7 Days Heroes Review on Xbox

7 Days Heroes is a retro inspired pixel-art 2D action game in which four characters fight zombies.

The premise is about three friends and their pet pug who must save the world from an AI that is turning people into zombies.

The game boasts the ability to manipulate the formation of four people by change the leading character. Collect weapons and items with everyone and has about 32 levels within 7 areas to conquer.

Accessibility

With regards to accessibility, there is no Controller mapping, aim assist, sound options and there is no subtitle options other that the language type. This would mean that those with audio, visual or any motor issues, this game would not be for you.

Gameplay

This is a game begins with you and your two friends and your dog. who have unique abilities, running away from a government facility. Within this facility was a powerful AI called MAI, that was the only thing able to control you and your powers, however, for some reason MAI starts to malfunction and spreads a zombie virus to the world using nanomachines, just as you escape. However on the plane you stowed away upon, falls to the zombie virus, you are forced to jump for your lives and in doing so unfortunately split up. The game starts with you as one of the characters and the pug stuck in some woods, with their sole aim to find their friends and escape whilst you can..

Early stages of the game are stages pretty simple and are a combination of jumping and shooting platformer, which you will then need to get to the nearest checkpoint, killing all those in your path. The levels do switch up a bit later on with some levels with you in on top of a vehicle chasing a phoenix across a motorway bridge. Your primary goal on all levels is to find a key to open the end of the stage, but you also have optional quests to find hidden upgrades and acquire a full set number of nano-machines, which come from defeating enemies. 

Upgrades vary from making your job easier, to being but essential to help you get around. For example, upgrades like double jump and wall scaling, are key to gaining access to high locations to progress. Upgrades like magnet, will just draw the nanomachines from defeated enemies to you for easier and are more an optional choice than requirement.

The biggest draw to the game is that fact you can control 4 unique characters at any one time. As mentioned you start of with just one and a dog, and each of the 4 characters do have unique abilities. For example the dog can squeeze through tight gaps but as little to no ability to fight, with another being able to throw heavy duty grenades that do massive damage to all in the area its thrown. You only control one person at a time, with your partners following along for the ride. There is a big problem with this though, as quite often your partners AI is awful when it comes to navigating the platform levels. 

It can manage simple jumps and following you along linear pathways, but anything that involves jumping to the opposite side will cause quite a lot of headaches. This is semi manageable with say two characters, but when you get to four, this can be a nightmare to do whilst avoiding enemies. What makes this more of a pain is the fact that you cannot exit a level until everybody is at the exit. Which will mean constant backwards and forwards trying to place each character quite a bit ahead, and then switching to another to get them to the same location.

The bonus to having multiple partners though is that they don’t get hurt until you switch with them, and each of these have their own health bar. This means that if boss fights or a particular area is too tough and you are low on life you can switch to another and have a full health bar again. Now you can ask your partners to stay in various locations, and there is the odd puzzles that you will need to do so in order to progress, which is a nice switch up to the run n gun aspect of the game. Speaking of boss fights, these can be super tough and will require you to work out which character best suits which boss in a bid to then unlock the next character. They generally have one or two attacks that spam bullets and projectiles, which can feel rather repetitive but will require you to learn their patterns and keep a "safe distance" from them in order to succeed.

Overall this is a quirky fun and enjoyable shooter that if you can get passed the silly AI, will give you some fun engaging times.

Graphics

Visually I liked the pixel art style and the way it does present itself with a cute aesthetic. Locations area varied enough and with 7 zones to get through, ranging from woods, towns and caves, with enough variation to keep things from being stale. When it comes to the game's enemies, they are either humanoid version of zombies, like soldiers, or giants. There is also machines enemy types like helicopters, tanks and drones. Depending on the location you will also find animals variations like rats, boars, with even some more unusual enemies like slimes and trolls. 

All characters have a variety of different abilities, which can be switched at anytime, but only one has traditional weapons to use like pistol, SMG, Assault Rifle and Shotgun. While the guns have infinite bullets, they will need to be reloaded once the magazine is emptied, so keeping an eye on the number of bullets is essential. Bullets also have a rather limited range so carefully moving around to avoid being hit by those that use guns themselves is needed. This is also the only weapons that can be upgraded between levels and cost you nanomachines in order to increase each weapons said damage output. 

However, one area the game does have some terrible issues is the buggy menu system that often fails to work properly, and has more than one caused me to restart the game. Rumour has it the developer is hard at work trying to fix the issue, and will have an incoming patch soon.

 Another issue was one level where you are chasing a Phoenix across a bridge with red bracing flying past. This got so visually hectic being overlapped with other colours, that it caused me more often or not to die due to the immense constant flashing and eye strain.  

Sound

When it comes to the music and sound effects, this is where for me at least the game shines. It has a lovely background synth music that enough of quirkiness to keep you bouncing along as you progress through the game. There is no voice acting with the story being told through text boxes and cutscenes with again more text boxes. Sound affects are equally well done with the shots meaty and punchy, and the title screens safe zone showcasing off some lovely wildlife noises.

Overall my recommendation for this game is a good gaming headset to enjoy that lovely synth music to its fullest.

Verdict

This leads me onto the rating of the game:-
Now I rate games in order of, avoid, on sale, great purchase and must own. My rating for 7 Days Heroes is a "On Sale’’.

The game is enjoyable when all the elements work perfectly, but for me it was the AI that really let me down. I found myself more frustrated with it, thus in turn not enjoying myself as much. That’s not to say there isn’t a fun game here, but for me, it got a bit tedious near the end.

The game is currently priced on Xbox at £8.89 or approx. $10 and depending on skill and patience would give you over 7+ hours worth of gameplay. There are optional unlockables to find, and the challenge of getting all the nanomachines in a level, which could add a few more hours to the mix. 

Overall this isn’t a bad game, just one that needs a bit more polish which I hear the developer is doing. For retro fans and platformer fans, this would be fun to play once said patches are up and running.