Are you trapped on a small spaceship? Being hunted by an evil entity? Then this could be you!
The graphics have made a short hop forward since 5 Days, probably due to Croshaw's skills increasing between games, it hasn't increased drastically but you can probably tell the difference if shown a picture from each game. The setting has changed, from DeFoe Manor to the arguably scarier (definitely with a more worrying name) Scoutship Mephistopheles. Since John DeFoe, or the Welder, is the antagonist again in this game, it's worth mentioning that he has a snazzy new character model to go with the updated graphics, and the first time I saw this I have to say, it was a bloody (pun not intended seeing as he isn't really very bloody if you compare him to 5 Days, I may be wrong but I was too busy running like hell) great character model by comparison to 5 Days.
The music this time was actually created especially for the game to my knowledge although it follows the 5 Days template by having emotional intro music and tense action packed music for the rest of the game. There aren't really any ambient sound effects like before, except for footsteps, but I wouldn't really say they count. There seem to be a few more sound effects in the game, for example, when one character is grabbed and has their neck broken, they scream as they're grabbed, this is something I wasn't expecting and at first actually scared me.
The gameplay follows the same standard adventure game style as before, although with an interface which I found a bit bothersome this time around, although in a few parts of the game I guess it helped a bit, I refuse to give any examples because I don't want to ruin anything. A problem which I had in 5 Days is that after a while the game lost its scary edge, this was something which did not return in 7 Days, from the minute that the casket was brought in to the ending second of the game I was genuinely terrified, and during the final day I was charging along, heart beating furiously and saving in every room I went through because if I was more afraid at that point there would be terrified urine running down my legs as I played, and that interface didn't calm me down much seeing as I was panicking trying to hit the [Censored because I really don't want to give it away] button while John Defoe stood right next to me and was probably about to hack me to bloody pieces. The puzzles seemed less frequent than in 5 Days but I loved them nonetheless, one of them where [Censored for spoilers] has [Censored for spoilers] reminds me of Monkey Island 2 in LeChuck's prison, although with a slightly easier (and less comical) way of getting out. Like 5 Days the game is rather short, it's longer by about 2 days (I bet you'll never figure out how I worked that out) even though the last three days are rather short sadly, not really expanding on the play time much, but that's fine, it's like Portal, it means it doesn't outstay it's welcome by trying to force you into doing things you've done several times already and like it's predecessor (not Portal, obviously) it would feel artificially lengthened if it was any longer, which, surprisingly, the last two days do not feel.
Now for the plot. We've moved on about 400 years since the last game and you're now Doctor John Somerset, the psychiatrist on the Scoutship Mephistopheles, the rest of the small crew consists of Barry Chahal, a veteran captain on his last assignment before retiring, he also seems to be the ethnic minority character, this probably isn't worth mentioning but I thought I'd say it anyway. There's your characters best friend and roommate Adam Gilkennie, the engineer and ship's joker. The First Officer; Angela Garrett and finally the two new recruits on the voyage; Serena Kyle, the Helmsman who was eagerly signed up for the journey after she was top of her class in University and finally Doctor William Taylor, and because I'm presuming that the reader has played 5 Days a Stranger, yes, that surname DOES sound familiar doesn't it. Anyway, now to stop dilly-dallying to make my word count increase in order to make me feel good about myself, and actually talk about the plot, and because of my usual spoiler free attitude this synopsis only covers the start, so, here we go; You're going about your day to day business of stopping people thinking they're crazy when the crew is called to a meeting to discuss an object you've found floating in space, the decision is to disobey orders to drop a beacon and leave it for another ship and bring it in yourself. When this box is brought in thoughts are to open it, until you notice a plaque on the side which reads "Here Lies John DeFoe Finally At Rest Do Not Disturb His Sleep" and everyone decides it's better off to leave it, the day after that everything starts taking a turn for the disturbing. And that's where I'll leave this. The ending is pretty awesome, you walk out after defeating the Welder and [Censored! Hah! You thought I would give it away, didn't you?!] which is a huge surprise and, well, pretty sad I guess.
Overall 7 Days is everything a sequel should be, and as well as that, it's a brilliant game, if you liked 5 Days you'll like this as well, like 5 Days it's free except the special edition which you can get for 5USD, I know I'll be getting them when I have a decent source of income.