Ah, The Day Before, we hardly knew ye. The ill-fated survival horror game was pretty much dead on arrival back in December of last year, and by Monday January 22, it was erased from the ether entirely. Now, thanks to a new documentary on the development process, it’s not at all difficult to understand why the game crashed and burned so spectacularly.
It’s quite ironic, really, that The Day Before ended up being a survival game that couldn’t survive even two months in the world before it was retired. With horrible reviews out the gate, a multitude of in-game issues, and discontent from within, it’s almost a wonder the title even lasted 46 days.
We’ve always been incredibly curious as to what was going on behind the scenes during the development process at Fntastic, and with the new documentary from Game Two and GameStar, we’ve come to realize it was way worse than we ever imagined. Apparently, the ever-changing desires of the Gotovtsev brothers—influenced by any number of different games they were playing at the time—led to complete chaos and confusion for the team working hard to bring the game to life.
It’s said the game’s character creator function was altered time and time again in an attempt to match the likes of GTA, Hogwarts Legacy, and Baldur’s Gate 3, while the setting was changed to reflect the brighter aesthetic of Spider-Man 2. Even the game’s MMO format was poorly planned and was not even communicated to the devs involved until they saw the trailer.
Those same devs were treated atrociously, too, it seems. From overworking voluntary workers, to pushing staff to their limits and having them “begging for a few hours’ break,” and even fining them for delivering work that was deemed unacceptable. Worst of all, the Gotovtsev brothers went missing amid the disastrous launch of the game, and only emerged again when it came to shutting down the whole operation. Yikes!
Obviously, you can’t add The Day Before to your collection anymore, no matter how much you might want to after reading about all this chaos. Instead, you could always dive into our list of the best free Steam games and pick up a bargain, or explore some of the best old games on PC that have stood the test of time far better than The Day Before.
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