7 Days a Skeptic

aka: 7 Days a Skeptic: History runs in Cycles
Moby ID: 14228
Windows Specs
Special Edition

Description

7 Days a Skeptic takes place 400 years after 5 Days a Stranger.

You play as Dr. Jonathan Somerset, a psychiatrist on a spaceship. One day, a strange artifact is found floating outside the ship's doors. When the crew brings it in, it appears to be a coffin with the remains of John DeFoe, which somehow floated out into deep space. At first the crew believes it's nothing, and leaves it lying around. But during the night, the ship's captain goes missing. And even stranger, the box is open, and nothing is inside.

7 Days contains fewer puzzles and more action elements than its predecessor, and is also made with the AGS engine.

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Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Linux version)

13 People (7 developers, 6 thanks)

Artwork
Programming
Dialog
Story
Characterization
AGS Engine by
Sound effects taken mostly from
  • Half-Life
Playtesting by
Thanks to
  • All the playtesters - for their time and criticism
  • Valve - for not knowing about this
  • Philip J. Reed (for living the dream and keeping the faith)
  • The AGS forum regulars - for not working out my false identity
  • The Brothers Redcloud - for the usual stuff
  • Bruce Campbell (for inspiring a generation)

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 81% (based on 6 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 35 ratings with 6 reviews)

The Tale of Mephistopheles

The Good
It was a long time ago since the events of DeFoe Manor, as depicted in 5 Days A Stranger. Nobody can't remember the name of Trilby, the famous cat burglar, or Simone Taylor, or Jim Fowler. The tale of DeFoe Manor has been forgotten and nobody can't tell to their kids or grandkids its legend. After all, we're in 2385, nearly 400 years after the destruction of the youngest Roderick DeFoe's son.

Time is spent in space, with a powerful Earth Federation. The leaders decided to recycle old spaceships and the first one to be launched in our universe after being renovated is the Mephistopheles, whose crew had the mission to map the Caracus Galaxy. You find the soon-retired Captain Barry Chahal, the too logical Lieutenant-Commander Angela Garret, the funny engineer Lieutenant Adam Gilkennie, the rule follower Ensign Serena Kyle, the rookie physician William Taylor and the famous counsellor Jonathan Somerset.

One day, they found a strange object floating in space and despite the recommendation to let a research ship take it for examination, Barry decided to bring it aboard. An inscription dated from 1997 asked to not disturb John DeFoe's eternal sleep. With the night coming, the crew is going to bed. They don't know that they've sealed their fates and that it will be up to Jonathan Somerset to solve the mystery...

7 Days A Skeptic is the sequel to 5 Days A Stranger and the second "chapter" in the Chzo Mythos Quadrilogy, even if in terms of chronology, the events depicted here are the last to happen.It's still a free game made with the AGS Engine, released in 2003 and made by Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, the developer behind the Rob Blanc Trilogy and the Trials of Odysseus Kent. As for the AGS Engine, it's also the engine behind Yahtzee's games but also the Ben Jordan series, Larry Vales or Barn Runner.

When you say sequel, generally, it's picking up the story nearly after the end of the first game (like Ben Jordan series for example) or a couple of years after (see Half-Life and Half-Life 2 even if it's a matter of ten/twenty years in this case). 7 Days A Skeptic belongs to this category of sequels, even if well, 400 years have passed since the first opus. So, Yahtzee placed his characters in an advanced-technology world, where mankind is exploring universe.

So, the storyline is taking place in space, where fear can be really present and where nobody can hear you screaming. You're in an old scoutship with strange events like bloody nightmares, missing crew members and dismantled body. Anyway, with the name DeFoe and the hat as a signature, you can easily guess that John DeFoe is the wraith of DeFoe Manor, Roderick's unwanted son, Matthew's twin brother and that the hat is Trilby, apparently having send something which couldn't be destroyed like that and containing the spirit or the sound of the poor kid and which could be a plague on Earth at the time. So, you do know that bringing the object aboard was a very bad idea and that you'll live 7 days of complete horror and death. But the idea of making a plot twist at the end of the story is one of the strong points of the game. Nobody could have seen that. Nobody could have predicted that. Unless you've taken the Chzo Mythos in the wrong sense and played 6 Days A Sacrifice.

The gameplay is nearly the same. Players take control of Jonathan Somerset. For moving him, you can click anywhere you want. For using, talking, looking or use your inventory, you have to put your cursor on the desired object/character (the cursor will become a square) and to right-click for opening the menu action and choose what you wanted to do with it/him/her. There is also a passage where you'll have to type for accessing some documents: if you're playing with an AZERTY keyboard, don't forget that the game was set for QWERTY. This fact is only a complaint coming from an AZERTY user.

The puzzles are good. Even when you have to do an action quickly for avoiding death, you can use your good sense or the clues dropped by characters. Like for example at the end of the game, William speaking about the radios masts. As you already had entered the captain's console, you can remember the first action allowed. It's not really a difficult game.

Graphics are simple and sober. It's not really as detailed as in 5 Days A Stranger but it's efficient... even if I find that the ship has too more blue corridors or a sort of brown yellow that isn't appealing. Don't expect graphics like in Half-Life or in The Longest Journey, remember that the AGS engine is in the direct line of the LucasArt or Sierra old-school adventure game. If you can't stand that kind of graphics, you will not be pleased by games made with it. Anyway, it's more shocking than the previous opus but I still maintain that 18+ is a too high setting for it. It's not really a realistic horror game, so, I think that 15+ is a more reasonable rating.

Soundtrack is also good. It's again a pity that the music isn't playing always but the sudden silence on Monday (engines not working) and the only sound when having a EVA Suit for going out (it's your breathing) is strengthening the suspicious and horror ambiance. What will happen now that I can't hear anything except my walking or my breathing?

The replay value is good. If you have missed a dialog or easter eggs, you can play it again and again. Lifetime is perhaps a little longer than 5 Days A Stranger but the days are never long. Saturday was very short for example.

The Bad
As I've hinted it, when the name on the locker is revealed, you do know that the crew will be murdered. You don't know who will survive or who will be the next one to die but you know that the trip will be bloody. It's perhaps a weakness but even with this knowledge, you want to know the story.

And if you remember correctly, I have a complaint that can only apply to AZERTY keyboards. Well, as I own an AZERTY one, mainly because I'm living in Europe, I find it somewhat frustrating to type while looking my keyboard. Being used to type without thinking where my key is, it's kind of boring to do so. Well, fortunately, it's only for a few seconds. That'll be hell for the next chapter of the Chzo Mythos, Trilby's Notes, as the gameplay is only typing. But I can't really blame Yahtzee for it, as it's probably a feature of the AGS Engine.

Another boring thing is the clipping/unclipping you when outside. I know that it's more secure to be clipped to a safety rail when going outside of space but why the character doesn't do it automatically when going from a safety rail to another? I know, you have to do it only between the two first rails but you have always to do it.

The Bottom Line
Anyway, 7 Days A Skeptic isn't full of surprise: you do know how DeFoe works and it's not a shock to see the crew being killed. But it's also refreshing to see a sequel set in a future, in a new place and with new characters even if William Taylor is Simone Taylor's descendant and somewhere connected to 5 Days A Stranger. 7 Days A Skeptic is a good game, free and downloadable that I recommend. It's only a pity that after that, the quality in some areas will drop.

After all, if you beat DeFoe Manor, you can board the Mephistopheles for a happy and bloody trip in space.

Windows · by vicrabb (7272) · 2008

In Space No One Can Hear You Scream!

The Good
7 Days A Skeptic the sequel to 5 Days A Stranger revolves around the crew of the spaceship Mephistopheles nearly 4 hundred years in the future from the first ones events and begins when the crew finds an object floating in space and decide to bring it aboard but when they inspect it, it appears to be nothing so they leave it alone but when the captain disappears and along with him the rest of the crew leaving your character Dr. Jonathan Somerset to find out what is behind all this madness.

7 Days A Skeptic is a horror adventure game just like the original but this time around the play mechanics are slightly different this time in order to use an object by clicking on it then choosing the desired action to use with it for example to open a door you would right click on the door and choose the hand icon, the puzzles remained about the same using the item on an object to get further along.

The graphics are about the same as the originals so there’s not much to talk about with it the music is now an original score not just taken from RPG Maker and still holds well with the horror theme and the sound effects are pretty much the same as in the original.

The Bad
Even Though this game takes place over more days than the original 7 instead of 5 this game is the same length as 5 Days A Stranger thus meaning the game is only like 45 minutes to complete which some will definitely be disappointed by and one thing I must stress is how stupid I thought the ending was it’s not even because its downer because horror shouldn't have happy endings but it’s just stupid.

The Bottom Line
All That Said this game is a quality sequel to 5 Days A Stranger and anyone who enjoyed that should enjoy this one plus once again its free! Special Edition $5.

Windows · by Classic Nigel (108) · 2007

Big on atmosphere, short on gameplay

The Good
Continuing in the vein of its predecessor 5 Days a Stranger, Skeptic transposes the slasher flick vibe to a sequel -- IN SPAAAACCEEE. I'm not sure why it was necessary to pick up the same storyline 400 years in the future, but it makes for a really cool Alien-esque setting. Except instead of an Alien it's an aptly malicious and scary space-Jason.

Even (or especially) in the adventure gaming heyday of the early- to mid-90s, there were very few decent horror/suspense games, so it's cool that the designer made an effort to right these past oversights. The ship is a fun setting, and the sparse music combined with ambient sound effects, particularly the use of bipedal pitter-patter, adds immensely to the creep factor. Throw on top of that an inexplicable murder mystery wherein everyone, including the main character, is suspect.

The tension and suspense is really palpable, and the puzzle design is remarkably logical for an adventure game. Every problem has a sensible solution, a relieving change from most fanmade retro games which feature puzzles designed by level 5 sudoku masters who spent too much time playing King's Quest 6.

The Bad
Obviously a retro-style amateur game should be held to different standards than a pro-game. It's free, so that said, there's only so much to complain about but...

..for starters, it's short. Maybe too short. As a side effect of logical puzzles, you can work through the game in pretty short order. There are no alternate solutions, so you're following a very linear path. The limited scope of gameplay means you're essentially playing a movie, but it's in 16-bit and you could be watching Alien instead.

The explorable areas on the space ship are pretty limited and the prop-ish rec room could have done with some functionality for at least the illusion of more open-ended gameplay.

I understand the limited scoring was done for dramatic effect, but honestly a bit more music would have really added to certain segments.

The story itself is a little want for detail. Flashbacks, hallucinations and dreams all add to the atmosphere, but they don't really explain what's going on. The gruesome revelation toward the climax is more for shock value than exposition, and it still leaves tons of loose ends. The Twilight Zone hook at the end is kind of baffling and cheap.

The Bottom Line
It's free, it's fun and it's short. You can't go wrong if you're an adventure gaming fan and you're not expecting a masterpiece of the genre. If you like slasher flicks and suspense games, 7 Days is your man.

Windows · by jTrippy (58) · 2010

[ View all 6 player reviews ]

Trivia

Hidden scene

There's an easter egg in 7 Days a Sceptic, in the form of a lost scene. To see it, play through the game to the end on a date close to my heart (or at least with your Windows clock changed to that day).

References: Chzo Mythos

  • Dr. William's last name is Taylor, and he has very blond hair. He is a descendant of Simone Taylor from the first game.
  • Parallels with 5 Days A Stranger: the first (full) day ends with the discovery of a corpse, and the hero is at one point accused of the murders and imprisoned.
  • On Friday, the captain's console will tell you that the Captain's birthday was on Monday, that he is 55, and that today's date is the 1st of August 2385. Monday was four days ago, so his birthday is the 28th of July. Fifty-five years ago would be 2330. So, the captain's birthdate is 28-07-30.

References

  • The imagery wherein the Welder's hands appear on the side of the box, ready to haul him out, is a reference to the classic Japanese horror film The Ring, as is the way the camera cuts away before anything else happens.
  • At the end of day 4, William says "Don't you think we can refer to 'it' as 'him'?". This is a line from Halloween.
  • The bit where William has lost his eyes is a reference to Event Horizon, a film in which a spaceship is taken over by an evil force, possesses a doctor and influences him into pulling his own eyes out.
  • While on EVA, the only sound you hear is your own breathing. The same thing occurs during EVA scenes in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Soundtrack

The music playing at the beginning of the game is called One Man's Dream.

Additional information contributed by CubbyKatz

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Zack Green.

Additional contributors: Indra was here, CubbyKatz, formercontrib, Solid Flamingo, Patrick Bregger, Tien Thuy Le Nguyen.

Game added July 29, 2004. Last modified December 5, 2023.