FNTASTIC's The Day Before is an upcoming zombie survival MMO that has made some big waves since reveal. After all, it's not every day that a brand new game immediately draws comparisons to sales juggernauts like The Last of Us or popular games like DayZ. It's uncertain how heavily FNTASTIC intends to lean into this, but there's another benefit these comparisons have.
With The Day Before already garnering interest across multiple fandoms and the social elements of survival MMO-style games, it seems like a safe bet that the waves have just begun. Indeed, all of this could suggest that The Day Before is one of those games that could skyrocket through Twitch at launch.
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The Day Before seems like a smorgasbord of popular IPs; while that's not always a good thing, it's a unique enough take that even The Day Before-Last of Us comparisons don't actually seem derivative. In terms of tone, dealing with zombies in a post pandemic world, and the general aesthetic, The Day Before bears all these similarities, but it flips them on their head by being a survival game. Of course, someone could just call this a Last of Us survival game, but in that department, the comparisons to DayZ make the most sense.
Not enough has really been revealed to suggest that The Day Before is the next DayZ, but it has that promise. Survival games of this nature are becoming more and more popular, with a plethora of games following in those footsteps. Its survival roots may be its strongest factor; after all, the genre is very malleable. A shooter, regardless of its context and story, will always be a shooter. That's its draw, but a survival game has a ton of approaches that make the games feel unique. On this baseline, fans could compare Ark: Survival Evolved to DayZ, but beyond the simplest basics, it's hard to really say these are a 1:1 match.
Although there are some "evergreen" games that will always top Twitch, there's been games spike on the service that seem shocking. Part of that definitely comes from viral popularity, as Chess, Fall Guys, Rust, and more have all done so in the past, but survival games often have their time in the sun too. Ark, DayZ, Rust, and even the more recent Valheim have had their time in the sun on Twitch. That's not to say that they're gone completely, but that they hit strides that might otherwise be unexpected.
Perhaps part of this is the social aspect. Rust's OfflineTV server was filled with reality TV-level drama, while even Grand Theft Auto Online's RP games tap into this social element as well. For The Day Before, this means that its MMO aspects are as important as its zombie and survival gameplay elements. If The Day Before can really create a strong survival MMO now, it'll fit perfectly alongside more traditional survival games, dinosaur-based survival games, Norse survival games, and whatever comes next. Tapping into this could very well mean that The Day Before's popularity is just beginning, but for now, it remains to be seen.
The Day Before is currently in development for PC, planned for release in Q2 2021.