The other, titular part of the plot: every seven days, a zombie horde descends upon you. After all, zombies are shambling, drooling monsters, but 7 Days to Die may surprise you (more on that later). Alpha 17 does have some smaller quests from Traitor Joe’s, like clearing out zombies in a location, or digging up instructions in a marked spot on the map, but overall the goal is survival.

Other than that, the world is yours for the conquering. The game loosely hints of nuclear fallout, but what matters is civilization has recently fallen and you’re the only person alive. Once you complete the tutorial, it’s an open sandbox sprinkled with horror and survival elements. You will feel the effects of heat as the desert raises your temperature, and you will starve as the snow biome depletes your caloric intake.

You need water and you need to hunt, forage, and scavenge to survive. Do you want Scavenger (easiest setting) or do you want to play on the hardest settings in which the game actually tells you, “You’re one bad mother!”? Do you want the 24-hour cycle to span 30 minutes or two hours of real time? Do you want zombies to sprint at night? How many zombies do you want in your day 7 horde? These are all great options for creating unique and challenging gameplay. One of the nicest aspects about 7 Days is that when you boot up a game, and even after, you have a plethora of options to customize gameplay. Everything, down to the very arch on the eyebrows, is customizable. If you’d like to make a unique character, it’s easy with a creation system similar to Skyrim. You’ll press the “New Game” button and you’ll need to create a new character, which is easy if you choose one of the preset characters from the list. It takes a little while to download, but once it boots up, you’re in.

Lifewire / Rebecca Isaacs Setup Process: Easy thanks to Steamħ Days to Die for PC can be located on Steam, making it easy to set up.

7 days to die alpha 17 download