The Day Before: A Strange Story
This is a strange one, but likely what everyone was thinking. ‘The Day Before’ a game that no one believed would ever be released actually came out on the 7th of December. And now that it has, we all wish it didn’t. The legacy of this strange and ambitious title is a very weird one with many ups and downs such as being one of Steam’s most wish listed games ever. Now with the game in the publics hands the studio is in a rough patch ‘The Day Before’ dropped to one of the lowest reviewed games on Steam, how the hell did that happen?
Let’s open the book on this strange chapter in gaming history.
The Day Before - What Is It?
Asking what ‘The Day Before’ actually is, or I should say, what was promised is a very interesting question. To tackle it we have to go back a few years. In the beginning the trailers showcasing the game were quite truly ahead of its time. Stunning visuals, movement reminiscent of ‘The Last Of Us’ and ‘The Division’ with a creepy tone. Then, to top it all off a huge world was hinted to be explorable in this promising looking zombie MMO. Players where seen entering skyscrapers while running from a hoard and getting down to some nitty gritty survival elements. The city was explained to be New York, small detail, but it becomes important shortly. Overall the reception was really promising and with the fact its been in development for at least 5 years, it felt like gamers where in for a treat.
The trailer really blew everyone’s socks off but after lowering the hype goggles and looking closer some uncertainty started to show itself.
A Unproven Studio And A Turbulent Development Cycle
Fntastic, the developers behind the game have a very short, strange, and unproven track recording. Propnight their only other recent game was met with ok reviews but their other titles are virtually unheard of. But the drama really started to show itself during the development of ‘The Day Before’.
Calling For Unpaid Labor and Talent: While trying to find unpaid work by giving out internships to help new people enter the competative industry of video game development is fine, and a really altruistic thing to do. Paying with ‘participation certificates’ and free codes as well as off loading a lot of development to these new and unpaid workers is not. This is exactly what the studio Fntastic was doing throughout the development of their game which, quite unsurprisingly, rubbed a few people the wrong way.
Copyright Battle: It's all about giving credit where it's due, right? Well, during their development journey, Fntastic stumbled into an unexpected tussle - a legal showdown over the name of their game with a calendar app that happened to share the same name. Despite the clash, Fntastic managed to emerge victorious and retain their game's name. But hey, it makes you wonder where a chunk of their development budget ended up, doesn't it?
Community Moderators Left In The Dark: You'd imagine those at the forefront, weathering the storm, and boosting the hype would hold major importance, right? Well, not according to Fntastic. Even these crucial PR figures found themselves unsure about the game's existence. Yep, you heard that correctly - internal members were in the dark about whether the game was actually real.
Delay After Delay: Delays would not normally be note worthy, that is unless that are consistent and are always awkwardly timed. Each time the game was set to launch, a new stunning trailer would come out only for the game to be delayed. Rinse and repeat and it starts to look bad.
No Open Beta: Normally games see iteration through the use of open and closed beta and alpha tests. Nothing is ever perfect and engaging in this type of public testing allows the devs to see things they may have missed. Equally, it allows the public to get their hands on it which can make or break a game. Studios can get a sense of if they have a hit in the making or a dud. ‘The Day Before’ had none of these tests. And for good reason because…
The Release
For five years ‘The Day Before’ was expressed to be an open world MMO zombie survival game. And what was given to the public on December 7th was none of those things, matter of fact it was hardly a game. Players loaded in to be faced with game breaking bugs that stopped many players from leaving the main hub of “Woodberry” falling through never ending voids. Models grew to freakish size and if anyone managed to actually get into the game and explore the city they where met with a harsh reality; the game was far from a open world MMO, it was a bare bones and rushed extraction shooter.
Fntastic pulled likely one of the largest bait and switches of the year, maybe even the last few years.
If you are unfamiliar with the extraction shooter genre this is it in brief: you load into a main base (Woodberry), select gear, deploy to the main map (New Fortune City) and loot, complete missions, fight other players, all in the hope to extract with more than you went in with. And death means you lose everything. This genre exploded in popularity with games such as “Escape From Tarkov” and “Hunt: Showdown”, both of which are solid games. But no one asked for or wanted a half baked and rushed extraction shooter in replacement for what was marketed and shown off for years. Finally, the icing on the cake, the Steam listing labeled the game as a open world MMO just adding one final nail in the coffin and confirming what everyone thought, that the game was a walking time bomb.
While its a shame that what they showed, which held so much promise, turned out to be fake, it acts as a warning for future attempts of a scam at this size. Hats off to those who are now grappling with it, unable to secure a refund beyond the two-hour mark on Steam. You're our fallen heroes in this debacle.
Update -
At the time of publishing and in a not-so-shocking turn of events, the studio Fntastic has closed its doors for good. Taking down their site and leaving a short message. Stating that they made no money off ‘The Day Before’ and all its revenue went to paying off partners. It seems like this chapter in gaming history is finally closed.
Update V2 12/21/23 -
In a hilarious addition to this story, Steam, the largest game distribution service on PC actually took a jab at the obvious scam sold on their platform. Hosting a sale they titled, ‘The Day After’ focusing on selling actually good survival games at a reduced fee. Steam is not one to come out and do something like this, so the fact they did, really goes to show how big ‘The Day Before’ drama actually is.
Conclusion
As of now there seems to be no hope whatsoever for Fntastic and their other projects. While ‘The Day Before’ launched in early access with a promise to improve and add features, that could not save it from the mess in which it was released. Which in short was a inexcusable wreck that did not warrant even the label of early access. IGN rating the game a one, something they hardly do, stands as a monument to this strange game and its untrustworthy studio.
