On January 22nd, The Day Before servers officially shut down. The fate of this project turned out to be sad – for what was once the most anticipated game on Steam, sales stopped just a few days after they began. And now, when it is no longer physically possible to play the FNTASTIC product, we have selected for you several projects similar in gameplay, setting or spirit – much more successful than the deceased.
The Division duology
The Division duology from Ubisoft is one of the main game series with which The Day Before can be associated. It has everything you need: a post-apocalyptic abandoned city, third-person shooting from behind cover, mountains of loot and multiplayer mechanics – cooperative interaction and battles with other players. No, maybe a zombie.
The player has at his disposal an open world filled with activities – from quests to outposts, everything in the spirit of the French developers. Well, grind, grind, and once again – grind. That’s the whole point!
But the most important feature of “Division” was the Dark Zone – this is a special mode that first came up with the idea of taking away loot from the player after death in PVP. The Dark Zone has a high difficulty level, but is home to some of the best gear in the game.
The second part moved from Manhattan to Washington, where the role of cooperative play increased and juggernauts appeared – opponents with a huge supply of health. The plot in The Division 2 has become purely nominal, and the setting has changed from winter to summer.
Nevertheless, in terms of gameplay, the second “Division” became better than the first – the developers corrected the technical shortcomings of the original, making the gameplay more comfortable.
DayZ
Another game that comes to mind when you think of The Day Before is DayZ. This project grew out of a modification for ArmA 2 in 2012, and a full release took place in 2018.
DayZ is a multiplayer zombie survival game set in a large open world with sandbox elements. To survive, players will have to be smart, search every corner of the map and use all the loot you find – there is a use for almost everything.
There are no signs in the game – you will have to navigate the area using a variety of environmental elements, a map and a compass. And the shooting physics are very realistic – a couple of hits are enough for your character to die. In a sense, DayZ can be called a zombie apocalypse simulator.
The game constantly generates various situations between players, asking them for a mountain of emotions – both positive and negative. The full-loot system, which is so beloved in Escape From Tarkov, gained its popularity in this project.
State of Decay duology
State of Decay is a single-player action-survival game in which players explore an open world, collect loot, and fight zombies. Ammo is worth its weight in gold here, and melee weapons constantly break.
There is no specific main character in this game – as soon as one of your characters dies, another survivor takes control of the player. Before starting the game, you have to choose a certain scenario that describes the relationship between the characters and the relationships between the characters will be built on it.
In State of Decay you need to set up a shelter, monitor the stamina and equipment of all surviving characters. Otherwise, their effectiveness will decrease significantly. And if the hero you control is exhausted or seriously injured, control, as in the case of death, will pass to another character.
The second part took several steps forward, bringing the concept of the original to the ideal – all the technical elements of the game became noticeably better. Co-op has also appeared, but there is a nuance – progress is saved only by the host.
Dying Light dilogy
Dying Light is a single-player game from the Poles from Techland. The gameplay revolves around exploring a detailed open world, collecting loot and fighting zombies. The project has two main features – parkour in the spirit of Mirror’s Edge, as well as day and night mechanics: in the dark, enemies become much more dangerous, and the game, from an action movie, turns into a real horror.
Dying Light also has four-player co-op and the “I’m a Zombie” mode – an asymmetrical multiplayer in which 3 players fight against one who has turned into a zombie.
Both of these games are an attempt at an RPG with all that it entails: leveling up, dialogue choices, a good plot and various side quests, tied, among other things, to developing relationships with other characters.
Remnant duology
Both parts of Remnant are soul-like shooters with near-obligatory co-op, because playing alone is much more difficult. You will have to explore gloomy atmospheric locations, level up your characters and constantly change builds, as well as fight unique and well-developed bosses.
There is also a roguelike element here – levels are assembled from various prepared blocks when you enter them, and bosses that appear randomly can drop unique modifiers that strengthen your hero. And in each new playthrough, the order of bosses, worlds and story events will differ.
As in any souls game, in Remnant you will have to control your stamina and learn to roll in order to protect yourself from enemies – there is simply no blocking in the game.
Both parts of Remnant, thanks to everything described above, are very replayable and can captivate for many hours.
Bonus game — Days Gone
Days Gone is a project from Bend Studio. Here the player will have to explore a huge world, collect resources, fight zombies and build relationships with several survivor camps.
Like Dying Light, Days Gone has two distinctive features: a motorcycle and hordes of the infected. The first allows you to explore the open world with ease, even if you have to constantly stop to refuel. The second will greatly diversify the combat component of the game – in order to defeat one such horde, the player will have to think through a strategy and stock up on equipment that is scattered throughout the world.
The game features upgrading of the character and his motorcycle, as well as an impressive storyline, which, unfortunately, ends. Due to the “failure,” according to Sony, there is no need to wait for a continuation, and the ideologists of the game and the heads of Bend Studio have already left it due to quarrels with the PlayStation head office.