The Day Before gameplay mocked by viewers

The developers behind the controversially delayed The Day Before have shown off ten minutes of gameplay footage, which has left fans in doubt about the game.

Fntastic, the developer behind the recently delayed and surprisingly controversial The Day Before, has shown off ten minutes of gameplay for the upcoming game, and fans aren’t convinced.

The developer previously announced a strange delay for the game, bewildering fans by pushing it back by over eight months. At the time, Fntastic blamed a trademark dispute for the delay, saying that a “private individual” trademarked the name of the game before it had the chance.

The delay drama got even weirder a few days later, when Fntastic recanted its previous explanation and said that the delay to the game was planned before the trademark dispute arose. It said that it would be taking more time to make the game “polished, optimised, and content-filled”.

That’s probably a good thing, as the developer released a 10-minute raw gameplay video today, and gamers who had been excited for the game were not impressed by what they saw.

The video consists of two people walking around the game world for a few minutes, with no ambient sound, voice over, or music present. It also included over a minute of checking an inventory screen, as well as a short firefight with some largely stationary zombies.

Many complained that the video failed to show any of the game’s promised subsystems, and called the video a glorified tech demo for the game’s engine, Unreal Engine 5, than any evidence of an actual game.

The reaction of potential players in the video’s comments were largely negative. One viewer joked, “Best jogging simulator I’ve ever seen, can’t wait for the next delay”.

“Wonder how the game would run if there [were] more than 4 or 5 zombies on the screen or even loaded into the area,” another said.

The Day Before does look graphically nice, but gamers aren’t happy about the state of gameplay. Picture: Fntastic

The game world of The Day Before does look largely empty in the footage, with very few landmarks or points of interest on display. Many expressed that the world looked dead, and said that the game’s post-apocalyptic setting was no excuse for the emptiness of the game.

Other viewers of the footage made jokes about the choice of scenes the developer included in the video, remarking “That 90 seconds in the inventory screen had me enthralled”. Viewers also expressed concern that the game might not even be real.

“If this game actually comes out it will be nothing short of a miracle,” one viewer states, which became one of the most upvoted comments under the video.

Another stated, “Imagine actually expecting a full game after watching this video”.

Fntastic says that The Day Before is now set to launch in November, 2023, after previously aiming for a March release.

Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.