Coming out of the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2023 we have some of the year's first game trailers.

For alternate history Soviet action roleplaying game Atomic Heart and zombie apocalypse open world massively multiplayer online roleplaying game The Day Before.

Multiplayer zombie apocalypse games are prolific but those are player hosted and limited to a handful of players.

MMOs are developer hosted, can handle much larger numbers and usually come with a subscription and / or microtransactions.

Sony were quick to jump on the zombie bandwagon with H1Z1 but like many Sony Online Entertainment projects of that era, it didn't amount to much and this market is still largely untapped.

The Day Before is currently Steam's second most wishlisted game, behind Hogwart's Legacy and ahead of Starfield.

Having delayed the game to upgrade to Unreal Engine 5 - a move made by a number of other developers over the past year or so - the visuals shown here don't disappoint.

Most of the horde of non-MMO zombie games are graphically nowhere near this quality.

Since the game also boasts an offline mode allowing solo play, it's not excluding players who for various reasons don't care for MMOs.

Clever.

Assuming there's no surprise nasties like an intrusive business model, which are common in MMOs, this could be a hit.

Fans eager for every juicy detail might also want to check out the accompanying Life at Fntastic (the developer) video where a few screens of character creation and weapons can be seen.

Atomic Heart launches on PC (Steam), Xbox One and X|S, and PlayStation 4 and 5 on February 21.

The Day Before launches on PC (Steam), Xbox X|S and PlayStation 5 on March 1.

[ Main Image: The Day Before trailer. Credit: Mytona via YouTube. ]

References

Fntastic (January 4, 2023). Life at Fntastic. YouTube.

Gamespot (January 4, 2023). Atomic Heart Official Gameplay Reveal Trailer (GeForce 4K RTX). YouTube.

Gamespot (January 4, 2023). The Day Before Official Gameplay Reveal Trailer (RTX ON). YouTube.

Steam. Top Wishlists. (viewed January 5, 2023)