similar to the practice of Escape from Tarkov.

This may sound scary, but quest progress and blueprints will be preserved, including the blueprints for the house. It's unclear whether this will be a fun new start or a nasty nuisance, but after thinking about how I would handle it, I'm now interested and optimistic.

After entering the second half of the story, you will unlock the "Eternal Island", which is basically a mode running on a private server dedicated to construction. It has two dedicated currencies: "Eternal Sand" and "Eternal Starlight", which can be used to purchase various items, such as seeds, fishing rods, landscape elements including stones and trees, etc. It is important to note that the Eternal Island is not affected by the season reset, which provides an attractive option for players who want to build an ideal home and show it to their friends.

There is some limited PvP content available, but it can only be experienced by selecting a PvP server when creating a character. There are no modes such as arenas or team deathmatch, but there are some activities built specifically around PvP, the most representative of which is the "Echo Stone" that falls from the sky. After a player picks up an Echo Stone, he needs to bring it back to the territory and purify it with the "Stardust Resonance Converter" while fending off monsters and other players who want to take it away. This is not mandatory content, which is a wise choice because the rewards are insignificant and the PvP gameplay is relatively basic.

Summarize

Seven Days is a lot of fun, with a survival crafting system that's simple to understand but still very satisfying to dig into. Building a house is fun, but sometimes it's a little hard to get the pieces to line up. And while the combat is basic overall, the bizarre monsters make up for it, especially once you have your own group of monster friends. Seven Days would be better with some more creative quests and a smoother difficulty curve, but I still had a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to continuing my adventures in this twisted world in Season 1.

advantage

• A simple and easy-to-use yet in-depth construction system
• Bizarre enemy designs
• The map is huge and rich in content

• The task system lacks novelty and is relatively boring
• The setting of clearing some content after the season ends is a bit worrying