7th continent feels like a Choose Your Own Adventure Book, plus a ton of card sorting to slow things down and make it less fun than that kind of solo experience. Ultimately, the playing is largely that of resource management and card sorting, and while the mystery/fog element is neat, the inconsistent art isn't appealing to me--some illustrations are roughly drawn while others resemble 90s computer models. The play style of "go everywhere, do everything, and the clues will eventually be found" also seems laborious rather than adventurous. And having the positive and negative outcomes shown on the cards before a decision is made really spoils the narrative bit by bit.
This gameplay is somehow both too linear and too open in that it requires specific things to be done in a massive system. The adventuring feels set up for right and wrong paths to achieve certain goals rather than a truly open story that I can live out with my character.
It's as if somebody is whispering "Keep to the script" when I wanna explore. Perdition's Mouth doesn't do this. Mage Knight doesn't do this. Even oldies like Barbarian Prince and rogue like Citadel of Blood don't do this.
It's a respectable and admirable achievement, but the play felt tedious very early on each time I played.