Announced as an event, The Day Before is the exact opposite of the promises of the Fntastic studio. On Steam, where the game is available in early access, negative reviews abound.
“ An exceptional journey in a post-apocalyptic open-world survival MMO »: this is the promise hidden behind The Day Before, available since December 7 in early access on Steam. Reality ? A huge deception, causing a flood of negative evaluations (80%) and particularly harsh comments from those who took the trouble to play it. “ Like a cheese panini, but without cheese. And without panini “, for example joked Mentier, an Internet user who quickly requested a refund.
Healde is a little more explicit about the reasons for the problem: “ A big scam, even in Early Access, especially at this price. Save your money and move on, it’s just a pale, bug-filled copy of a DZ in The Division. » According to the reviews, The Day Before, Fntastic’s first big game, is absolutely nothing like the ambitious MMO touted by developers. At best, it’s an extraction game with mediocre gameplay (example: zero melee combat even though there are zombies) and laughable technical aspects (lots and lots of bugs, empty environments). “ The game is a lie that lasted two years », accuses SgtHOOTxHAWKEYE.
Why everyone gets their money back The Day Before
The Day Before doesn’t just focus the hate on Steam. On YouTube, content creators are letting loose like never before, with titles that say a lot about their disappointment: “ This game is a total scam, stop lying! “, ” Nothing is right! “, ” The worst game of the year 2023. An absolute shame “, ” Run away ! This game is a shame “, ” I discovered the game and it was a disaster! » So many examples which prove that The Day Before is a huge joke, coupled with a possible scam. It was a priori predictable.
Who could have predicted…?
Last January, Fntastic had to defend itself against accusations of scam, resulting from multiple delays,a rights problem with the name of the game and a need for volunteers — unpaid — to participate in development. Announced in 2021 and scheduled for June 2022, The Day Before wowed from its first trailer. But the immense enthusiasm has gradually given way to (big) doubts. What if the game had never existed? However, the company spoke of production which would have lasted more than four years. “ No money was stolen: no crowdfunding, no pre-orders, zero donations “, she argued in the columns of IGN.
“Like a cheese panini, but without cheese. And without panini »
A player from The Day Before
On December 4, a few days before the launch, Fntastic further justified itself: “ Don’t accuse us of scam [arnaque, ndlr]this is not true. » Nevertheless, the studio is now selling a game that bears no resemblance to the initial project, for €38.99. Worse, it can hide behind the excuse of early access to announce that big updates will arrive, without giving any guarantee of certainty.
Players can therefore be fooled if they cannot obtain a refund (you must play for less than two hours). “ In addition to bug fixes and improvements to balance and gameplay, we plan to implement new content, such as items, weapons, equipment, cars, and houses.s,” indicate the developers on the Steam page.
Now that The Day Before is available in deplorable condition, Fntastic strives to keep up appearances. In a tweet published on December 7, Nick Calandra shares screenshots from the studio’s YouTube channel. It was full of videos – false – about the game just a few days ago. It now comes down to a few promotional tools. “ Fntastic completely overhauled its channel to hide evidence of the promised fake The Day Before », he notes. On Steam, the “MMO” tag has been removed. On the Discord, those who call it a scam are banned, indicate Healde and Mara in their opinion published on Steam.
Despite his pretty speeches, repeated over and over like an old damaged record, Fntastic will have difficulty regaining trust. The SteamDB statistics don’t lie: the game went from a peak of 38,000 people connected at the same time upon release to… just over 3,000. On Metacritic, The Day Before displays a nice average of 0.4 out of 10.
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