When the hauntingly beautiful announcement trailer for Dead Island hit the webs a few months back, it created quite a stir amongst the gaming crowd. However, the biggest problem with it was that it didn’t contain any in-game footage at all, leaving many to wonder just how the game played. Well, developer Techland is back with a new trailer that does indeed contain some footage from the actual game.

While this particular clip doesn’t contain the self-contained mini-narrative of the first trailer, it does bring back a few of the same techniques.

It has the same juxtaposing themes of happy families and friends versus gory zombie imagery, and also features a melancholy score and tons of slow motion. Fans may have been hoping for a lengthy look at what the gameplay of Dead Island will look and feel like, but that isn’t exactly what we’ve got.

Check out the newest gameplay trailer below, but make sure not to blink while watching, or you may just miss it:

What’s puzzling about the second attempt at an emotionally charged trailer is that publisher Deep Silver has already back-pedaled a bit regarding what players should be expecting, expressing concern that gamers might have had incorrect assumptions about the game after viewing the announcement trailer.

However, if this is the path that their marketing is continuing to take, they had better have the story to back up these trailers, or they are just continuing to shoot themselves in the foot here.

The new batch of screenshots for Dead Island certainly reinforces the first-person violence that the gameplay details have focused on. Featuring both a couple of different guns and the standard Louisville Slugger, the images do evoke a feeling of frantic chaos and intensity that hopefully the final game can deliver on.

The Condemned series is one that has had an emphasis on melee combat was able to use the close range combat to create terrifying encounters. If Dead Island can do the same, it wouldn’t disappoint:

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What do you think of the latest trailer and screenshots for the latest entry into the zombie-survival genre? Does it contain enough new ideas to get you interested, or will you be waiting for more extensive gameplay footage to decide?

Hopefully more footage of Dead Island isn’t too far away, as the game is set to release some time this year for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.