The recently confirmedGoat Simulator 3was 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 theGoat Simulatorfranchise has become known for, the trailer for the latest installment was actually a direct parody of another game’s trailer, namelyDead Island 2. The parody has ignited a discussion and vocal desire surrounding the zombie title, which has faced significant uncertainty surrounding its development.
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The Basics of Goat Simulator 3
Goat Simulator 3is a recently confirmed third-person action-adventure title, being developed and published by Coffee Stain. Oddly enough,Goat Simulator 3is a direct sequel tothe originalGoat Simulator,with the non-existentGoat Simulator 2being completely bypassed in a move very much on-brand for the humor-filled franchise. Like its predecessor,Goat Simulator 3will 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.
Dead Island 2was originally announced all the way back in 2014 as a mainline sequel to the massively popular open-world zombie survival gameDead Island, which was released in 2011. Also aiming to have the same survival action-RPG elements as its predecessors,Dead Island 2is set to take place within multiple areas of California, months after the events ofDead IslandandDead Island: Riptide.
The game has been under a tumultuous development cycle since its reveal, leading to severe uncertainty andconfusion surrounding the release ofDead Island 2. Even before its official announcement,Dead Island 2was 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.
As previously mentioned,the reveal trailer forGoat Simulator 3was a direct parody of the 2014 reveal trailer ofDead 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 originalDead Island 2version of this trailer featured zombies wreaking havoc around the jogger, with theGoat Simulator 3parody 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 adevelopment update ofDead Island 2. While many are still of course excited at the announcement ofGoat Simulator 3,a vocal and sustained demand for a newDead Islandtitle is still more than present, and has been deeply reinvigorated by the recent trailer. WithDead Island 2discourse rocketing to the forefront of wider gaming discussions as a result, theGoat Simulator 3trailer may have just spurred the title back to life.
Goat Simulator 3launches in the fall of 2022 for PC, PlayStation, and Xbox.
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