In that time, many other survival games have sprouted, blossomed, and gently faded away.
But mostly because I wanted to use that numberful headline.
So, here you go: 7 dos and 7 don’ts in 7 Days To (7) Die.
None of that is new to the game, like I say.
It had the exact same appeal in 2013.
But you know what?
It’s basically Minecraft rules, immortality with a little wrist slap.
So unless you’re playing in permadeath mode, let go of your fear and get dangerous.
Do worry about water
And food too.
That means you get tired much quicker when stabbing zombos.
This is plain annoying.
Nothing hurts more than your pride when you’re too knackered and thirsty to even swing a baseball bat.
Don’t bust it down to easy too quickly
There is a tension in every survival game.
The creative home-builder in you wants to faff around with the crafting systems and make yourself a grand hideout.
They donotwant you to do stuff.
A gnawing possibility arises: why not bust it down to the easiest preset difficulty setting?
They will die faster, move slower, and you could build more, uninterrupted.
The tension is by design.
Which brings us to the next point.
In some ways this many options can be overwhelming.
you’re free to always just go with a preset difficulty.
Fiddle with the options until you find some balance between harm and helpfulness that works for you.
Unfortunately, these freakishly resourceful folks completely eradicate the sensation of being alone against the odds in the wasteland.
They are holed up in their fortresses, overstocked with every good imaginable, yet eminently unrobbable.
After the tutorial, ignore them as much as possible.
Snub these invincible jerks.
Or, even better,mod them out of the game completely!
This too applies to moving home in 7 Days.
It is like any good property development TV show.
Find a battered fixer-upper with tons of potential, and make it your own.
Ah, a farmhouse with an adjacent barn.
Wouldn’t this look lovely with a moat, darling?
Oh look, a cosy camp of caravans in the hills.
Wouldn’t this be wonderful if we surrounded it with artisanal spikes and land mines?
At which point, you move onto the next place.
It’s a strange property ladder, yes.
But one that is bursting with newly added building types since the game’s earliest days.
Movie theatres, hotels, military outposts, high schools…
Here, home ownership is eminently achievable, with enough violence.
Don’t forget the blood moon
Game’s called 7 Days To Die for a reason.
The swarm is constant, a bumbling mass of decaying jackasses from dusk ‘til dawn.
But reaching this level of preparedness isn’t easy.
Which makes my next point a pill you’ll have to swallow.
Do follow the tutorial challenges
I know nobody wants to go to school during the apocalypse.
It’s not overly cohesive.
Every uncooked item and slurp of unboiled water carries with it a percentage chance to give you gut problems.
But you should know that ordinary thirst is a worse enemy.
In other words, sip freely from the pool of water in that zombie-infested bathhouse.
It’s the only source of hydration for miles around.
Drink up, and ignore the gagging sound effects of your character as they struggle to keep it down.
There are floors that collapse from underneath you and snakes lurking in the garden grass.
Not only that, but many places have hints of bespoke environmental storytelling.
Half-dug graves, boarded up windows, a lonely noose hanging from the rafters.
There, I said it.
But because it all adds to the fantasy.
7 Days is at its best when you fully step into the role of a put-upon wasteland loser.
This applies to all the needs and wants of the game.
The challenges will teach you how to play and give you a checklist of stuff to try.
Build a fort on a lake and panic when you discover zombies can swim.
Spot a desert and decide to cross it in search of a new biome.
Past all the early access stretchmarks, 7 Days remains a game about finding freedom in a pressure cooker.
Turn the heat up, and enjoy it.
