The Day Before, an upcoming open-world survival MMO set in a post-pandemic America featuring zombies, was announced just a few days ago, and fans of the survival genre are excited. Judging by the gameplay trailer The Day Before released on the announcement, the game appears to take some of the best elements from a few different games to blend them into one experience.
One of the games that it appears The Day Before borrows from is DayZ, the open-world survival game that started as a mod and eventually became its own title. DayZ saw massive success on release, and while that success dropped off for quite a while as the game was being polished, it's once again regained a spotlight. The Day Before has the potential to dethrone DayZ as the premier open-world zombie survival game, but it has to nail a few different things.
The Open-World
DayZ has a massive open-world, and while the size and overall appearance of the world is solid, it does feel a little bit dated nowadays. While just about every single building in DayZ is accessible, there are a lot of rooms in each building that are not, all barred off by a similar-looking mechanism on the door. This is, clearly, not a dealbreaker as DayZ has achieved massive popularity, but a lot of players would like to see buildings that are entirely accessible.
It' unclear what size of open-world The Day Before is going to include, or what kinds of areas that world is going to have. Thus far, the trailer included a city, very reminiscent of the city from The Division in appearance, even going so far as to include the Holiday decorations. It is extremely unlikely that every single building in the city is going to be accessible, or that every room or floor in the buildings that can be entered are going to be accessible, either. However, as long as there is a wide variety of locations available in the city, it should be serviceable enough.
Other locations are included in the screenshots on The Day Before's Steam page, as well. These screenshots showcase the interior of what appears to be a police station (extreme Resident Evil 2 vibes), a cold and wooded area with players resting around a campfire, a log cabin in the middle of the woods, and a humongous vault opening up into a mountain. It's unclear if these are all part of the same map or if there are multiple separate maps available, but either way, there appears to be some serious variety when it comes to locations in The Day Before.
The Fear Of Other Players
Player interaction is a crucial component to DayZ, and it creates the tensest situations in the game. It's impossible to know how another player is going to behave, especially in a game where getting killed means starting back at square one, but could mean scoring some sweet new loot for the player that did the killing. It can lead to situations that make players question if there's any hope for mankind, but it can also lead to some interactions that truly warm the heart.
The Day Before, it appears, is going to have a very similar structure when it comes to player interaction. In the gameplay trailer, another group of players comes up on the character the trailer followed as he was looting a building. The players spot him, and predictably, they start shooting. But it could have gone a different way. The group of players could have come upon the other character, and instead traded some supplies for something that was mutually beneficial. Maybe a horde of zombies could have come upon them before they even saw each other, and they could have helped fight off the horde together. Any number of things could have happened, and that's what makes games like this and DayZ so enticing.
Zombies And NPCs
It's clear that zombies exist in The Day Before, and they appear to be no joke. Huge amounts of them appear able to show up at any time, and they're attracted by noise, much like their DayZ counterparts. An interesting detail about the zombies in The Day Before is that they don't appear to notice changes in light, based on the end of the gameplay trailer where the main character enters an elevator to find his teammate, only to find the entire floor of the building filled with zombies. These zombies appear to be in some kind of trance-like state, somewhat like those in the I Am Legend movie adaptation. They don't notice the elevator door open, nor do they notice the player turn on his flashlight.
Another interesting part of The Day Before is that it appears to have some kind of safe haven, as the 'Woodbury Survivor Colony' radioed the players in the trailer. These camps could contain NPCs, vendors, or just be a safe haven to escape from the elements or the dangers that lurk outside. Either way, they'll probably act as a good way for players to meet up and plan their expeditions out in the wild.
The Gameplay Loop
The gameplay loop of DayZ is strikingly simple: survive. Whatever the player can do to ensure that happens, they'll probably do. It can lead to some pretty desperate situations, but those desperate situations are what create some of the most memorable moments in the game.
The gameplay loop of The Day Before seems similar. Players have different things they need to keep in mind in order to survive, including what appears to be the cold, energy, and either hydration or blood. Much of the gameplay is likely going to revolve around making sure to have enough supplies that none of those dip down to dangerous levels, and the weapons, ammo, and gas to put players in a position to obtain these things.
Thus far, there isn't an overabundance of knowledge about The Day Before, but it definitely appears to be lining itself up for direct competition with DayZ. Whether or not one of these games wins out or if they're different enough to both remain popular remains to be seen. But the odds are, if The Day Before continues to show gameplay of the same quality as the announcement trailer, it's likely poised to launch big.
The Day Before is currently in development for PC.