The Day Before Devs Break Down the New Gameplay Reveal

As part of IGN Fan Fest 2021, the developers behind upcoming survival action game The Day Before, Fntastic, debuted a brand-new look at the brutal, immersive world that awaits players. The new gameplay, which you can watch below, offers a quick slice of life and action in the world of The Day Before, including the fact that not every character you meet has to be a foe. "We at Fntastic believe that during a real post-apocalypse there’ll be lots of wonderful people who help others no matter what, but inevitably there’ll be those who won’t hesitate to use force. We tried to show this human nature in the game trailer," Eduard and Aiden Gotovtsev told IGN via email. Check out an exclusive new trailer: [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/27/the-day-before-exclusive-combat-gameplay-4k-ign-fan-fest-2021"] And while the looks at The Day Before so far have included plenty of tense action, there will be places of safety, namely the Woodberry Survivor Colony, where players "can interact with other players, join groups, talk to some residents, take quests and have fun. We have an idea to make various events inside the colony during the holidays, so that the players get closer to each other and spend time celebrating holidays together." As the new trailer shows, you'll also be able to find brief bits of respite in more hostile territory to camp, sleep, cook, and generally relax before heading back out into a brutal world. As for actual base building itself, the developers explained that classic, resource-based "building a hut out of stones and sticks" is not so much what inspires them as something more akin to Nintendo's Animal Crossing. "In The Day Before, we have the concept of a base different from other MMO survival games. As a hint - we really like the concept in that cute game where there is a greedy raccoon boss," the Gotovtsev's said. The new slice of gameplay is not all a breather for the player, though, as after a quick jaunt outside, they quickly engage in a firefight. But rather than any HUD indicators leading the player to combat, they quite clearly have to naturally take in the world around them, paying careful attention to sound and other environmental clues. "We pay great attention to the sounds in the game to make the game world appear realistic. Based on this, we have abandoned casual HUD indicators, and we are focusing on high-quality surround sound, which is an important part of the credibility and atmosphere of the world," the developers explained. As the combat goes on, the showdown ends in a brutal takedown, a close-range shot to the face after the player has knocked down their opponent. While the developers note finishing moves aren't necessarily new to gaming, they hope they'll add a unique twist to the survival MMO genre.

"The game has multiple choices after the takedown: using different types of finishing moves depending on the weapon, healing and tying up another player. And especially creative players will be able to come up with various other methods: they can down and tie up another player, and then attract the attention of a horde of zombies, who will happily dine [on the character], and so on," they explained.

As for the gameplay's final shot of a mysterious, darkened hall and a doorway, the developers teased that locations like this will "be like a cold show after a boiling hot day." And really, much of what Fntastic is aiming to do is hoping to bring something fresh and unique to the genre.

"It's no secret that [moost survival MMO's] are all built on the sandbox model, when you set goals for yourself and wander around the desert world. In The Day Before, we reinvented everything from the in-game goals to the ways we approach the quality of the game mechanics," the developers noted.

The Day Before currently has no release date, but be sure to check out the original announcement trailer.