7 Days to Die

I hope I've made it clear that I do like 7 Days, and that it has some redeeming features, and it could have been an outstanding game had it been given a longer development cycle. Sadly, though, it’s being launched as a retail release and not via the Microsoft Preview Program despite its many problems.

With a user interface barely optimized for controllers and a release three years after its initial alpha, it feels that consoles are a mere afterthought of the original vision.

There's a hint of a good game in 7 Days to Die's mix of zombie attack preparedness and crafting and cooperative stands against zombies, and it has valuable ideas to contribute to the genre. In fact, you can almost hear them screaming to escape from beneath terrible graphics, barely useable menu controls, and shoddy console optimization.

What 7 Days to Die does right is provide a hearty selection of crafting and allows you to team up with friends locally or online to enjoy some co-op action. But is it worth picking up? For the simple fact that there’s better examples of world-building engines out there with a large fan base and even larger servers, I say pass.

7 Days to Die had the potential to be something impressive but with frequent glitches and game freezes it falls well short of being the game it could so easily be.

An ambitious game that just doesn't feel good enough even for a low budget title.

It’s hard to overlook the terribly outdated and buggy graphics, and the fact that the clunky presentation feels hardly optimised for consoles. Whilst gameplay can be enjoyable at times, it soon grows repetitive and tiresome, and the flawed day/night cycle means you’ll spend a great deal of time with nothing to do other than twiddle your thumbs.

7 Days to Die tries hard to provide the same experience we had on PC, but it fails in its attempt due to the controller adaptation and the visible graphical downgrade.

It is with a heavy heart that I tell you, dear reader, to avoid this game at all costs. It barely qualifies as the sum of the features it claims, and this port was given absolutely zero effort in making it functional for a console audience. Robbing a real “fun pimp” of thirty dollars will provide you with a more satisfying experience in survival horror than this thing will.

It's disappointing to see this sold on Xbox One and PS4 (with a retail release!) as if it is completed game. It clearly is not. After some substantial updates, I'd potentially want to give it another chance, but as is I wouldn't want to spend another minute with it.

It's a shame that a game with so many good ideas has been rushed onto consoles. At the moment is a technical mess, and it's a shame because we know it was meant to be a long-time project and many users won't give it a second chance. So far, we would recommend you to wait.

I am struggling to understand why people would choose this over some of the really excellent survival games out there. Maybe on PC it’s really great. On the Xbox One it is not.

7 Days to Die is awful. I’d imagine this is how the PC release initially played back in 2013 as part of Steam Early Access; I’m utterly confused as to why there’s no polish at all on this new console release. There’s no excuse for such a flimsy mess, and I’m quite surprised Telltale Games would permit its name to be associated with such tripe. Avoid the game at all costs.

7 Days to Die on console is a terrible port of a game which otherwise shows real promise on PC, where it currently languishes in Early Access. In its current state on consoles, the game is technically playable, but that's the best that can be said of it.

Considering it’s half broken and patently unfinished this doesn’t deserve to be called a video game at all, just an unpromising work in progress.