Yesterday, the first gameplay trailer for Activision and Terminal Reality's The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct made its way around the internet, disappointing millions of fans with poor graphics and generic gameplay. As it turns out the video, which appeared to be in-game footage of the first-person survival game, was not an official trailer. Rather, it was a fan edit, created using footage that was released as part of a preview given to IGN.
With all that being said, it's important to note that while it wasn't official, it was still gameplay footage of the game — albeit an early build. Knowing that the footage is from an earlier version of the game should help comfort those worried about the graphics and gameplay. If you were disappointed in what you saw, you should take comfort in knowing that a lot could have (and probably has) been changed. I can't tell you that for sure, as I haven't yet seen a recent build of The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct, but I do have a hard time believing that Activision would settle for a mediocre FPS — especially one that holds a name as powerful and prestigious as The Walking Dead.
I would like to apologize for the way in which the video was presented. Although we didn't say anything bad about what we saw, it should have been acknowledged that the video was comprised of fan-edited footage of an unfinished game. It was never meant to be presented as promotional material and we should have conveyed that message to you.
For what it's worth, we weren't the only ones fooled by the video. Even Activision's own social media manager, Dan Amrich, fell for it — and it's published by Activision! "For what it’s worth, I thought I’d missed something and posted the same video. Humans—we do make mistakes,” Amrich posted on Twitter.
I suppose we can all breathe a sign of relief that what we saw wasn't official material from Activision. We still don't know what the game looks like or how it plays, but here's hoping the game is shaping up well. Hopefully, when the real trailer is released it impresses all fans of The Walking Dead franchise.
