7 Grand Steps: What Ancients Begat Reviews

Worth playing if only for the interesting game mechanics alone. It does strangely manage to capture the feeling of a family struggling to survive and prosper across the ages. Having your only child die is heartbreaking. Having two spouses who both love each other feels incredibly rewarding. But I don't see how they could sustain this across another game, let alone a total of seven.

Slow to develop, and maybe a bit too repetitive after a bit, but plays nicely, and is not trivial to survive. Some neat long lasting effects from real decisions meant to represent daily struggles in ancient times. One for board game lovers, especially on sale.

Honestly, I wishlisted this on the basis that additional features were pending and I would buy it when it was more fleshed out. The trailer and associated screenshots make it look simple, but I can assure you; it is not. Installed it Sept. 3rd, in the afternoon, and played just about 12 hours straight almost. This is one of the best sims I have played in a LONG time, and easily justifies $15. It gets its hooks into you early, and quickly turns into one of those "just one more turn" games. It is unique, has a seemingly infinite amount of depth, and one play through is REALLY long if done correctly. I'm still on my first family, after this initial 12 hours. One of the best purchases I have made all year, easily.

Not a very complex game - good for playing during slow times at the office or when multitasking. Don't ever purchase at full price or you will be sorely disappointed.

It definitely loses the plot somewhere in the second act, gets increasingly buggy as the game progesses, and I'm not honestly sure if there's an actual conclusion, but it's still a very interesting game to play. I keep coming back to begin a new run months or even years after setting my last aside. Whether that's a positive or a negative really just depends on your point of view, but I have had fun with this game.

I can understand why some folks may not enjoy a game like this. The central game mechanic -- take a coin, put it in one of the slots -- though simple and clear, may be seen by some as perhaps too abstract and repetitive. To me though, what makes the game shine is that despite all that, the little family you guide through the ages comes alive. There are times where the wife must sacrifice her life for the sake of her kids, even though she loved another in her youth and she secretly detests her husband. Each kid starts out with such promise, but need attention and love. Generations of may be consigned to poverty because parents neglects to teach their children. I grieve when one of my little people fall on hard times, or is eaten by the crocodiles. And prosperity itself is a mixed thing, with starvation no longer a problem, but with moral dilemmas that permit horribly unethical acts on a grand scale. After a little while, as the story unfolds, I hardly notice the mechanics of the game at all. With the possible exception of Crusader Kings, I can't think of a game (video game or board game) that accomplishes what this game does.

I kind of have mixed feelings about this game. I would give it 5/10. Good, playable, but with serious drawbacks. Upsides: It does give you a strangely epic feeling - you do feel like a part of history itself, looking at stories of families not at the level of each individual, but ultimately, for the entire family bloodline, as a whole. I would say that this epicness is the most unusual part about this game, which no other games I've ever played offers. The graphics and music is also not bad for a game of its size. Downsides: The biggest problem is the disconnect between player's choices and their consequences, and the lack of any coherent logic as to how and why to make decisions. For example, when your family is facing a crisis of the age, you are given 4 questions, each with 4 choices - and after you choose all 4 answers, you kind of get a "score" on how you did. But there is absolutely no prompts as to why one answer may or may not be correct - and the worst answer kills your character outright, and the previous 2-3 hours of your gameplay is wasted. What the hell?! This happens in other places too... To make this even worse, there's no SAVE functionality in this game - just Pause/Continue. I understand that history cannot be rewinded, and that decisions are decisions. It makes sense, but this is a game, for people to play. It is not meant to punish the player harshly. If the character you control dies, you lose your previous 2-3 hours of progress; If all you characters of the current generation dies, you are dead. Your game progress is completely erased. What the hell?! Overall, I like this game for what it's good for, but I hate it for what it's bad for. I'm not playing it again.

While this may look like a traditional board game, the depth on hand is remakable. In using cards/events to tell your characters story the game allows you to create a much more vivid tale of your own. RPG meets board game, and I cannot wait for the follow up.

7 Grand Steps is an ambitious game. It provides a single-player boardgame experience against computer-controlled AI characters set amongst the classic ages of history. Unfortunately, the experience is enormously crippled by the random elements of the game. Progress often feels the benefit of luck, and the frequent impediments to your progress are frustrating and feel beyond player control. While the various storylines you'll encounter are somewhat engaging, they are often hopelessly vague. Character choices that work for one individual utterly fail for another. While training children is an important part of the game, the parents can reproduce beyond their means, such that nurturing each child becomes impossible. Should you choose to dote on one child, rivalries will develop which hinder progress down the line. While progress is exciting, especially from Age to Age, due to the strange and random nature of the game, you could be forced to play one Age for a great length of time. As you are forced to make the same choices again and again, the tedium weighs the experience down, such that slogging through the wheel becomes a chore. While you may find the game has an instant surface appeal, it doesn't ultimately hold up. The lives of the characters in the game feel beyond any meaningful influence, and each turn eventually feels mechanical. The initial wonder of the experience was greatly muted after a few hours of play, to the point that I couldn't explain why I continued to play. The structure of 7 Grand Steps is intriguing, but sadly, it is a flawed creation. "Winning" the game is an empty achievement: the end result of many hours of token creation in a blind universe.

When it comes to games of chance, I would normally stay away. Slot machines at the casinos are a prime example. However, with 7 Grand Steps, there's more at stake. Your coins are steps to improving oneself in the world. In this case, a coin operated Ancient Egypt. You have coins that denote the 'skills' you can adept yourself in as it pushes you forward into time. If you decide to excel yourself in the society, you move up in the social hiearchy. You can find new techs (skills) or become a hero through its adventure-story style of narrative. However, once you get to the ruler class, it becomes a challenge and that is what I admire: a game that is actively trying to push you back if you screw up. It is telling you to learn the mechanics again and come back when you are ready. That is why I am recommending this game. It is a game that is responding to your choices, your shifts and your play of the coins. Who knew a slot machine would be this fun?