10 Manipulative Gaming Tactics You Fall For Every Time

There surely isn't a player among us who hasn't been swayed by a beautifully crafted cinematic trailer.

Once again, our friends at Ubisoft are probably the industry's most common culprits, usually introducing the latest entry to the Assassin's Creed franchise with a glossy cinematic trailer that shows not a single scrap of actual gameplay.

Nothing, however, tops the legendarily manipulative trailer for zombie-themed action-RPG Dead Island, which implied a far more visceral and emotional game than the relatively generic zombie actioner we ended up with.

The artistry that went into the cinematic trailer allowed it to effortlessly push people's emotional buttons and get them invested in a game they barely knew anything about, such that they were in for quite the shock when the actual gameplay lacked that same impact.

There's nothing wrong with admiring cinematic trailers as works of art in their own right, but if you expect them to fundamentally reflect the gameplay experience itself, you're gonna have a bad time more often than not.