Games·IGN·2 nov 2023

The Strange Saga of The Day Before

On January 29, 2021, Fntastic announced The Day Before with a five minute trailer. It showed two players driving into a city and looting various cars and shops before getting into a firefight with another group, and then fleeing from a hoard of zombies that were attracted to the noise. The graphics were of a higher quality than many games released since, the gameplay was seamless, and the world was open, full, and completely interactive. It gained the attention of the gaming community, who looked on hopefully at what appeared to be a mix of Ubisoft's The Division and PlayStation blockbuster The Last of Us. And the next few months only gave fans more reason to get excited. Fntastic co-founders Eduard and Aysen Gotovtsev appeared in a combat gameplay trailer in February to show off what they called "a real breakthrough for the MMO survival genre". Adding to this idea, they told IGN at the time: "It's no secret that [most survival MMO's] are all built on the sandbox model, when you set goals for yourself and wander around the [deserted] world. In The Day Before, we reinvented everything from the in-game goals to the ways we approach the quality of the game mechanics." More and more game footage followed, with Fntastic releasing a quick look at vehicle gameplay in March and a hefty extended trailer in April. The latter increased the scope of The Day Before even more by showing off a completely new environment in the form of America's great outdoors, with players exploring a lake, forests, and finally a creepy farm that all looked meticulously detailed. The Day Before blew up again, with the trailer being viewed more than one million times in a day.