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.
One of the big selling points that is getting Seven a lot of attention is that some of the developers on the team are actually from CD Projekt Red (from the excellent Witcher series). That being said, I’m thrilled to know that some of the developers who worked on Witcher 3 are focusing mainly on the missions of the game. Witcher 3 was revolutionary in how it approached side missions, so this is something to look forward to and help us sink hours into this game if done right. Going off that, the open world is surprisingly huge. I was baffled by how enormous and diverse the entire map was, as there were so many activities and missions to tackle. It must be said that because this is an isometric RPG, the engine is able to run a lot more. This can give the developers a lot more room to add to the already dense open world. We still don’t have a release date, which I’m happy to hear IMGN.PRO isn’t rushing it out. With the promise of a choice driven narrative on top of a huge open world, this is a title gamers should keep an eye out for.
