The recently confirmed Goat Simulator 3 was undoubtedly one of the more surprising announcements to come out of this year's Summer Games Fest, for more reasons than one. The game was announced with its own explosive trailer, which has had a very peculiar knock-on effect for discussions surrounding another title altogether.
In the same relentlessly cheeky manner that the Goat Simulator franchise has become known for, the trailer for the latest installment was actually a direct parody of another game's trailer, namely Dead Island 2. The parody has ignited a discussion and vocal desire surrounding the zombie title, which has faced significant uncertainty surrounding its development.
The Basics of Goat Simulator 3
Goat Simulator 3 is a recently confirmed third-person action-adventure title, being developed and published by Coffee Stain. Oddly enough, Goat Simulator 3 is a direct sequel to the original Goat Simulator, with the non-existent Goat Simulator 2 being completely bypassed in a move very much on-brand for the humor-filled franchise. Like its predecessor, Goat Simulator 3 will take place in an expansive sandbox overworld, allowing players to destructively interact with their environments as a chaos-causing goat, to complete objectives and open up new avenues of exploration. The title will additionally feature four-player online or local co-op, meaning players can wreak havoc either solo or with a group of friends.
The Uncertainty of Dead Island 2
Dead Island 2 was originally announced all the way back in 2014 as a mainline sequel to the massively popular open-world zombie survival game Dead Island, which was released in 2011. Also aiming to have the same survival action-RPG elements as its predecessors, Dead Island 2 is set to take place within multiple areas of California, months after the events of Dead Island and Dead Island: Riptide.
The game has been under a tumultuous development cycle since its reveal, leading to severe uncertainty and confusion surrounding the release of Dead Island 2. Even before its official announcement, Dead Island 2 was originally set to be developed by Yager Development, although development shifted to Sumo Digital despite years of existing work already being done. Development then changed once again when Sumo Digital was removed from the project, with Dambuster taking over the role in 2019.
How the Goat Simulator 3 Trailer Has Reignited Dead Island 2 Interest
As previously mentioned, the reveal trailer for Goat Simulator 3 was a direct parody of the 2014 reveal trailer of Dead Island 2. In a very on-the-nose manner, both trailers show a jogger running through a sun-baked California street, unoblivious to an unfurling apocalypse happening around him due to the loud music blasting through his headphones. Of course, the original Dead Island 2 version of this trailer featured zombies wreaking havoc around the jogger, with the Goat Simulator 3 parody instead opting for goats as the source of the carnage instead. While at face value this parody trailer was just a fun and relatively harmless way of announcing a sequel while re-affirming the style of comedy that the game will possess, the trailer has had an additional impact on fans.
Many who were watching the reveal trailer live through the Summer Games Fest stream were deeply excited at first, genuinely believing the reveal trailer was a development update of Dead Island 2. While many are still of course excited at the announcement of Goat Simulator 3, a vocal and sustained demand for a new Dead Island title is still more than present, and has been deeply reinvigorated by the recent trailer. With Dead Island 2 discourse rocketing to the forefront of wider gaming discussions as a result, the Goat Simulator 3 trailer may have just spurred the title back to life.
Goat Simulator 3 launches in the fall of 2022 for PC, PlayStation, and Xbox.