+/- 1500 hours in. Obviously this game is doing
something right
I think the game's biggest draw is also its biggest drawback: the combination of so many aspects from different genres. It offers a ton of potential, but it's a @%$*#! to balance.
I love the basic idea of riding around in a post-apocalyptic world and being able to do whatever I want, as long as I make smart choices and/or have luck on my side. Slowly becoming the hunter instead of the hunted and creating a safe haven in a hostile world is a power fantasy that 7DtD scratches quite well, a lot of the time.
But I find that TFP's attempts at balancing and expanding the many different systems often fall flat, as if done without a good intuition of how they will interact with each other. Frankly it looks like they borrow cool stuff from other games without completely understanding how it will function in the bigger picture of 7DtD. I can't even blame them, because it's a hugely ambitious project and I really do think it's cool they took it on. I just wish they had the experience beforehand to realize the limitations of voxel worlds, for example, which is something that Madmole admitted TFP underestimated.
Right now the biggest areas of improvement, for me, would be to focus on making progression less linear and predictable and expanding on late game challenges. I also think the perk & attribute system they went for since A17 isn't really suited to this game, because it hamstrings players that want to use weapons or perks that don't happen to be in the same skill tree. I can still survive with it just fine, but it feels awkward that I can't build a sneaky character that uses sniper rifles without sacrificing quite a bit of efficiency. I get that you're not supposed to be able to do everything, so I'd be fine with foregoing (good) use of pistols or SMG's, for example. But right now that still means I have to invest in perception, which only seems to serve as a gate instead of making my character more.. perceptive. It doesn't feel natural or intuitive, and right now it also means a tree like strength is
way more efficient to invest in than something like fortitude, since it covers almost everything you'd want to do in this game. Shifting heavy armor to strength only made that worse.
I hope TFP take another critical look at it, even if it means overhauling it yet again. I don't care about going gold and don't mind waiting if's actually going to extend the replayability of the game.