Zombie MMO The Day Before is now out in early entry, however is receiving overwhelmingly negative reviews on Steam.
It’s been a rocky street for the sport, with accusations the sport was a rip-off, copying the work of different builders, criticism towards the usage of unpaid volunteers, and a trademark dispute with a Korean calendar app.
Just days in the past developer Fntastic launched an announcement apologising for the sport’s advertising and marketing and requesting “please don’t accuse us of scamming”.
Now that it is out, nonetheless, gamers are extraordinarily disenchanted with the product.
While it have to be famous the sport is in early entry nonetheless, many Steam reviews be aware the way it doesn’t embrace the open world MMO components promised by Fntastic and doesn’t reside as much as the developer’s lofty objectives.
Combat is fundamental, enemy AI is just too easy, the world is empty, and it is stuffed with bugs, are only a handful of key criticisms towards the sport.
“Turns out it is a real game,” reads one evaluation. “Kind of wish it wasn’t.”
“The Day Before Refund,” quips one other.
Fntastic posted on the sport web page: “After five years of blood, sweat, and tears, we can finally say these words: The Day Before is out now”. This reads unintentionally ironic subsequent to the terrible reviews.
Over on X, previously Twitter, journalist Nick Calandra described The Day Before as “nothing but a cash grab” in a protracted thread, whereas additionally noting that Fntastic has scrubbed its YouTube web page to take away earlier teaser movies of gameplay it was aiming for.
Yea, do NOT purchase The Day Before.
I’m often fairly lenient, however that’s nothing however a money seize. There’s no gameplay loop, clear AI generated artwork across the metropolis to fill billboards, no animations to talk of for the zombies, completely no mission design to talk of.
Nothing.
— Nick Calandra (@nickjcal) December 7, 2023
Ahahaha.
Not FNTASTIC utterly scrubbing their channel to cover any proof of the faux ‘The Day Before’ recreation they marketed.
Left is at the moment.
Right is from earlier this 12 months.
Have zero downside describing this as a full-blown rip-off now. pic.twitter.com/kdX6tyBxQU
— Nick Calandra (@nickjcal) December 7, 2023
I made a decision to leap into the sport myself to get a have a look at it first hand. It was not good.
It begins with a really restricted character creator with few choices, particularly for face form and pores and skin tones. Then you select certainly one of three lessons – Roamer, Pathfinder and Ghost – which have little distinction between them past barely greater abilities in sure areas like weight capability or buying and selling abilities.
I then wanted to decide on a server, with each possibility listed as being at excessive capability. That’s odd contemplating the world feels empty and lifeless when you totally arrive.
Before that you have to discover the central base the place you meet a handful of key characters who promote weapons, take care of objects, and heal you. Weapons will be modded at a piece bench. It all feels fairly The Last of Us – there’s even a personality known as Abby.
After just a few intros and a little bit of base constructing – I actually simply positioned a tent on the bottom – you get a journal with which to tackle quests for cash. However, you’ll be able to solely settle for one after the other, so anticipate lots of backwards and forwards between the house base and the zombie-infested metropolis.
Once exterior, the already dangerous efficiency took a nostril dive to virtually unplayable. The body charge is appalling and pop-in is intensive, even with the town feeling soulless. I ultimately met my first zombie who shuffled in the direction of me and flinched from every of my photographs seconds after affect. Standing atop a automobile I used to be actually invincible, the zombie simply wanting up at me from down under. Later I met an precise human I one way or the other managed to defeat, regardless of the body charge making aiming much more attempting than it ought to have been, however quickly died myself from bleeding.
After that? I rapidly switched it off. It’s clear that is an extremely fundamental recreation with little to it and, because the Steam reviews recommend, doesn’t reside as much as the expectations set by Fntastic.
Perhaps the sport’s launch on the identical day as The Game Awards was intentional within the hope it might be buried amongst information. Yet it is presently at quantity three within the Steam Top Sellers chart and is likely one of the high trending video games on SteamDB the place its all-time peak was 38,104 gamers.
Those gamers could, like me, be morbidly curious, however I believe the refund charge can be excessive on this one.
Eurogamer has contacted Fntastic for touch upon response to the sport thus far.
