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A little over a month ago 7 Days to Die and its zombie hordes shambled out of early access. On the whole it has been very well received, sitting at 84% positive reviews since release. It’s easy to understand why, there is something so appealing about a big zombie sandbox, scavenging supplies, killing some zeds and the freedom to rebuild in the face of apocalypse. Even if the game has problems, I'll still end up with a grin on my face as I curbstomp the 100th zombie for a chance at a half eaten candy bar. With it having languished in my backlog for a number of years now seemed like the perfect time to give it a spin following the full release.
From the very initial screen my anticipation was slightly dampened. It only flashed up for a second but I’m sure I saw something. Reloading the game for a second time, poised to take a screenshot to confirm I definitely wasn’t daydreaming.
That’s certainly an odd disclaimer to have on a game that has been fully released for a month and a half at the time of writing this article. Mistakes happen, maybe it was simply overlooked? It did only pop up briefly after all… so I powered onto the main menu.
Before hopping into any game I always take a quick detour to the settings so I can fine tune the graphics and performance settings to my liking and I was greeted with the following screen.
Nope, more grey boxes, including one with a slight overload of white text. I guess that is what I am getting instead of any sort of tutorial. Most people by this point have played a number of survival or crafting games, especially with Minecraft having taken over the world, and a basic level of game literacy will allow you to navigate around these menus and intuit what you need to do for the most part. I’m not expecting a menu to elicit incredibly positive feelings but I also don’t want to notice parts of the game that feel like afterthoughts, because any area that leaves me feeling like there is a lack of polish has me on higher alert elsewhere.
Part of this is endemic to the genre. Survival crafting games often have to deal with a large amount and variety of information to deliver. In a shooter I might only need to see my loadout or in a more standard RPG I might be presented with an inventory screen or skill tree. Survival games have to do it all, including being able to deal with a large variety of items, countless crafting recipes, server management controls etc. So let’s compare it to a peer like Ark: Survival Evolved,
While I am not going to claim this is a perfect UI, it’s clear the menu has been designed to fit within the setting of the game. Font and background are stylised, key text is clearer and items have a more distinctive look. At the very least, I am certain the devs put some thought into how this would look to an end user.
Now this is all easy for me to say I know, sat back in my chair, sipping a drink and criticising a UI that I am sure I would do a worse job of if asked to design. It probably didn’t help that I was fresh off playing some Persona 5 Royal which boasts some of the most incredibly stylised menus in all of gaming.
Persona prides itself on its looks and sense of style. The iconic black and red aesthetic and jazz infused soundtrack add a real sense of cool that it makes every effort to maintain through all screens. Survival games are more about player interaction, overcoming the environment and creativity of what players build. Resources are limited in development and additional time is likely better focused on the assets or world but the menu needs to at least feel like part of the game to avoid player dissonance.
These are all fairly high profile games with considerable budgets but the same effect trickles down to smaller indie titles as well. The average player is likely to be more forgiving with a game created by a small team at a lower price than a full on AAA entry fee if it can nail key selling points it’s going for. What if the look is the selling point though?
GRIS is one of the most jaw droppingly beautiful games I have played and rightfully received critical acclaim for its beautiful watercolour backgrounds and fluid animations portraying a journey of grief. Yet because the focus is on the gameplay sections and how they look the menus are not a key part of the journey and can take a more minimalist design. This is not levied as a criticism because someone could play through all of GRIS and not interact with the menu at once (something you can’t do in a survival game).
On the other side of the coin, The Coldest Winter is an upcoming horror narrative game. Being more focused on narrative choices there is an expectation that the user will constantly be making choices through a menu system and so they come out bursting with personality. One look at the below shot immediately gives someone an idea of the setting and tone of this game. Not just that but having such a personalised menu puts a sense of quality in the mind of the viewer. Almost the opposite feeling that 7 Days to Die initially presented me with.
None of this is to say that games with rather pragmatic menus are bad, nor the opposite that a creatively designed menu makes for a classic. Instead this is a call to acknowledge some of the unsung aspects of the games we love that don’t always receive enough credit. If developers think we don’t care, they might stop going the extra mile to make those elements great. It only takes some minor annoyances to take the player out of a great gaming experience. Menu screens matter.
Do any particular game UI’s stand out to you? Any iconic menus that immediately put a positive memory in your mind? Let me know @That1AJGuy.