Seven: Enhanced Edition

Seven has some non-trivial flaws with many of its core systems, including stealth, combat, character development and enemy AI. Fortunately, I didn't find those flaws critical enough to seriously impact my enjoyment from exploring the game's rich, detailed and somewhat original world. It is a wide open game, both in the non-linearity of mission and map design and for supporting different play styles (although the flaws make some more viable than others). For lovers of exploration, a dangerous and beautiful world awaits, with many hidden secrets and side stories that could take up to 100 hours to properly appreciate.

This game is sort of like they took the sneaking and stealing component of Divinity: Original Sin and expanded it into a whole game. And while there are a ton of flaws, I still found myself really enjoying it. The good: Great map with a lot of verticality I liked the setting and visual style. Overall the movement seemed to work pretty well, and it was easy enough to climb and jump around. Putting on disguises is fun (though, I think that the non-wreath enemies should still be a little less sensitive when you have one on). There is a good amount of stuff to do in the world. Neutral: Vendors have very little cash, so you end up doing more of a trading style where you take their best items in return for your junk. With all the verticality, the map doesn't always give you a very good idea how to get from where you are to where you want to go. So it can be easy to get lost - sometimes kinda cool to try to find your way through, sometimes annoying. Some of the flaws: Your carrying capacity is stiflingly low - and it only gets worse, since you actually start with the skill chip that increases the capacity. This does everything from limiting trying out new weapons and armors to dis-incentivizing you from diving into the crafting. You can rotate the camera 360 degrees, but the angle is fixed. It would be nice to be able to adjust the tilt at many points. Sight lines for NPCs should be easier to see - can't tell when cover actually protects you oftentimes. And enemies end up detecting you through walls a lot. Assassin playstyle is a non-option, as your backstab doesn't one-hit-kill in many situations. And the drop-kill is very hard to employ. And any fight or noise brings everyone for miles running to you. With all the verticality, walls/roofs/landscape going transparent is required. But sometimes it will show you places that you can't actually ever go. The blink ability that you start with is very hard to use. It can't change height at all and has trouble with gaps too.

I am over 20 hours in and have been loving it. However, there are some major mechanics that were never mentioned, and if you are not aware of it, the experience becomes absolutely terrible. First one is stealth and noise. Lower right, on your radar, the outline will wiggle. This is your noise meter. Heavier armor causes more noise, and can be so bad that turning around while crouched will alert guards, but that statistic is not shown as a number. If you want stealth, look for armor that gives 0% reduction in movement speed (commoner's clothes). Noise will negate Invisibility as enemies will attack "thin air". If you need quick getaway, you need to go Invis, crouch, and do the roll/slide away. Second is combat. Your evade button is the recovery button. If you get hit, and you mash evade, you will immediately recover and dodge. This button needs to be pressed a lot in combat. Doing rolls, slides (they stun enemies a little), back step (no direction evade), then attacking out of an evade. Almost all of these were discovered by accident and completely change how combat feels. Using fists to KO instead of trying to kill guards will make a difference. KO enemies do wake up, but you can do this in the beginning against tougher units. This KO can also be done as a drop attack if you can't get behind an enemy. Last one is a general tip. Exploration do NOT unlock more skills. You need to follow the main storyline to get skills like Chronosphere, Invisibility, etc. Also, there is a limitless supply of money via constantly respawning people, so don't be afraid of selling random weapons and armor that you find.

If you like third-person or top-down stealth games (Hitman, Skyrim, Heat Signature) buy this game. I've put 90 hours in and have completed probably 80+% of the side-quests, including the DLC, as well as completing the main quest line and had a blast. However, there are many annoyances that detract from the user experience. With a bit of experimenting, though, the game really opens up and becomes very fun. You MUST save-scum. The one-shot-kill environmental features and unrestricted fall damage means you will have to use the save system intentionally. Since even side-quests can have different endings, you are encouraged to play out the various options by quickloading and trying a different approach. Many things aren't adequately explained to you such as the icons in the menus, how or why to upgrade weapons and armour, the stash system (available at the safehouse and every fast travel point and crafting bench) and how to upgrade your "magic" abilities, how to use them properly, differences in weapons, necessity of dodging or techniques for combat (the latter two encourage experimentation). You cannot ghost through the game which may put some people off when the game says you can "choose your playstyle". Combat is required for the two fights mentioned above and thus, watching for better weapons and crafting upgrades for them is also necessary. If you can get over the lack of guidance from the devs, this is a gem of a game that detractors haven't invested time into (e.g. Piflik's review can be softened by just explaining that he has to dodge more, switch between long-range and melee weapons, save-scum, use sense-mode more often to detect traps early, sliding is slower than the teleportation ability, don't pick up items you don't need, pay attention to upgrade requirements, use the invisibility ability, crouch more, read the tutorial on the fast-travel system--most of these things would apply to Skyrim too but you need to learn the systems of Seven).

This game is top-notch. I think the devs of this game had thought off the right solutions to common RPG traditional mistakes. For example, this feels like a real open world, not only because of map extensión but for the map verticality and well-designed environments. Every heavily guarded zone has multiple entrances, and there is no linear solution to find an objective. Going in through certain zone maybe let you approach the mission objective more easily than others. How profound the mechanics of this game are! That's the word I think describes it best: Profound. It has AAA RPG characteristics: looting, crafting, diary, combats, upgrades, choices, and collectibles, in an easy and light manner for an indie-looking game. And man, the lore! It is all about a dystopian cyberpunk world where technological advances and science together with human nature produced a kind of totalitarian state where people find even a religious, existential, and divine sense in worshiping technology. My favorite lore part is definitely the population control part. Everyone needs a VISA pill to wander around certain parts of the city: you can collect the money to buy the pill in a dispenser machine, wander around perilous map zones and, hiding and seeking, find an entrance on your own, or you can do some quest with certain important low-life character and earn a pill after stealing a container in the city docks. What I just said is pretty much what this game is about plenty of freedom.