The Day Before, once the most wishlisted game on Steam, has finally launched in Early Access after several delays. However, player reception has been overwhelmingly negative so far, and here are the main reasons for this.
The Day Before is having a botched launch
On December 7, developer Fntastic and publisher Mytona released The Day Before, a highly anticipated game branded as a “post-apocalyptic open-world MMO survival” experience. According to SteamDB, it quickly peaked at 38,104 concurrent players.
Although it looked like a promising start, the numbers have started declining. At the moment of writing, the title’s player count has fallen below the 10,000 mark.
One of the reasons is that many users who purchased The Day Before were really disappointed with what they saw. It currently has an “Overwhelmingly Negative” rating on Steam, with just 15% of the 9,803 reviews being positive.
This is a disappointing result for a title that has long been the most wishlisted upcoming game on Steam. Shortly before the Early Access launch, Fntastic managed to win back its IP after a long legal fight that led to The Day Before being temporarily delisted from Steam. However, the studio will now have to deal with early negative feedback, which could be a serious hurdle for a live service game with plans for further support.
Why are The Day Before reviews so negative?
Some players who left negative reviews cited bugs, as well as performance and server issues. But that is not the biggest problem they have with The Day Before. Many noted that Fntastic’s game is more of a Tarkov-style extraction shooter than an open world MMO.
There are also reviews calling The Day Before a “scam.” Here is what one of the users wrote: “This game is not an MMO, despite being advertised as such. It’s completely misleading.”
Here is what another user, who called the game “The Scam Before”, said in their detailed review: “They showed us gameplay that is NOT this game. They showed us combat, open world, zombies, details, graphics… so much more… what did we get… a half-assed game that is NOT a MMO.”
The same user also shared a screenshot of a map showing that The Day Before is not an open world game, but a small area extraction shooter.
Some Steam players also noticed that Fntastic has deleted many old videos from its YouTube channel. If you look at the archived version of the page, you will see that many trailers are now missing. In the now-deleted videos, the studio showed the open world and other features of the game. Some of those trailers have been delisted due to “third-party trademark claims“, but many users still find the situation fishy.
Fntastic’s YouTube channel before (left) and after (right) the studio deleted old videos
Is The Day Before now one of the worst-rated games on Steam?
- According to SteamDB, The Day Before is currently the 10th worst-rated game on Steam of all time with just 18.5% positive reviews. It is worth noting that the rating here slightly differs from the one displayed on the store, as SteamDB uses its own formula to estimate the final score.
- The Day Before is behind titles like NBA 2K24 (18.14%), Overwatch 2 (15.79%), and War of the Three Kingdoms (11.22%).
- The Day Before is also ranked 3rd on Steam250’s Bottom 100 list, which only takes into account games with over 1,000 reviews.
- With 16% positive reviews, Fntastic’s shooter is placed right between Overwatch 2 and NBA 2K24. Other titles in the top 10 worst-rated games on Steam250 include Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (17%), Flatout 3 (17%), and Mobile Suit Gundam Battle Operation 2 (21%).