"7 Days to Die is an open-world game that is a unique combination of first-person shooter, survival horror, tower defense, and role-playing games. Play the definitive zombie survival sandbox RPG that came first. Navezgane awaits!"

Our absolute favorite! We try to branch out to not get bored with it and maybe find another great game but frankly even though we tried similar games (e.g., Grounded, Debris, ECO, Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, DayZ, The Forest, Survive The Nights, SCUM, Fallout 76 and The Blackout Club), we always come back for more 7 Days!

Even when it still Early Access and named the versions ‘Alpha x’, it was more fun and more stable than a lot of other titles that are in full release. It's out of EA, but is still seeing new updates and plays great.

Both the base ‘vanilla’ game and the heavily modded versions are a blast, with a smooth difficulty and progression that is engaging and fun but keeps the pressure on. You rarely get to a point where you are unable to figure out what to do next - the “every 7 days you need to prepare for the horde” mechanic is hugely motivating and keeps you focused.

The multiplayer really changes things because you work closely as a team and share duties, like one team member handles the food supply while the other deals with construction. My wife and I only ever play as a team of two, but this should work just as well with larger teams. I suppose in theory you could try to play this way with strangers, but we don’t have any desire to do that.

Be sure to try the Darkness Falls mod!

There is also an option of PvP that other reviews indicate are fun but again, we have no interest in that.

We’ve spent thousands(!) of hours playing this, and yet it just never gets old. Whenever we try to branch out for a while and are disappointed in a new game our first reaction is to fire up a new 7 Days run through. The first few days are the best part, so this is pretty understandable, and since you can change a lot of settings to adjust and tune difficulty it can feel brand new again.

Overall this is just a masterpiece of a game, and we always enjoy starting a new world, naked and looking for materials to survive… because the horde comes in 7 days!

My rating: 10/10

Works great on Debian.