After five years of development, the early access of the highly anticipated and controversial game The Day Before has finally been released. A lawsuit over a calendar app, weird marketing statements, delays, and now a complete studio shutdown.
I dare say that one day there will be a miniseries on Netflix about the development of this “game”. Because it’s hard to believe what’s going on around The Day Before. Five years in development, big ambitions that excited thousands of players and the game became one of the most anticipated titles on Steam, but at the same time the already mentioned delays and doubts whether it is just a scam and an attempt to make money from poor and excited players. In addition, the situation surrounding the developers from Fntastic, who are behind the title, is still developing dramatically and there is not a day when we do not learn more and more shocking information. Therefore, before we start the dissection of advance access itself, let’s recap the events of the last few days.
On December 7th, after several delays, the title was finally published. Not as a full-fledged game, but in the form of early access. Immediately after the start, a storm broke out in the form of a very negative evaluation on Steam. Currently, the game has only 15% positive ratings out of almost 22,000 user reviews. I don’t even remember such a shameful reception for a big game. Even botched ports of console games earned better ratings. Poor technical condition, unfulfilled promises, a completely different genre than originally announced, and many other criticisms fall on Fntastic’s head from all sides. The players then started researching and soon discovered other strange facts. The city map was supposed to be just an asset that could be bought for about $300. The same apparently applies to other mechanics or models of things and characters. Even because of this scandalous information, the developers disabled the discussion on Discord. On December 11, the creators announced the dissolution of the studio, saying that the development of the game is stopping, which we also wrote about here. It is therefore not surprising that many accuse the studio of fraud.
But is the game really as broken as it is written everywhere? In a word, yes. But let’s do it in order. Originally, the creators promised a brutal survival MMO in an open world, in which you are threatened not only by hordes of bloody zombies, but also by other players. But in the end, The Day Before is a very sloppy extraction action in the style of The Division. Why? No one really explained that.
At the beginning, you wake up in a settlement that is the only one still surviving in the ruins of the local city. First you look around and get to know the local staff. After that, you already go to the streets of the city to find the equipment that the survivors want from you. Here, from time to time you will face some zombie or human opponent. And that’s kind of it.
Starting the game itself often ends quite ingloriously. Servers don’t always work as they should. The error message that the game could not be accessed was my frequent guide. When I managed to get into the game, I didn’t have much fun either. You need to arm yourself with patience, in addition with the knowledge that you will encounter bugs of all kinds at every step. The only thing that is quite annoying is that the various opening cutscenes cannot be skipped. For example, if you want to create a new character, you have to go through the tutorial again. Fortunately, at least the conversations can be skipped. The first task, bypassing all the important characters in the sanctuary, will indicate that something is very wrong with The Day Before. You have to follow the characters in the exact order. Do you want to go in your order? You are out of luck. In short, the creators did not think of that.
Once you get off this dating wheel, you can jump right into the “action”. Yes, the action is in quotes on purpose. Since there is no one here either, who knows how much. Most of the time, you walk through deserted, deserted streets. You collect various things that might come in handy and… That’s it. Sometimes you come across some zombies, but they are not very dangerous. Once they get to you, they’ll try to strike. But it doesn’t always work out and they usually miss. In addition, their animation is quite poor. For example, when you shoot at nothing, they begin to twitch and twist quite unrealistically, with an annoying time delay.
Sometimes you will also encounter human opponents. That’s a different coffee, of course. If you run into a cocky fighter who has a sniper rifle, then you’re out of luck. They’ll take you down and you won’t even know how. Of course, you can ask someone to connect with you in the hideout, and the game can also be played in a team.
As for the content of the missions, it is quite stereotypical. Mostly it’s about picking something up somewhere and then getting to a point from where it is possible to return to the shelter. But even the tasks lack any elementary logic and are thus quite annoying. One example for all. The local doctor wants to bring you some medicine. It will mark the area where they are located on the map. I naively assumed that there would be a pharmacy, a hospital, a medical facility in short. I circled around but nothing. Just an empty cafe. The world is amazed, right here, in the drawers and shelves, I found the medicine. I then discovered the last medicine in a garbage truck. Needless to say, these illogicalities are very frustrating. In the specified location, you have to crawl through every corner, every car, every crate to find the desired items.
Overall, the environment is pretty empty. Most buildings cannot be entered. The streets are classically cluttered with brothels, abandoned cars and debris. These scenarios keep repeating themselves over and over. Yes, there is also a kind of suburb with parks, but even so, more variety and diversity would not hurt. Moreover, the area is not too big either. It’s definitely not an open world full of possibilities. In addition to the tasks, you can also explore the area. Sometimes you will find a key, and if you use it to open the appropriate door, you will be rewarded with better loot. But it’s not really just any kind of fun.
The Day Before also includes survival mechanisms. Sometimes you have to drink or eat. But most of the time it is not needed. After returning to the bunker, the statistics are automatically replenished. You can also trade or store your valuables in the safe haven. Which is needed, because when you die, all your stuff is gone, of course. But even a storage room does not guarantee that your things will really stay here every time it is restarted. Sometimes, unfortunately, unsurprisingly, they also disappear.
While playing, I encountered a lot of other bugs and inconsistencies. If you find multiple items at once, they cannot all be transferred to your inventory at once. You have to transfer one thing at a time. In short, the absence of a function that is the basis of almost every game in which you work with inventory. Jams in the environment are also common. I had to restart the game for this once because I got stuck on the basket. Intermingling of characters, the sometimes annoying camera, server crashes, which kicks you out of the game, all this is the order of the day here. Almost legendary are YouTube videos in which players will occasionally encounter a zombie that grows out of nowhere to a gigantic level. I have not witnessed this bug, but according to the frequency of videos, it is a fairly common phenomenon.
Even the technical condition of the title is questionable to say the least. The graphics certainly don’t dazzle, but the game cuts and lags a lot in places. The animation of the characters often stutters and the same applies to the physics here. The only thing that pleases is the rather successful musical accompaniment. Some country and folk songs are quite catchy.
“One of the characters will tell you the zombie apocalypse started years ago, another says months ago.”
Conversations with individual characters are also special. They are quite skeletal, unnatural and often seem downright ridiculous. They also sometimes contradict each other. One of the characters will tell you that the zombie apocalypse broke out years ago, another says a few months ago. The story and therefore the whole world is not consistent at all.
If I had to find something positive besides the music, I would mention that the game is playable. If you can run it and get to one of the servers, it’s playable. The basic mechanisms are bugged, but they still work.
The overall impression is, in a word, overwhelming. As I played I wondered how such a thing was even possible. Either the creators are amateurs and their incompetence is sky-high, or it’s really a pretty nasty scam and an attempt to squeeze some money out of gullible players. I don’t know which option is worse. But one thing is certain. A game that has been in production for 5 years should look completely different. Yes, this is a preliminary approach, so some leniency is in order. On the other hand, we will not see the full version. Which, with all due respect to the energy expended in development, is not such a shame in my opinion, since such a below-average and useless title should never have seen the light of day. If you value your time, avoid the game by all means, even if it happens to be back on sale in the future.
2023-12-18 06:00:29
#played #Day #print #tragedy
