First of all - Some background - So my story will make sense...

"7 Days To Die" survival game has had a recent Experimental Alpha
release (Alpha 16) brought out with new enemies, better graphics,
tweaked skills, tweaked crafting, and so on.

I have loaded up the Alpha 16, and been playing it from scratch, with
a brand new unskilled character - for the past 2 weeks. My 200 hours
of play on the previous version, Alpha 15, and I'm proficient at
managing my character efficiently.

It is the sort of game where if you make mistakes, your character dies
and you lose all the items you were carrying - where you died - unless
you can get back there and recover them. You need to be constantly
aware of the surrounding environment, so when you are exploring or
collecting provisions, you are not surprised by a sneak attack while
you're occupied with other tasks.

As well as the exploring, finding useful items, and either avoiding or
fighting shambling zombies (and dogs, wolves, bears, etc) you are
working to construct a base (or set of bases) so you can survive the
dangerous evenings, when the zombies become more powerful (they sense
you better at night and run, whereas they shamble around during the
day). So as well as the basic don't get killed, and I need to find
provisions for nutrition, there is the need to construct buildings or
structures for protection.

It isn't just a case of you build a tower and sit on the top of it.
Firstly, the buildings follow reasonable physical laws, i.e. a
horizontal platform sticking out too far from a support will collapse.
Also, the zombies will beat away at the base structure trying to get
up to reach you. (Slightly unrealistic, but it makes for interesting
game play.)

The Chapter begins....

I have a reasonable base, for this stage of the game. Leaving my base,
early in the morning, I went on a few hours' game time (10 minutes of
real time) journey to visit the closest Trader colony. My aim was to
use the tool workbench to craft some bullets, the chemistry workbench
to craft some gunpowder, and see if the Trader had anything worth
buying with my paltry bag of apocalypse currency.

On my way, there were the occasional zombies shambling around. Some I
shot with my crossbow, checked their corpses to see if they had any
interesting items. Some I just avoided. There was a pack of dogs, off
to my left. Jesus, I hadn't seen a Pack of dogs before, i.e. 10+
animals. Really dangerous. Thanks to spotting them early, I adjusted
my course, and went around them rather than into them. Had I been
about 10 metres closer, I wouldn't have gotten away with it. It was
close!

The environment I'm playing in is an enormous 'random' map, generated
at the start of the game. You uncover the map of where you've been as
you explore. My base is in woodland, close to a massive lake, and the
Trader colony is up the side of a snow-topped mountain. It is a steep
and difficult to climb to reach it.

I reach the Trader, sort out my workbench crafting, and as it is going
to take another couple of hour's of game time (10 minutes of real
time) to complete the items, I decide to go off exploring further and
come back later when they're ready.

I decide to keep going West, beyond the Trader station, past the top
of the mountain, and down the steep slope on the other side. I spot a
deer, shoot it with my crossbow, collect the meat for consumption
later. Avoid a couple of zombies. Find a road, and decide to follow
it. Just off the road, I spot a pathway leading into woodland and an
unexplored house at the end of the path. Attracted by the possibility
of finding useful and rare items, I head towards the house. And
then...

Growling, a wolf has stalked me and attacked me from behind. Woah,
that was a shock. Wolves are fast and dangerous, and I could easily be
killed in such an encounter. I began running, trying to outpace the
wolf. But, I was on steep slopes, and running is dangerous. The wolf
bit me, and I start bleeding out. If I don't stop the bleeding (using
a bandage) then my character will get weaker and weaker and probably
die. Not at all good!

During my run on the slopes, I have a fall, and then have a leg
injury, and I'm now really in trouble. The house is quite close, and
with my dodging and weaving I manage to stumble to it. High ground is
where it is safe. I climb up the stairs, find a ladder that takes me
to the roof, and when I get up there, I find a zombie on the roof.
More weaving around, and whacking at this zombie, and I kill it and
the immediate danger is gone.

Desperately trying to sort out some first aid. I eat some food which
helps to heal me. I manage to stop bleeding, by crafting a bandage out
of cloth pieces, which I crafted out of ripped up clothing. Phew! This
game keeps you thinking on your feet!

So, I'm on top of a house. There's a wolf prowling around at ground
floor. Sleeping zombies have sensed me, woken up and are now shambling
around inside the house. I'm very weak having lost a lot of blood.
Night is getting close. I have a broken leg, so I can only hobble
around slowly. What do I do to survive this? And my character is
getting hungry.

I take out my axe, and chop down the ladder leading to the roof. No
zombies will be following me up that. On the roof, I have the
components to construct a campfire, so I do that, cook some raw deer
meat, eat it to counter my hunger (and gain a little bit of health).
Lucky that I had hunted it earlier! I also have the components to
construct a Splint, so I make one and apply it. This will help my leg
injury to recover quicker. Night approaches and I take pot-shots at
zombies before and after nightfall.

Before nightfall, the zombies are shambling, easier to target and not
doing much damage to the building. I was not looking forward to that
night. What if a zombie horde descended onto this wooden house,
smashed it up and gained access to the roof. Not forgetting my broken
leg... Making running impossible.

Overnight, I finish off my water provisions and food provisions. I
manage to shoot a few feral zombies, and there are still a few zombies
left at daybreak. I craft some wooden frames to ease my way off the
roof, and off the roof I can see and shoot a couple more zombies. The
wolf is still growling on the other side of the house. i decide to
risk it and hobble off towards my base. Fortunately the wolf doesn't
manage to circle the house, otherwise I'd probably have been a goner.

I'm now hungry and thirsty, and walking / hobbling slowly back to my
base. If I get there I've got food and drink and relative safety. I
can stay there until my injury has recovered. But I need to get there.
When you're injured and travelling slowly, you need to be even more
careful. It was practically evening on the next day when I arrived,
still alive. Ah, thank the heavens, I've done it!

Once I'd recovered, on the morning of the next day I made another
journey to the Trader's and picked up the finished bullets and
gunpowder. And then I went exploring some more....

End of Chapter.

Conclusion...

This game is the closest I have been to old-school, spoken
Role-Playing with a real human Dungeon Master. A lot of computer games
give you restricted choices for how to handle events around you. In
this game, you're able to formulate complicated plans to deal with the
events that are thrown at you. How you prepare can be the difference
between life and death - i.e. Did you make a bandage and put it in
your backpack before you began the day's exploration. No? Well, if you
get attacked, you could bleed to death if you're unlucky.

If you travel too far from home, without keeping an eye on the time of
day - You could find yourself unable to get back before nightfall.
Maybe you suffer an accident, and you won't be able to get back in
time due to that. What do you do in that situation?

You need to constantly consider what you're carrying, think on your
feet, use the surroundings to your advantage, be observant (or suffer
the consequences if you're not), have space in your backpack to carry
the items you find, maybe drop items to make space for more useful
equipment. Collect and fashion building materials. Build a resilient
base that can stand up to zombie attacks.

Note that the game is designed to get harder and harder, the more time
you have spent in it. So, if you haven't been improving your
situation, e.g. sorting out better weapons, better base defences -
Then, your survival becomes harder.

The way I play it, I'm very immersed in the whole experience.

Another few comments....

The game isn't as beautiful or as slick as a AAA title (such as
Horizon Zero Dawn). You get some graphical glitches, zombie animations
could be better, the combat is nothing special, BUT... It *is* good
where it counts - Core Game Play.

It also benefits from being good value for money, doesn't use up
tonnes of hard drive space, and isn't a complete resource hog.