The "Under No Circumstances Should You Purchase This Game" Thread

[avatar! | 1,819]

Move over Redfall!

https://www.gamesradar.com/the-day-before-review/

https://www.ign.com/articles/the-day-before-review

I’d have more fun hiding in a dumpster surrounded by actual zombies.

NPCs are so dryly written and voiced they sound like the result of an AI.

Steam is already diligently refunding anyone who made the mistake of buying it – and if you didn’t manage to try it, you can count yourself as one of the lucky ones.

[RH | 4,915]

I'm gonna place this here:

TL;DW

There are plenty of companies that brand games to look like Triple-A titles that are nothing more than really cheap, jank unity Sandbox, buggy titles.  All trying to get your $10 with nothing to show for it.

Still, the video's worth watching for the humour.

[avatar! | 1,819]

 

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Steam responds to The Day Before controversy by announcing 'The Day After' sale on survival games

https://www.gamingbible.com/news/platform/steam/steam-responds-day-before-controversy-announcing-day-after-374976-20231213

Haha! well played, Steam

[koifish | 556]

Sounds like the kind of game I would play. Horrible games can at least be funny sometimes.

[RH | 4,915]

I'd like for there to be a public post mortem of this game.  The company has since shut down and said they don't have the funds to stay open, or fix it.

Could this be a scam?  Possibly, but it could also have been a new studio, started by some college kids with high ambitions that didn't pan out.  In an attempt to recoup costs with the hope/intent of getting cashflow and building out the game "shortly after" release, they might have just released the game as it is.  And it is a train wreck.

I don't know what the truth is and it's probably somewhere in between those two scenarios.

[avatar! | 1,819]

36 minutes ago, RH said:

I'd like for there to be a public post mortem of this game.  The company has since shut down and said they don't have the funds to stay open, or fix it.

Could this be a scam?  Possibly, but it could also have been a new studio, started by some college kids with high ambitions that didn't pan out.  In an attempt to recoup costs with the hope/intent of getting cashflow and building out the game "shortly after" release, they might have just released the game as it is.  And it is a train wreck.

I don't know what the truth is and it's probably somewhere in between those two scenarios.

The studio, Fntastic, released their first game on Steam in 2018. It has over a 70% approval --

https://store.steampowered.com/app/864550/Radiant_One/

Their game in 2021 received "mixed" (58%) approval. However, even before Fntastic's first game, the studio went by a different name, "Eight Points", and released their first game back in 2015. It too, was overall well received, or at least "decently received" (70%+ approval)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/526160/The_Wild_Eight/

Point is, this is not a new studio nor college kids who were overly ambitious. Check out the impressive trailer from 2021 --

And fast forward to today...

How The Day Before went from Steam darling to disaster

The zombie survival game is one of gaming’s biggest flameouts ever

https://www.polygon.com/23998966/the-day-before-what-happened-fntastic-shutting-down

Just four days after launching on Steam, The Day Before developer Fntastic announced that its game was a “failure financially” and that no more updates would be released for the early access title. Fntastic, saying it lacked the funds to continue, was closing. The studio then wiped its YouTube channel, deleting all official uploads of The Day Before gameplay trailers; its CEO has disappeared from social media; and the game itself has been pulled from sale on Steam. The game’s publisher, Mytona, said on social media that it’s working with Valve to provide refunds.

If it's not a scam, why would the developers just disappear and wipe out all their social media etc? The consensus, which seems logical, is the the developers took the money and ran. There's NO WAY they did not know this was going to be a disaster -- again, look at the trailer from 2021 vs what was actually released.

[RH | 4,915]

If this was crypto and semi-non-trackable, I’d agree with that.

I mean, I’m not saying for sure it’s NOT a scam, but this is so bad, if they did take any money and run, then certainly, CERTAINLY there will be some form of repercussions coming their way.  Maybe not from gamers but from Valve/Steam or the publishers or someone.

Yes, this is a terrible game and scenario but something’s just not right.

[avatar! | 1,819]

1 hour ago, RH said:

If this was crypto and semi-non-trackable, I’d agree with that.

I mean, I’m not saying for sure it’s NOT a scam, but this is so bad, if they did take any money and run, then certainly, CERTAINLY there will be some form of repercussions coming their way.  Maybe not from gamers but from Valve/Steam or the publishers or someone.

Yes, this is a terrible game and scenario but something’s just not right.

How do you define "scam"? If a developer promised you a beautiful game, that's an MMO, with tons of zombies, stellar gameplay, etc. and what you got was NOT an MMO, what you got was barely playable, what you got had almost no zombies, had terrible gameplay, and was nothing like what the developers promised... is that not a scam? And if not, why have the developers disappeared? Why have they erased all their social media contacts, all their videos, etc?

[RH | 4,915]

14 minutes ago, avatar! said:

How do you define "scam"? If a developer promised you a beautiful game, that's an MMO, with tons of zombies, stellar gameplay, etc. and what you got was NOT an MMO, what you got was barely playable, what you got had almost no zombies, had terrible gameplay, and was nothing like what the developers promised... is that not a scam? And if not, why have the developers disappeared? Why have they erased all their social media contacts, all their videos, etc?

First, I’m not saying that there’s no blame to go around here.  Obviously there is.  But IMHO, a “scam” has a high degree of intentionality in taking people’s money under false pretenses.

 

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1 hour ago, RH said:

First, I’m not saying that there’s no blame to go around here.  Obviously there is.  But IMHO, a “scam” has a high degree of intentionality in taking people’s money under false pretenses.

 

That's certainly fair. There's no clear evidence that this was intentional. That said, clearly there was a lot of misleading and "weird" stuff happening -- from a month ago

The Strange Saga of The Day Before

https://www.ign.com/articles/the-strange-saga-of-the-day-before

[avatar! | 1,819]

The Day Before Dev Says ‘Shit Happens’ As It Deletes Everything

https://kotaku.com/day-before-zombie-mmo-steam-refunds-1851092622

That’s what the Russia-based development team wrote in response to a player accusing them of overhyping the game when they knew it was bad. “You guys are an absolute disgrace to the Video Game Industry,” wrote Twitter user Kypershot. “This was our first big experience,” Fantastic wrote back. “Shit happens.”

The big question remains: was this malice, incompetence, or both? Did the studio try to swindle players or just get out way over its skis and crash into the side of a mountain?

One thing that is clear: “shit happens” appears to be the extent of Fntastic taking accountability for the mess. Players have already spotted the studio seemingly attempting to rebrand as “8 Points” on Kickstarter, Steam, and elsewhere so that the stink of The Day Before doesn’t rub off on its other projects. Fntastic has so far been unresponsive to requests for comment.