The 2011 trailer for the original Dead Island is one of the most notorious video game ads ever made. It won a gold Lion in Cannes that year, yet it was booed at the screening in the Palais and is certainly tough to stomach—though incredibly artful as well, as the reverse footage gave it an otherworldly and strangely moving sense of dread. (Adweek named it one of the year's 10 best ads.)
This week at E3, the trailer for the much-anticipated Dead Island 2 was unleashed. It's still plenty gory, though less haunting and more goofy-scary. The game's setting is actually no longer an island but all of California, and the trailer takes place on a sunny boardwalk by the Pacific Ocean, as a jogger heads out for a run that quickly becomes infested with zombies.
This one won't win any awards, but it's a more than adequate reintroduction to the franchise. Now you just have to wait until 2015 for the actual game to come out.
Warning: Spot is graphic and may be disturbing to some viewers.