Modders are working to keep The Day Before playable, despite awful reviews
The Day Before continues to grab headlines, with modders now working to keep the game alive and kicking - at least to some extent.
01st Jan 2024 11:48
Images via Fntastic
Modders are working to keep The Day Before playable, despite awful reviews
The Day Before continues to grab headlines, with modders now working to keep the game alive and kicking - at least to some extent.
01st Jan 2024 11:48
Images via Fntastic
It's fair to say The Day Before, previously one of Steam's most anticipated titles, will stand as an example of a botched launch. Unlike titles like No Man's Sky or Cyberpunk 2077, however, there's no redemption arc in sight as developer Fntastic is no more, and the servers are set to be switched off on January 22, 2024.
Despite refunds being issued, and Fntastic's official account saying "s**t happens" (that's an actual quote), it appears some modders made of sterner stuff are looking to keep the game (previously advertised as an MMO) alive in some capacity.
The Day Before modders are working to keep the game playable
If you're wondering why, the answer is simple: video game preservation is notoriously difficult, and most projects, big or small, will eventually fade in time. That can be due to servers going offline, hardware not being available, or licensing issues.
In The Day Before's case, there's a good argument for preserving the game so it can be studied going forward.
After being hit with an 'Overwhelmingly Negative' review on Steam, The Day Before is "no longer available on the Steam Store". Modders Luci0 and fskartd appear to have been able to bypass Steam's DRM to access the game's files and are working to allow an offline version to be played after the servers cease to exist.
“No promises or ETA’s as of now,” Luci0 said on Twitter/X, and noted more info will come in time.
While some responses were naturally more comedic (one suggested players be paid to play the game), others see the value in preserving a piece of "stranger than fiction" video game history.
Others even suggested they'd love to help contribute to the project. Here's hoping that, if nothing else, The Day Before can be preserved - especially since scalpers started selling the game for inflated values before it was taken off of digital shelves.
The power of mods
Readers of a certain vintage will remember Aliens: Colonial Marines, the Gearbox Software game that was panned upon release.
In an update years later, one PC modder fixed the game's notoriously awful AI by fixing a typo in the game's files.
It's not just bad games that need to go under the modder's knife, either. Rockstar Games paid a modder $10,000 for helping to fix GTA Online's notoriously long load times (thanks, PC Gamer).
The modder, t0st, found a PC version bottleneck that, when fixed, reduced the load times of the multiplayer mode by up to 70 percent, so Rockstar paid them as a thank you and patched the update in.
About The Author
Lloyd Coombes
Lloyd is GGRecon's Editor-in-Chief, having previously worked at Dexerto and Gfinity, and occasionally appears in The Daily Star newspaper. A big fan of loot-based games including Destiny 2 and Diablo 4, when he's not working you'll find him at the gym or trying to play Magic The Gathering.
