2017’s Seven: The Days Long Gone was a curious game, and one that appealed to all those who played it with its mix of genres and mechanics. With a setting that borrowed from cyberpunk, fantasy, and science fiction, and gameplay that featured stealth and parkour elements to go along with its role playing mechanics in an open world, it was certainly a unique experience. Recently, developers IMGN.PRO and Fool’s Theory released an expanded version of the game, adding several hours’ worth of new content. Hoping to learn more about the enhanced edition, what changes it makes, and what plans the developers for Seven in the future, we sent across a few of our questions. The questions below were answered by MGN.PRO’s Jakub Ryłko.
NOTE: This interview was conducted prior to the game’s launch.
"Our work on Seven hasn’t finished on the release day, we’ve been patching and fixing any reported issues, and when we were finished with the most burning issues we have started tweaking the game according to community suggestions."
Have you taken this as an opportunity to maybe work on things that you would have liked to see improved in the original release?
Yes – our work on Seven hasn’t finished on the release day, we’ve been patching and fixing any reported issues, and when we were finished with the most burning issues we have started tweaking the game according to community suggestions. Experience gathered during this process helped us establish a direction which led into creating the Enhanced Edition.
What are the most significant improvements players can see in the enhanced edition?
The most important part of the Enhanced Edition is DLC named Drowned Past, bringing new storyline with underwater locations, quests, characters, etc., which results in 7 additional hours of gameplay. Some of the other improvements may be described as under-the-hood making the gameplay more smooth experience.
Can you speak to us a bit about the made to the game’s combat- particularly what new skills we can expect to see?
Enhanced Edition bring one especially powerful skill called Doppelganger – which enables player to ‘clone’ himself for a specified period of time. This second character can be controlled and used for offensive or defensive purposes. There are also new weapon types that diversify your combat tactics: flamethrower, energy bow and sword with shield.
Given your continued interest in Seven, can we maybe take that as indication that you have future plans for this property- beyond an enhanced edition, that is?
We see a big potential with many possible scenarios happening in the universe we’ve created in Seven, however we have just released the Enhanced Edition, after more than a year of development, so it’s definitely to early for us to disclose any detailed plans.
"We’re not saying that the game won’t be launching on these platforms but we’re not promising anything right now."
Do you have any plans to release the enhanced edition on other platforms?
Originally Seven: The Days Long Gone was released only on PC, and now with Enhanced Edition we’re adding PS4. We’ll see how it performs on Sony’s console before making another commitment.
Is there any specific reason why the game hasn’t launched on the Xbox One and Switch?
We’re not saying that the game won’t be launching on these platforms but we’re not promising anything right now. Regarding Switch in particular – porting a big, open-world 3D game to a mobile device would definitely be a complex task.
Next gen is coming sooner or later. From a development perspective, what is your biggest expectation from PS5 and Xbox Scarlett?
It would be great to have a console powerful enough to run every game in 4k/ 60fps, however I wouldn’t take it for granted in this generation. From the hardware perspective SSD seems to be the most obvious improvement that developers are waiting for.
What is your take on Sony’s reluctant policy on cross-play with Xbox and Nintendo?
Cross-play is definitely a winning scenario for everyone. This year we’ve seen a breakthrough among platform holders and several titles already offer cross-play between Xbox and PS4. I think we’ll see more and more games that benefit from such possibility.
Do you think cross platform will be one of the defining features of next-gen consoles?
Yes, I think so, as well as the cross-generational play, especially in case of PlayStation, because of the huge base of PS4 consoles present on the market.
"We see a big potential with many possible scenarios happening in the universe we’ve created in Seven, however we have just released the Enhanced Edition, after more than a year of development, so it’s definitely to early for us to disclose any detailed plans."
What is your take on the ongoing drama of loot boxes and microtransactions?
Most of the time gaming industry is doing fine without government intervention, in this case however we’re talking about protecting underage audiences. If we really need regulations they should be smart and responsible.
What is your position regarding the on going platform war between Steam and Epic Games?
Epic Store seems to be first serious competitor since Steam took the throne of PC gaming distribution long time ago. As a result we saw Valve adding revenue share tiers for the developers for the first time ever. Is Epic Games Store the competitor we all needed? Only time will tell.
Do you have any plans to launch on Stadia?
Of course we’re considering Stadia as a distribution platform for our titles, however I can’t disclose any details right now.
Do you think Google’s Stadia has a future, especially given the infrastructural issues?
I think cloud gaming in general has a future, whether it’s Stadia or other platform. Google claims that it has the required technology and in most cases they don’t speak idle words.
What are your thoughts on Stadia’s specs?
They look really good on paper – like a high-end gaming PC, definitely outperforming current gen consoles. We’ll see how it will perform in real life though.
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