Today they showed off the re-announcement trailer for Dead Island.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZqrG1bdGtg

Now, this trailer is good.  It’s got solid zombie on people action with some emotional content.  Killing children to sad piano music does that job quite well.  Were this for a movie, or even just a standalone trailer for this scene I would like it better, but it is for a video game.

A trailer for a video game that doesn’t show any gameplay.

So?  Why can’t games have nice trailers?

They can.  They get them often, this isn’t the problem.

What I’m concerned about is what this trailer reminded me of, which was this trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXeST0NMtic

The Halo 3 Believe trailer showed off a very dramatic battle scene in a grand scale we had not seen in a Halo game before, all set to a somber score.  It even showed off what looked like scenes from the games story.

People really liked this trailer.  It got them excited for the game.

And then they got none of it.

No battles like this can be found in Halo 3.  None of these scenes can be found in Halo 3. 

Needless to say, people didn’t like this.  The trailer showed them something to get them excited about the game, and it worked, but it wasn’t the truth.  It was just promotional material to drum up interest.

Time will tell, but I am afraid that Dead Island will work out the same way.  They established a scene and a mood for the game with this trailer that people now associate as Dead Island.  This trailer is Dead Island.  When they see gameplay this is what they will reference back to.  They have a lot to live up to, and for their sake I hope this doesn’t backfire on them.