Fans of zombie survival games have now been treated to a handful of The Day Before trailers, with the game set to release on PC later this year. The game was planned to be released in Q2 2021, and the latest trailers have all ended with a vague "Coming Soon" message. As well as hinting at a release date, these trailers have offered fans an insight into what exactly the game is going to be. Appearing to be a marriage of The Division and The Last of Us, the trailers included an element that should be familiar to fans of the latter.
The Day Before is an open-world MMO survival game that appears from the gameplay trailers to be similar in style to The Division. One big difference, however, is the game's implementation of horror. Midway through The Day Before's announcement trailer, the player is chased into a skyscraper's elevator, which leads them to a scene that belongs in a horror movie. The player is greeted by a dark and eerie office, seemingly filled to the brim with zombies, a setting that may sound familiar to fans of The Last of Us.
Skyscrapers in The Last of Us, The Day Before
Despite a split reaction to the ending of The Last of Us 2, the game was praised in part for its tense atmospheric sections. Some of the more memorable sections of the game came from the exploration of urban areas, in particular, of skyscrapers. The skyscraper levels proved to be some of the most unique in the game, as the buildings so heavily damaged in the anarchy of post-apocalyptic America provided verticality and daunting enemy bases. Abandoned buildings were populated by more than just human foes, however.
In the cases where the infected were the inhabitants of skyscrapers, the player was in for quite a tense affair. With clickers dashing across hallways dimly lit by the player's torch, tortured groans protruding from the endless dark, these sections were where The Last of Us 2 truly committed to the horror genre. The claustrophobic setting of these skyscrapers heightened the sense of danger that the clickers held. This tension is something The Day Before, as well as the potential upcoming The Last of Us TV show, would do well to capture.
When watching The Day Before's announcement trailer, it's difficult not to see some parallels with the skyscraper gameplay from The Last of Us 2. Upon arriving at their desired floor, the player is greeted with the same dimly lit hallways and hidden zombies groaning from the abyss. Once an action-centric, slightly jovial gameplay reveal, the trailer had ascended into a terrifying exploration of a zombie den. This tonal shift in the trailer throws up some questions, namely, what is The Day Before? Well, it seems to be fulfilling the requirements of a number of genres as things stand.
The Last of Us vs. The Day Before
Fntastic may be glad to see comparisons between its game and The Last of Us. While The Last of Us 3's release date may be some way off, it's a series that has never failed to impress. Being a success both critically and commercially and receiving praise for everything from graphics, to gameplay, to story, The Last of Us could stand as a model to follow for post-apocalyptic action-adventure games.
Regardless of comparisons with The Last of Us and The Division, The Day Before seems to be impressing with its gameplay trailers. Should the game ultimately look the way it does in its trailers at launch, The Day Before could be an instant fan favorite. A question remaining for fans is whether The Day Before will appear on consoles, a question that will likely be answered in the future. But for PC gamers who are fans of zombie survival games, The Day Before is one to watch.
The Day Before is in development for PC and set to release in 2021.