The Day Before: Everything We Know

For those of us who enjoy survival games, The Day Before is the latest title that is causing an uproar among fans of the genre. The Day Before, which has not yet been released but is slated for March 1, 2023, is an open-world MMO survival set in a deadly, post-pandemic America overrun by infected zombie-like monsters and other survivors. The game is coming to PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PS5, and is even cross-compatible between systems.

Frankly, no other survival game in the genre has been able to reach cross-compatibility on the massive scale that The Day Before is aiming for. What might that massive scale be referring to? Well, we're going to break down everything we know about The Day Before right here, so you can truly grasp the boundaries that the new survival MMO is attempting to offer. All we can say is buckle up because this title has the potential to be a game changer for the genre, which is why millions of players have it wish-listed on their platforms already.

What is The Day Before?

The Day Before is a new MMO open-world survival game developed by Fntastic. Set in America, more specifically New York, players' objectives are to scavenge the abandoned cityscape for food, weapons, and resources to aid in their survival against infected foes and other survivors. However, the environment will include a mix of abandoned New York City and a forest environment that players can explore. The massive five-story shopping mall, which is fully explorable from head to toe, is certainly the highlight of the map from the gameplay trailer. Undoubtedly, some awesome combat scenarios will take place here.

Aside from that, you can see the sheer amount of detail that has gone into this game's world throughout the release date trailer. With its third-person perspective, the gameplay is similar to that of The Last of Us. So if you want to get a good feel for what The Day Before will play like, The Last of Us and its sequel is a great title to play in preparation.

Combat

Above you can get a glimpse of The Day Before's combat trailer, which reinforces its likeness to The Last of Us combat. Near the end, you can see the player performing a finishing move on a downed player. The developers have confirmed that the game will feature multiple finishers and takedowns depending on the weapon you have equipped. Speaking of weapons, they are fully customizable in the game. Much like many FPS titles these days, you can customize your weapon with attachment loot you find out on your adventures.

As far as friend or foe goes, that's entirely up to you. The game does feature in-game voice communication, so maybe you can reason it out with some survivors and make some new friends, but always stay on your toes for those ruthless players that love to shoot on sight. It's just the inevitable of the survival MMO genre. However, Keep an ear out when looting, because your character's in-game weight, such as how many items they have on them, correlates to how loud you are.

Colonies

If you're having a tough time surviving on your own, it may be smart to join a colony. Developers have mentioned that the game will include safe-zone hubs, where players can meet up, interact with one another, and band groups together. You can also use these areas to trade or sell your loot to other players or NPCs. With that, NPCs at these locations are said to give out quests for in-game loot, which we imagine will function similarly to the questing in the hardcore mil-sim Escape from Tarkov. However, that's purely speculation.

So you really have a choice of how you want to play, solo or in a group. Both ways, you can play The Day Before to suit your survival MMO preferences. You can even be a nomad in the wilderness with your own little hut. This is to confirm, the games include base-building, which we'll dive into next.

Base Building & Vehicles

The Day Before will include vehicles, and developers have even featured a trailer of how the driving works. Developers commented that if your vehicle is properly equipped, you can get stuck in muddy terrain. Of course, vehicles will be a liability in terms of noise, but if you're in a group or colony, you'll most likely be using them to travel between your base in the wilderness and the city.

You can catch a glimpse of it at the end of the release date trailer, but The Day Before will include base-building. There has been little information released on this front, but developers have mentioned that classic resource-based base building is not exactly what they're aiming for. So it will most likely steer away from the essence of other survival games like Rust or Ark: Survival Evolved, where you need X amount of wood and stones to make a wall.

Game Engine

Arguably the biggest step for the game is the announcement that they are shifting the entire game to Unreal Engine 5. This has resulted in the delayed release to March 1, 2023, but we're all for it. According to developers, “The transition to a more advanced and adapted open-world engine, will make the gameplay of The Day Before even more fantastic.” And from the gameplay we're getting from the trailers, this seems to be exactly the case.

What's more on this front, is that the game won't feature any loading screens, aside from you initially loading into the game world. That means traversing through the world, buildings, hubs, and safe zones will all be a seamless and natural experience.

If you just can't wait for this title to release, developers have mentioned releasing an open beta for The Day Before. This is almost a necessity to touch up on bugs and fixes before the game sees its full release. So far, we don't have a date for when the open beta may be, but keep your eye out, because we're not far away.

So, what's your take? Are you looking forward to The Day Before? What feature of the game are you most excited about? Let us know in the comments below or over on our socials here!