The Day Before He Debuted in a Big Way
Strategic Announcement:
In an industry filled with constant releases, making a memorable impression is crucial. “The Day Before” achieved this by premiering its trailer on IGN’s official YouTube channel, rather than relying on typical press releases. This strategic choice leveraged IGN’s vast audience and established credibility, instantly placing the game in the spotlight. By aligning with a trusted platform, the developers ensured that gamers would pay attention, fostering anticipation and excitement even before the game was available for play.
Captivating Trailer:
The trailer for “The Day Before” was more than just an announcement; it showcased a vibrant open-world MMO teeming with zombies and other players. Set against a festive Christmas backdrop, complete with twinkling lights and falling snow, the trailer captivated viewers and sparked comparisons to popular titles like Ubisoft’s “The Division.” Despite some skepticism about the game’s visuals, the trailer effectively ignited discussion and curiosity, propelling “The Day Before” to the top of Steam’s most desired games list and illustrating the power of impactful marketing in shaping gamer expectations.
He, in turn, was tied to Wile E. Coyote’s back.
Fntastic followed shortly after by releasing a trailer for the game, which was again shown by IGN and thus immediately gave it an audience.
This new trailer was even more impressive than the first, and this time it took the action out of the city and into the countryside.
Again, it looked amazing, but new features were also introduced, such as drivable vehicles, vehicle repair, and weapon customization.
It wasn’t finished either, because shortly after, a trailer was released with the release date, this time showing things like the construction of bases and community centers.
If all of this is true, it looks like Fntastic is promising the biggest, most feature-packed survival MMO of all time, and based on its trailer, it was scheduled for release in June 2022.
However, red flags were already spreading like a jungle. It came out of nowhere the other day to be shown on IGN, it looked great and seemed to have a lot of promise.
The only reasonable answer is that it must be from an elite team of experienced developers backed by a large sum of money because the first trailer showed a game that rivals a Triple-A production in quality and scope.
It slows down the day before and then it gets late.
At this point, things are looking good for developer Fntastic and publisher Mytona, who were presumably very happy with Propnight and willing to give Fntastic a bigger budget for the work back in the day.
The first trailers for The Day Before managed to attract a lot of attention, and no one was paying much attention to the small group of detractors who already had doubts that The Day Before was too good to be true.
However, this is where things start to go off the rails. Fntastic is silent after showing the release date: no new trailers, no betas, no demos, nothing. nothing.
Then, just a month before release, Fntastic appears to announce that The Day Before will be postponed until March 2023.
According to Fntastic, this delay was due to porting the entire game to Unreal Engine 5, something Unreal Engine maker Epic does not recommend doing while your project is in production.
Although Fntastic wasn’t moving from a completely different engine like Unity, it was still a baffling decision when the game was about to launch.
What’s even crazier is that they were aiming to complete the transformation in about 10 months so that the day before could make it to the new release window.
What the Hell is a Continent?
good. Now we make a small detour towards the continent. What is this, you ask? Well, that’s the brief period in early 2023 when Fntastic declared “War on Desktops!” “The fight for freedom has begun.”
Confused? Should be. You see, Fntastic was primarily a remote work studio, and it turns out that while they were making The Day Before they were also working on something they called Continent, an app similar to Microsoft Teams.
Fntastic originally appears to have had the idea for Continent back in 2018, when they created a very basic website for Continent.
They didn’t do anything with the site until January 2023, and suddenly they put a pretty face on it while declaring war on desktops. It’s a little dramatic for a remote work app, but oh well.
Shortly after that, Fntastic began introducing people to their marketing concept, showcasing how they created The Day Before and including proper gameplay.
But it turns out that the entire trailer was actually an advertisement for the mainland and occasionally appeared the day before.
They offered a rather poor version of Microsoft Teams—a cheap imitation you might expect to find in a convenience store that also sells ‘The Re-Avengers,’ featuring classic heroes like Pikachu and a vaguely generic plastic block with a human form.
Play! And Plagiarism!
A Lackluster Reveal: Expectations vs. Reality
Under intense fire from even the most ardent defenders of The Day Before, the dubious duo behind Fntastic finally delivered the game’s promised trailer for February 2023, giving us a 10-minute look at the game in action. Finally, a chance to see what it would be like to have a keyboard and mouse and play The Day Before.
God, it was boring. The trailer showed many large, empty spaces with almost no zombies and minimal PvP action. Most of the time was spent holding down the F key to loot things very slowly. It felt like someone forgot to include zombies in the game. Then, just five minutes into the trailer, they suddenly remembered the undead. In a rush, they managed to squeeze in about a dozen zombies.
A Visual Decline: From Stunning to Subpar
It was a far cry from the initial trailers they showed us. The visual decrease was also quite significant. While it certainly didn’t look bad, it was a big step back from what was shown in the early trailers. The moody Christmas vibe of the first trailer disappeared, taking with it all the cold light reflections in the beautiful puddles and snow. What was left seemed flatter and less visually exciting.
Plagiarism Allegations: Inspired or Imitated?
The reaction was not good, to put it lightly. The trailer received many upvotes. However, Discord and Reddit threads were filled with users unhappy about the lackluster gameplay. Many felt there was a huge step backward in the graphics compared to the previous day. Many speculate that sources beyond the game crafted the first trailer and gameplay to attract attention with dense writing.
It’s not unusual for a company to take a vertical slice of its game and showcase it, but in the case of The Day Before, people suspected there wasn’t a bigger game at the time to take a slice of. Things worsened for Fntastic when people noticed that the gameplay video not only looked inspired by Call of Duty but also seemed to feature footage taken directly from it.
Another shot showed one of the players driving a Lamborghini quickly through the streets while a herd of deer ran in front of him, a scene very similar to what happened in the Will Smith movie “I Am Legend.” Fntastic has faced accusations of plagiarism before because some of its later videos feature voiceovers that resemble those from other games, like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Cyberpunk 2077.
A video that shows how Similar the Fntastic The work is for those of bigger and much better games.
The Launch Was a Month Away and He Was Still Missing The Day Before.
As October 2024 approached, the first day was a month away and I still hadn’t returned to Steam.
But that didn’t stop Fntastic from announcing new features. This time, players will be able to get jobs in the game’s safe spaces. They can become manual workers or even musicians.
The idea, according to Fntastic, is that these features make The Day Before more immersive. Well then.
It wasn’t until a few weeks before the planned release that The Day Before reappeared on Steam. At that time, Fntastic also managed to win its court case.
It seemed like people would finally be able to play The Day Before… and then Fntastic postponed it again.
Fntastic changed the release date of The Day Before to December 6. This delay means the game will now launch as an early-access title, a detail they hadn’t revealed before.
Everything they said suggested that The Day Before would be a record-breaking release. They maintained that the game had already been in development for five years.
That was another red flag to add to Fntastic’s growing garden of damn things.
By putting the game into early access, Fntastic could charge players for a basic or incomplete project, suggesting that promised features may come later.
Previous Fantastic games abandoned in early access failed to finish or fulfill their promises, making this all disappointing.
People expressed their worries. However, there is still a hardcore group that defends Fntastic and The Day Before at all times.
Oh look, IGN reviewed it
I wanted to close out this lengthy read with a bit of a laugh because we need it.
You might recall that IGN has played a significant role in The Day Before’s rise to popularity. The platform has inexplicably featured the game multiple times over the years.
I don’t hold it against them, though. Fntastic did a pretty good job of fooling many people, including Nvidia at one point.
One Final Shot From Fntastic
On December 11th, the day that Fntastic announced its closure, X user Kypershot Tweeted Fntastic and said:
“Unbelievable that you guys hyped this game up so much and this is the result. You guys are an absolute disgrace to the Video Game industry.”
Fntastic replied: “This was our first big experience. Shit happens.”
SHIT. HAPPENS.
The Day Before Shit Happens.
