Upcoming zombie MMO The Day Before has already been the subject of some controversy, and its latest trailer is likely to stir the pot. It may not be a shot-for-shot copy, but the promo is highly reminiscent of Grand Theft Auto 5’s gameplay trailer, right down to the music, narration, and some of the wording.
Oh, The Day Before, do you never learn? This open-world zombie MMORPG feels like that one friend who keeps getting sent to headteacher’s office and never learns anything from it.
Actually, maybe that’s not entirely fair. With their new trailer, developer Fntastic doesn’t appear to have replicated shots from another trailer, as was seemingly the case with their previous CoD Zombies-style trailer.
But its latest trailer borrows heavily from Grand Theft Auto V, in terms of the music, tone, narrator and even script. It could, arguably, be considered a homage but it’s a little too close for my tastes.
As spotted by several keen-eyed Reddit users, the female narrator in the below The Day Before trailer sounds nearly identical to the narrator in the GTA V official gameplay video.
It has been suggested it’s the same narrator, or even an AI voice, but I’m not convinced. However, it’s near enough that you could easily mistake the two.
Then there’s the electronic music which is a dead ringer for the opening music in the GTA V video. We could still be in respectful homage territory, though, right?
But then there’s the script, which is a teensy bit more blatant, at least at the start. It’s not a word-for-word copy. It’s more ‘Let me borrow your homework, I’ll use a thesaurus, that’ll fool teacher.’
Take the opening of the above GTA V video, which goes: “With Grand Theft Auto 5, Rockstar have tried to reimagine the open-world game in a number of ways. The game world is beautiful, massive and diverse.”
Meanwhile, the The Day Before’s trailer uses: “The Day Before offers a uniquely reimagined journey into post-apocalyptic MMO…. the open world of The Day Before is beautiful and richly detailed.”
The videos diverge somewhat as they go on, not least because The Day Before promises less in the way of a story. But it’s a strange situation for a game that wants to be its own thing to emulate other trailers.
The Day Before release date is currently set for a December 7, 2023. If you’re looking for a zombie game you can play now, check out the best zombie games on PC. Or if you’d prefer a different kind of disaster, take a look at the best apocalypse games for plenty of devastation.