10 Video Games Ruined By Overhype

Dead Island is a totally competent open-world zombie game, and yet not the one that developers Techland got everybody excited about with that first reveal trailer. This trailer is so impactful and iconic, in fact, that it even has its own damn Wikipedia page.

The game's 2011 reveal trailer depicted the zombification and subsequent death of a young girl while on holiday with her family, the scene playing out in reverse to maximise the emotional impact, as led players to reasonably expect a character-driven, viscerally charged take on the genre.

But there's perhaps never been a larger tonal gulf between a game trailer and the final product, as Dead Island was a distinctly single-minded zombie-slaughtering romp that, while fitfully enjoyable, lacked the substance and nuance implied by this gorgeously artful trailer.

While it's a solid rule of thumb to always be skeptical of video game marketing - especially when it doesn't show any gameplay like this - publisher Deep Silver only had themselves to blame for the game's lukewarm response upon release.

It didn't help that the game was released rife with bugs, either.