MangoNacre » Reviews » Seven: Enhanced Edition
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55 people found this review helpful
4 people found this review funny
Not Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 6.5 hrs on record (4.4 hrs at review time)
Posted: 28 Mar, 2019 @ 1:53pm

While there is a lot to like about Seven, the way the camera view is designed defeats the whole purpose of a stealth game. The camera will constantly shift walls, floors, and ceilings in and out of transparency as you move around. This is common in 3rd-person games, usually successfully. Not so here.

Climbing a stairway, for instance: You do not see a single thing about the level you're climbing towards, including the guards right at the top of the stairs, until you actually step onto the floor itself. At one point, I stepped off a catwalk onto a ventilation shaft - maybe about 3 inches down - and the entire level of the catwalk went so transparent as to be invisible, again, including the guard I was trying to avoid and time as he patrolled.

Even more frustrating: The game provides you with a magical "Sense Mode", which lets you 'scout' with the camera, well beyond what you would be able to see normally. Great! Make up for the weird camera design with a special ability! No, sorry, even that mode does not allow you to see the guards that are 10 feet in front of you, just because they are a few inches higher.

The days of the original Thief being the only stealth game around are long gone. There are very many now that treat stealth way better than Seven. Give this one a pass unless they do a major update to how the camera works, at a minimum, allowing you to have some control over it.
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9 Comments
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MangoNacre 15 May, 2019 @ 5:05am 
No worries, Tom!
Tom_IMGN 9 May, 2019 @ 12:40pm 
Thanks, I haven't played it myself. I'll do check the gameplay. Thanks for pointing me to this direction.

Take care,
Tom
Community Manager
Fool's Theory and IMGN.PRO team
MangoNacre 7 May, 2019 @ 11:30am 
I actually came back to this review to say: As I'm nearing my 400th hour of playing Grim Dawn, I realized that it is probably the very best example of an isometric game camera system. It is one of the few ARPGs that has camera rotation and it works very well.

Tom, if you see this thread, and haven't played Grim Dawn or seen it played, check out some videos of the Ashes of Malmouth expansion, specifically The Candle District and Steelcap District. They are city areas with multi-story buildings that your path takes you in and out of . I hardly ever, if at all, have difficulty figuring out the path to follow, or see where I am, or what I'm shooting at. Maybe you can pick up some ideas from it for the next Seven version?
MangoNacre 7 May, 2019 @ 11:30am 
@Delita: Please re-read my review. When you climb a stairway IRL, you're telling me that you are completely unable to see anything at all on the floor you're climbing to until you actually step onto the floor? That's what I'm describing. A human climbing a stairway can clearly see onto the floor they're climbing to before they actually arrive on it.

Further, as Baron points out, it's a video game. More to the point, it is one in which the developer specifically chose to include a special "Sense Mode" which gives you exactly what you're claiming the character doesn't have: The ability to see things that would be impossible IRL.
Baron 7 Apr, 2019 @ 5:57am 
@Delita It's a video-game. If realism was it's selling point i'm sure it would've classified it and would've given in-game hints towards it. Disliking the camera movement will really affect your play experience, hence the negative review.
Delita 1 Apr, 2019 @ 5:04pm 
It's funny how you complain about not seeing things when you're not yet at a level. Have you ever thought that it's logical that you won't see anything when you're not yet on the level that you're going too... even IRL? I think it's a way for the game to be a bit realistic just because it's top down view it doesn't mean you have god eyes on everything. It defeats the difficulty of the game if you can see everything.
Tom_IMGN 31 Mar, 2019 @ 10:31am 
Thank you for your reply. I can't argue with you on that one. I understand your point of view. It is just something we can't change at this point. Such feedback is always nice, even though it is negative. We just need to take a lesson from it and try not to have it happen again. Once again thank you for your time in writing all of this.

Take care,
Tom
Community Manager
Fool's Theory and IMGN.PRO team
MangoNacre 31 Mar, 2019 @ 8:26am 
I appreciate your comments, Tom. As you can see, I don't often write reviews. I felt compelled to in this case because while the demo has a little bit of city environment in it, it does not give a good indication as to how herky-jerky and confusing the constantly shifting camera is. Of course, such a game-breaking point happened well after I passed the window for getting a refund. So I do feel a bit burned a bit by this purchase, and am hoping to prevent others from feeling the same disappointment.

I understand that many gamers were able to deal with the camera design and I'm sure some even love it. But I think there will also be many other like me who feel that game mechanics that force you into unreasonably blind movements when you know there are guards patrolling is completely counter to the whole stealth game genre.

I'll be happy to take a look at your next game, though with considerable caution. Good luck.
Tom_IMGN 30 Mar, 2019 @ 6:49am 
Hey MangoNacre,

Thank you for your review. Unfortunately, we can't do anything about the camera now. We use your feedback to learn from it before the next game. Thanks for taking time in writing all this.

Best regards,
Tom
Community Manager
Fool's Theory and IMGN.PRO team