10 Ways Trailers Let You Know A Video Game Is Secretly Awful

6. Showing No Actual Gameplay

Notable Offenders: Dead Island, most Call of Duty games, Matterfall

One of the most aggressively insidious and most obviously damning trailer tricks is simply failing to show any gameplay footage whatsoever.

Ubisoft is a huge fan of releasing glossy CGI reveal trailers which, while beautifully animated, give zero impression of how the game itself actually looks or plays.

Perhaps the most infamous example, however, is Dead Island's wonderfully directed and surprising affecting CGI reveal trailer, which was nevertheless totally at odds with the decidedly goofier tone of the forgettable final game.

At least Dead Island got the genre right, though. Matterfall's debut trailer implied a gorgeous third-person sci-fi shooter, only to deliver a cheap-looking and relatively mediocre 2D side-scroller.

Another tactic is switching out the CGI trailer for a live-action one, as has been commonplace over the years with Call of Duty's various star-studded trailers that, again, show no actual gameplay whatsoever - because, if we're honest, it's usually just more of the same.