The first day of many bad Steam reviews seems to be deserved

Zombie MMO The day before is out in early access, but it’s getting a lot of negative reviews on Steam.

It’s been a rough road for the game, with accusations of the game being a scam, copying the work of other developers, complaints against the use of unpaid volunteers, and a trade dispute with a Korean calendar app.

Just a few days ago the developer Fntastic issued a statement apologizing for the marketing of the game and asking “please do not accuse us of defamation”.

Now that it’s over, however, players are very disappointed with the product.

Although it should be noted that the game is in early access, there are many Steam analysis note how the open world MMO elements promised by Fntastic are not included and do not live up to the developer’s lofty goals.

The basic combat, the enemy AI is too easy, the world is empty, and full of bad things, these are just a few of the main complaints against the game.

“It looks like a real game,” read one review. “Wishing not.”

“The Day Before the Return,” explained another.

Fntastic announced on the game page: “After five years of blood, sweat, and tears, we can finally say these words: The First Day is now out”. Read this randomly next to the awesome reviews.

On X, formerly Twitter, writer Nick Calandra described Day I as “nothing but a cash grab” in a lengthy thread, while also noting that Fntastic had canceled its YouTube page to remove the first teaser videos of the intended games.

I decided to jump into the game myself to see for myself. It wasn’t good.

It starts with a limited creator with a few options, especially for face shapes and skin tones. Then you choose one of the three classes – Roamer, Pathfinder and Ghost – there is little difference between them than advanced skills in some areas such as heavy weight or trade skills.

Then I need to choose a server, with all the options listed are high capacity. That’s different when thinking about the world feeling empty and lifeless when you arrive completely.

Before that you should explore the center where you will meet a few key people who sell weapons, look things up, and heal you. Arms can be changed to a work bench. It all feels like The Last of Us – there’s even a character named Abby.

After a few details and a little basic building – I just put a tent on the ground – you get a journal to do searches for money. However, you can only accept one at a time, so expect a lot of back and forth between home and zombie town.

When it was out, the already poor performance took a nose dive that was almost unplayable. The frame rate is terrible and the pop-in is so wide that even the city feels soulless. I finally met my first zombie who crawled up on me and my every image was confused seconds after the experience. Standing on top of a car I really couldn’t overcome, the zombie just looked at me from below. Finally I met a real person that I was able to defeat, although the scale of the frame is expected to be more trying than it should be, but I quickly died from the blood

After that? I quickly deleted it. It is clear that this is a very interesting game that has very little and, as suggested by the Steam review, does not live up to the expectations set by Fntastic.

Perhaps the release of the game on the same day expected The Game Awards with the hope that it will be buried in the news. But now it is at number three in the Steam Top Sellers chart and is one of the top games SteamDB His all-time high was 38,104 players.

Those players may, like me, be very curious, but I suspect the payoff will be high on this one.

Eurogamer has contacted Fntastic for comment on the response to the game so far.