Seven: The Days Long Gone Previews
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A couple of E3 previews have gone up for the innovative isometric open world RPG Seven: The Days Long Gone. IMGN. PRO, the game's publishers, were showing off a gameplay demo at E3 2017 and from the looks of it, that demo didn't disappoint.
COGconnected offers an overview of the demo that follows Teriel, the game's protagonist and a thief, and focuses on offering as much player freedom as possible. An excerpt:
The demo begins in the high tech metropolis of ‘Hallard’, capital of The Vetrall Empire and headquarters of the tyrannical Emperor Drugan. The world is nonlinear, vast, and brimming with monsters and magic. Player freedom is at the core of Seven. Built from the ground up via the power of Unreal Engine 4, the game features an impressive parkour mechanic that enables players to freely climb up or across any obstacle, regardless of height. As a master of thievery, Teriel can complete a variety of quests and form relationships with a plethora of the city’s inhabitants. From scaling massive buildings, breaking and entering, and plundering valuable trinkets, Teriel proudly leads a life of crime. Following a period of loot seeking and pickpocketing, Teriel accepts a challenging job that leads him to the treacherous island of Peh; which serves as a massive prison housing Vetrall’s most fearsome criminals, monsters, and enemy factions. Along the way, Teriel crosses paths with a mysterious individual who plants a demon in his head named ‘Artanak.’ With a newfound mission in hand and a demonic companion possessing his mind, Teriel sets off for the dreaded island.
Upon arriving to Peh, the open world exploration and gameplay sincerely begin to shine. From physical aesthetics to play style, Teriel is fully customizable. Enemies can be engaged in head-on confrontations, silently slain through a stealthy approach, or avoided entirely; all with a myriad of weapons and magical abilities at your disposal. As you level up, Teriel can be geared more toward a brawler, or a swift, silent assassin. Considering he’s a thief, we stuck to a silent approach. I’m an avid fan of stealth games like Splinter Cell, Deus Ex, Hitman, and Dishonored. Inspirations from the aforementioned are prevalent in Seven. Similar to Eidos Montréal’s Thief, there are multiple ways to approach every objective. Enemies are dangerous in numbers; which was exemplified when one of the devs struggled to defeat more than two of them at once. It’s an aspect I considerably admire as it raises the stakes when sneaking around enemy strongholds. Should you be caught, it could mean certain doom, depending on your character build.
Marooner's Rock praises the developers for somehow managing to create an enjoyable isometric open world experience. Check it out:
Seven: Days Long Gone was a bit of a surprise to me when I got the chance to see it back at E3. When I was told it was an isometric open world RPG, I was a slightly skeptical as isometric open world doesn’t seem ideal. Luckily, I was proven wrong once I got to see what exactly developers IMGN.PRO were actually trying to achieve. Now what I ended up seeing was still part of the pre-beta, so we still have to wait a little bit to see this game. The ambition of the developers is what I enjoyed the most, as they want to take this isometric RPG style and still make it feel like someone is playing a full 3D open world adventure game.
Seven has the player take on the role of Teriel, a master thief who takes on a job that goes haywire very early on. The developers did mention that because Teriel is already a master assassin, his skills are already given to the player. The best way to become more powerful is through the gear and not levelling up. Density is the key word to use when trying to explain IMGN.PRO’s ambition. The levels in the game are not what one would normally see in the genre. When I think of an isometric RPG, I think of a straight up flat environment to kill tons of bad guys. This is not the case with Seven, as verticality is spread throughout, in which the developers even promised: if you can see it, you can go there. The help of Unreal Engine 4 really can drive this title to something truly special.
When viewing the demo I really did get a sense this was a game someone could play even if they aren’t a fan of this particular genre. Upon first glance one can easily see how much the Assassin’s Creed series has had an influence on Seven. The main character usually wears a hood when he goes into stealth mode, so they definitely aren’t shy about their inspirations. Also, like the Assassin’s Creed series, there is the option of stealth or action. From what I saw in the demo, it looks like it will be a constant mix of both. I saw basic stealth elements in which enemies have a certain field of vision to take advantage of. Other than that the stealth mechanics didn’t seem all that game changing. Now this is still a pre-beta, so certain aspects such as visuals and framerate will not be at full power yet. However, I did see the hit boxes seem to be off while engaged in open combat. There were too many instances where a hit should have landed but for some reason many of them did not register. Once again, this is still a pre-beta so there is still much room for improvement.
