If Dead Island plays as good as its trailer views, gamers worldwide can look forward to one beautifully crafted, emotionally-bound journey...

The 21st century is the age of the trailer. Whether a company is marketing its latest calorie-condemning, waistline-wrecking treat; or Hollywood is presenting us with yet another of its incessant regurgitations, the premise to success remains the same - throw as much as you can into the trailer and hope something sticks. Just look at Unstoppable for example. While the film itself was good - and the idea within it was well executed - the movie had been marketed to such an extent that failure had become insurmountable. Every major network here in the UK appeared to be running its trailer (with the obvious exception of the BBC) and, for the month / month and a half that it was shown, explosions, speed and Denzel Washington became a staple of modern-day English television. Now, if you throw in the seemingly endless YouTube sidebar trailers and promoted videos, it had become virtually impossible to get away from it.

It's true - I myself have been brainwashed on countless occasions by the loud noises and euphoric visualisations that present themselves within the 21st century trailer. Frightening still is the number of products I have purchased before realising that I don't - and never will - have any useful or essential need for them. So how do they do it? The way I see it, a commercial (or trailer) must open strong. It must grab its audience's attention from the get-go, giving them something tangible that they can both enjoy and form some kind of emotional connection to. At this point, you reach what I like to refer to as the trailer's point of limbo. While it has now formed its attachment - whether on a conscious or subconscious level - the human mind is both a fragile and a wandering essence, and unless it can build on its initial success, the trailer will most likely fade into obscurity.

Now, while I have been fairly judgemental up to this point, particularly targeting and criticising both the cinematic and consumerist approaches to advertising, it is in fact the videogame industry with which this article concerns. No longer can I hold my metaphoric child above the crèche of consumerism, as videogames are now some of the worst offenders of 'trailer-flooding', as I have decided to call it. However, while similar techniques are employed to combat big sales and mass distribution, I cannot help but feel that a videogame trailer offers more - regardless of its longer airtime - than those of its television brethren. Yet even with my higher expectations and somewhat biased opinion, nothing could have prepared me for the following Dead Island trailer:

Words cannot describe how this trailer makes me feel. The music is perfect. The reversal gameplay gives the trailer the individuality that its audience so craves; and yet, despite the horde of zombies remaining ever present throughout, it still manages to keep its emotional tie. Not since the Gears of War 3 trailer - Ashes to Ashes - have I felt that everything worked within a trailer.

While the game's release date remains uncertain, internet chat-rooms and forums alike have lit up with debate, with the most popular rumour being that Dead Island will land sometime towards the end of 2011. So, with this - and the obvious trailer - in mind, I leave you with one more, small thought - this trailer was made using portions of in-game footage...

See also:

Dead Island film confirmed by Lionsgate

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