The trailer does not show any actual gameplay, instead telling a short story about the game's world and the background behind its events.

Upon its release, on 16 February 2011, the trailer sparked public interest, and the community reaction led Techland to adjust the content of the actual game.

[1][2] The trailer follows a family, consisting of a father, a mother and a daughter, visiting Banoi, an island paradise.

[3] The daughter is running away from the horde of zombies in the hotel's corridor and dashing towards her room, where her father and mother are staying, when she is caught.

Set in a zombie-infested tropical island called Banoi, the game focuses heavily on melee combat.

As a result, the team added a segment which has the daughter falling from the hotel window; in the process, audiences glimpse the island setting.

They decided that it would be easy for players to identify with a family and that a story involving parents and children could convey the message quickly.

The team had an internal debate on whether the trailer should show guns, ultimately deciding that doing so would distract from the primary goal of the story.

[14] The team was worried that the action and violence featured would seem excessive, and they decided to alleviate the problem by introducing non-chronological storytelling.

[15] Deep Silver also proposed to mitigate the violence by having the trailer presented in slow motion, as they believed that it could make the action feel "balletic" instead of purely violent.

[17] The trailer's music was composed by Giles Lamb, who worked for a soundtrack development company called Savalas.

Keith Stuart from The Guardian compared it favorably to Coldplay's "The Scientist", saying that it successfully delivered an affecting and emotive experience.

[21] Mike Fahey from Kotaku called the trailer's use of the dead girl "heartbreaking" and thought that it would be amazing if Techland was able to incorporate these emotional elements into the actual game.

[26] Robert Rath from The Escapist also liked the segment, calling it "deliberate and necessary", and thought that the overall effect would have been significantly hampered if had been removed from the trailer.

[29][30][31][32] A live-action remake and a recut version of the trailer which shows the story in a chronological order were released by fans.

[37] Deep Silver released a musical tribute to the trailer, coinciding with the launch of Dead Island: Definitive Edition in May 2016.