This is only part of it. You have to look at it from way back. I remember the first E3 they talked about it. Very little was said but it sounded cool I guess. Then 2-3 years go by and finally, 2011, this trailer drops, and so do a lot people's jaws.

Now by this time, the zombie scene was WELL in to its trendy scene in all media. And pretty much across the board, you saw the run and gun gore-fest in which you mow down the undead with machine guns and chain saws.

This trailer looked like, to me anyways, that Dead Island was going to take the zombie genre in a new direction; Much in the way that The Walking Dead did(at least the in beginning, I haven't really kept up).

Now to the game. They didn't just make a serious trailer and release a silly game. I don't believe any of this game was suppose to be nonsensical. Everything about it points to the seriousness that someone seemed to be striving for in the development of this game.

Things like the poor writing, poor voice acting and horrible facial animations all attributed to this seriousness being lost. Somewhere along the way you can see where something happened in development and things were just last minute thrown together (I still don't know what the fuck was the point of the third act). I feel like the inclusion of guns, at least in the amount you actually find them in the game, was definitely a last minute decision; they're so poorly done and the whole experience is just way better without them.

I loved Dead Island; I loved the melee combat and running around with buddies in coop(that being said if your levels were too far apart, don't even bother playing together) and I had tons of fun with it; But it is undeniably a very flawed game.

I think after more Dead Islands and even Dying Light, they realized that they suck at making a compelling story in any way. Hence Dead Island 2! Watch this one be super serious and well done.