Why The Day Before is getting review-bombed on Steam

Developer Fntastic's open-world survival game, The Day Before, had a tumultuous development cycle, to say the least. However, despite all the hardships and troubles, the game has finally made its way to Steam as an early-access title. Unfortunately, it seems early adopters aren't taking to it too kindly.

Right now, The Day Before has an "Overwhelmingly Negative" review on Steam, with only 17% of players giving it slightly positive reviews. As it stands, Fntastic's multiplayer survival title is among one of the worst-reviewed PC games of 2023, right alongside titles like Redfall, Gollum, and more.

The Day Before's negative reception is mostly due to its technical polish, or perhaps lack thereof. However, the issues with the game aren't limited to just its technical state on PC but also extend to its moment-to-moment gameplay.

Note: Parts of this article are subjective and solely reflect the author's opinions.

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The Day Before now stands as one of the worst-reviewed games of 2023 on Steam

The Day Before is the perfect example of biting more than you can chew, with the game promising a lot but failing to execute anything properly. Back when it was first revealed, Fntastic promised to deliver a robust multiplayer experience akin to titles like The Division, albeit one that's built with the current-generation hardware in mind.

The studio's promises eventually led to The Day Before becoming one of 2023's most wishlisted games on Steam. This isn't a small feat, especially for a game coming from a relatively small studio. Unfortunately, players who were expecting a fun, MMO-style survival title were in for a rude awakening.

Upon its recent early access release on Steam, The Day Before got panned by almost everyone who played it. The Steam reviews section was flooded with players expressing their frustration with the game, with many requesting a refund after playing the title for just a few minutes.

The MMO is littered with technical issues, like textures failing to render in time, quests bugging out, the inventory system failing to account for the things players collect, and, of course, frequent crashes. It also doesn't help that the game does not look nearly as good as its pre-release trailers suggested.

Despite being built on Unreal Engine 5, Fntastic's open-world survival title fails to deliver a compelling visual presentation. It also has numerous server-related issues. Despite being marketed as an "open-world MMO," there is a 32-player limit for lobbies and a lack of oceanic servers. This ultimately results in players having to shuffle through multiple lobbies to even start playing.

And if that's not all, trying to play the game in co-op is also a nightmare, given the lobby limit. Once you do start, you will find the open-world and moment-to-moment gameplay to be genuinely boring and frustrating.