Dead Island/Island of Living Dead (original 2005-2007 video game version)

Dead Island is a 2011 action role-playing game, survival horror video game developed by Polish developer Techland and published by German studio Deep Silver for the Microsoft Windows, OS X, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. It is centered on the challenge of surviving a zombie-infested open world island with a major emphasis on melee combat, a stand-alone expansion named Dead Island: Riptide, was released in 2013, and a sequel named Dead Island 2 is currently in development scheduled to be released in 2015, it had two spin-offs that were poorly received by critics and fans.

Dead Island was originally announced at E3 2006, and was supposed to be released in 2008, but nothing was heard about it for years, with even some rumours resurfacing that it was cancelled, the game was re-announced in early 2011 with very different premises, settings, graphics, and storyline.

It is still unclear what caused the trouble-ish development, the last time something was heard about these versions was in 2008, until when the game was re-announced in 2011.

2005-2008 Versions
The original versions of the game (then nicknamed "The Island of the Living Dead") were shown very few times to the public, the first known issue was the name change, as it is more likely its developers were afraid of causing legal trouble with George Romero due to the suffix "-Living Dead" (while this is not true, Romero never copyrighted this suffix, and a lot of non-Rometo zombie films use that title).

There are a very high number of screenshots for these versions, however, there has been released only one trailer for it, and only one gameplay pre-alpha footage was shown on YouTube in 2011 in very poor quality most likely shot during a gaming event, but it is now deleted, the original video (That OtherComputer can remember it) shows a very early version of the "Thug" zombie (an enemy in the game) walking to the player, but nothing happens due to being a pre-alpha testing session, talkings can be heard on the background and the camera shows the ocean on the game, most likely the developers talking about the innovative blood-water physics for the game.

The story was also completely reworked, there were no visible RPG elements, and only one character was playable, not even once the developers said anything about the storyline, just that the reason for the zombie outbreak in the island was "Mysterious" and "with no reason", and that the players would have to play the game to find the reasons why.

This caused several ridicule on the game, that was accused several times on gaming forums and magazines of having a premise similiar to the 2002 Game-Adaptation film The House of the Dead, based on the 1990's arcade shooter classic by Sega, the THOTD film was extremely panned, and is by many considered the worst zombie film ever made, or the worst game-adaptation film ever made after Super Mario Bros. (1993).

The House of the Dead also had an Island suffering a zombie outbreak with no reason, and the teenagers who went to the island for a spring break would have to fight their way to find out why, only to reveal that a stereotypical and lifeless character mad scientist was behind the plot.

According to the Brazilian gaming website (now completely reworked), UOLJogos on the original 2006 preview they stayed that the original premise was:

Após queda de avião, homem procura por sua esposa em uma ilha paradisíaca misteriosamente habitata pelos mortos-vivos

After a plane crash, a man searches for his wife in a paradise island mysteriously crawling with the undead

The website was extremely reworked over the years, and the original Dead Island review had been updated to its 2011 version, and now, is nowhere to be found with the exception of internet Archive programs.

Protographs
These are some photographs for the original versions, it is more likely that the game had either used the Far Cry engine (Crytech), there is evidence for the Far Cry engine since it heavily supports jungle and ocean formats and was extremely used in games in this period that were set in islands.

http://static.gamesradar.com/images/mb//GamesRadar/gb/Games/D/Dead%20Island/PC/2007-08-22/4--screenshot_large.jpg

http://www.relyonhorror.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/di2008_3.jpg

http://static.gamesradar.com/images/mb//GamesRadar/gb/Games/D/Dead%20Island/PC/2007-08-22/4--screenshot_large.jpg

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-awiSiSrFSM0/Tkb3DO3H2KI/AAAAAAAAAyw/H-L0IcS65ws/s1600/Dead-Island.jpg

http://www.relyonhorror.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/di2008_4.jpg

http://media.officialplaystationmagazine.co.uk/files/2011/11/Dead-Island-e1320503315446-610x359.jpg

http://www.relyonhorror.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/di2008_5.jpg

http://www.relyonhorror.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/di2008_6.jpg