The Day Before is an upcoming multiplayer zombie survival game set in a post-pandemic America. Thus far, there isn’t an overabundance of knowledge about the game out there, but there is some information that can be inferred from The Day Before’s gameplay trailer released by FNTASTIC.
After the gameplay trailer, The Day Before has been compared to The Division, DayZ, and The Last Of Us. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Each of these games has ideas and mechanics that can be borrowed to improve The Day Before, and the comparison this game is receiving to The Last Of Us is one it should especially lean into.
The Critical Acclaim of The Last Of Us
The success of The Last Of Us series is no secret. The Last Of Us 2 is the most awarded game of all time, and that’s after the original TLOU received its fair share of awards and critical acclaim, as well. In fact, that game was so well received that some fans were unsure about a sequel being developed at all, before its release.
To get it out of the way, The Last Of Us and The Day Before appear to be two very different games. One of these is a linear, single-player, story-driven experience that sets out to tell a predetermined story. The other is an open-world, multiplayer survival game that pits players against each other. These two games appear to be trying to pull off two very different things, but that doesn’t mean that the world that these games create can’t feel similar. The vibe given in The Day Before’s trailer gives off a very similar vibe to that in TLOU, which is a good thing, because TLOU gave players a rich and well-drawn world to play in.
That comparison does come with some pressure, though. TLOU is one of the most well-regarded series on the PlayStation platform, and to be compared to it does come with some expectations, whether that’s fair or not. If The Day Before releases but drops the ball (as is always a possibility with any game), it may be forever known as the game that tried to replicate TLOU’s atmosphere but couldn’t. With how the industry tends to work, this wouldn’t be a death knell, but it would be unavoidable even if the dev itself wasn’t aiming for these comparisons.
The Last Of Us 2’s Multiplayer Spinoff
The Factions multiplayer mode in the original TLOU was a surprise hit with players, and many have been anticipating a similar multiplayer mode in The Last Of Us 2. While Naughty Dog has confirmed that something along those lines is in the works and on the way, it’s not coming as an addition to TLOU2 and is instead going to be its own release.
With almost no details on this available yet, there’s a really good chance that The Day Before could beat it to the punch. By creating a world similar to the world of The Last Of Us, The Day Before could more or less cement itself as the multiplayer mode to TLOU2, at least until it’s actually released by Naughty Dog. And by that point, if the two games do end up being similar, it’s possible that players could be too invested in The Day Before to give the new Naughty Dog game a chance.
The Day Before is currently in development for PC, planned for release in Q2 of 2021.
