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.

Wow, I can't believe the devs actually finished the game, it took them only 13.8 billion years!

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