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.

I used to play this game with my friends quite frequently- as it used to have a lot of potential. Even in an unfinished state the core gameplay was enough to keep us distracted for hours at a time.

However since the 'official release' things took a turn for the worst. Many of us were surprised at this news because it still feels like the game is incredibly unfinished and totally lacking in basic functionality at the best of times. It feels like Fun Pimps just threw in the towel after twelve or so years of extremely erratic on-and-off again updates.

So what does that leave us, the community with? Well after 10+ years of development they finally crawled out of 'Early Access' with;

• An insane price hike from the initial $25 all the way up to $45.
• Overly complex and totally unnecessary changes to existing mechanics and UI that were easier to manage years ago.
• A complete lack of an overhaul on many of the game mechanics that ACTUALLY desperately needed optimization.
• Slightly better zombie models over the course of about 8 of the development years. (depending on who you ask)
• New buildings with pitfall traps that make solo exploration a total nuisance on higher difficulty levels.
• A massive nerf to XP gains when performing actions which makes grinding even more tedious.
• Scrapped features they planned for 1.0 including the highly anticipated NPC Bandits and 'better' Character Customization.
• The removal of entire biomes from random gen maps including; The Burned Forest and The Plains.
• The removal of existing features such as Leg Armor, Empty Jars, the Siren, and many reinforced blocks and spikes.

This game is a perfect example of scope creep and what happens when a team like The Fun Pimps can not get a clear picture of what they WANT to put into a game versus what they CAN ACTUALLY put into a game without wasting years of development time. Even if they continued to update 7 Days to Die, it would probably just be more of the same sporadic updates that offer little to no value to an already gutted game.

It's truly a shame to see a game with a lot of potential become stagnant after so long- but there are thousands of other games on Steam that put a lot more foresight into their projects and manage their time significantly better.

I can not recommend this game to anyone- ESPECIALLY at the current price.
If it goes on sale for around $10 or below, maybe pick it up if you have some friends to play with, otherwise steer clear and save your money for better purchases.

The game is just so disappointing now. Early on this game was a mix of exploration, crafting and improving your skills. It was jank, sure, but the gameplay loop was solid. Using skills improved them naturally over time. Level ups were gained both by killing zombies and using skills, and said levels could be used for some nice buffs, and to unlock techs. And quests existed as a side option for even better loot.

Then the developers decided exploration was MANDATORY. Now the game is 100% about exploration, "dungeon exploring" and quests. Skills no longer improve by using them; instead you have to find books. At certain book intervals you get access to new tech. Baseline tech was HEAVILY nerfed, so you basically can't make anything until you find a certain number of books. Leveling up via skills is no longer viable, so you have to kill zombies and do quests to do so. Thing is, leveling up barely matters anyway, because they only provide minor buffs to specific things and my god do you level up so slow that it barely feels like it matters.

Which means if you want to be able to craft, you know, the premise of the game, you have to explore and use the quest system to get enough books to do so. Thing is, the quest system is so boring. Fetch quests, dig up a certain location quests, kill all zombies at a location. Oh boy isn't it great that they decided to shove this dull nonsense down our throat?

Every pre-fab building is considered a "dungeon" and when you get close enough zombies just spawn right on top of you. Dungeon exploring CAN be okay, but it feels less like exploring an actual zombie apocalypse and more like going through some 8 year old's attempt at a labyrinth. Yes, Timmy, zombies breaking through the wall and falling down from the ceiling IS cool, but it's just annoying when LITERALLY EVERY HOUSE does this. I don't feel like I'm clearing a building when I enter somewhere now, I fell like I'm wadding through a scripted encounter, just hoping the next GOTCHA moment doesn't actually catch me off guard.

And aside from disliking the change in direction, combat is just... its just so bad. Stealth archer route can be fine (be prepared to yell "how did that miss?" a lot though), but in what world should zombies LURCH FORWARD when you bash them in the skull with a bat? Knockback seeming works in reverse in this game. Combat was never great, but when its highlighted by being thrown at you so often due to the structure of the game, it gets on your nerves far more.

Maybe this is just the downside of getting involved with a game during its Alpha. The game that it has become, and the game that I started playing it as, are just too different now for me to enjoy it anymore.