Zombie survival game 7 Days To Die version 1.0 is out now after 11 years in early access

I don't know what the longest-running early access game in history has been (perhaps Project Zomboid?) but I know that zombie survival game 7 Days To Die is definitely up there. We first reported its appearance back in the dark ages of 2013. For context, that was the year Grand Theft Auto V came out. Whoa! Okay, calm down, sorry, I didn't mean to panic you. Yes, the arrow of time is inviolable. We are all marching steadily towards our graves, I know. But at least now 7 Days To Die has finally released its fully baked version 1.0.

The 1.0 release comes out today and brings "more optimizations, polish, quality-of-life improvements, new content, new features, and new gameplay systems than ever before," say developers The Fun Pimps, who must surely be tired.

Their summary is also putting it somewhat mildly. The full patch notes are enormous. The world generation has been beefed up, making it faster and, theoretically, resulting in more interesting worlds. A bunch of new "points of interest" will now appear, including new theatres, high schools and hotels. There are new zombie variants (though I think this is mostly a cosmetic thing, for example, a new type of nurse zombie and a "bowling alley" zombie). There are new animal and vehicle models, lighting has been overhauled, a "new and improved Dismemberment Gore System" will make things bloody in some fresh ways, and there are now various "challenges" to act as tutorials for new players (replacing an old system of quests). There's a bunch more stuff besides this that I cannot face communicating to you, lest it add another decade to the clock.

Even after all that, the developers say they're not done working on the game. A roadmap for future updates includes hints of a weather system, an overhaul of traders, new bandits, and a story mode. All that is set to take them up to the end of 2025, they say.

I last played the horde-blasting starvation sim ten years ago, following its first shambling onto the scene. I liked it back then, enjoying the lonely log cabin defending and simple nightly defenses of my new home (then getting absolutely destroyed by a much bigger swarm). I'll be diving back in to let you know how it holds up after all this time. It's possible a decade of half-hearted survival games has blunted the edge of my enjoyment of the genre. But I do like digging pits for zombies to fall into. Check back for fuller thoughts sometime next week.