Before the release of various Dead Island games, there were features that were removed from the final product. These changes can be found below.
Dead Island[]
The daughter in the Dead Island trailer
- Children were cut from the final version of the game. Games such as Telltale Games' The Walking Dead and Last Of Us feature children in violent environments and were subject to risk of censorship. Throughout the game, places where children would have been present can be found. Some characters that would have been children were aged up or replaced with adults. Some cut/modified child characters include Anne Snider, Daughter, and Danny Craig. Danny and Anne are the most noticeable examples of where child characters existed due to their child-like mentalities and naïve dialogue. Danny insists on waiting for his brother; claiming that he's brave and strong. Anne's quest Toy Story revolves around the player recovering her lost teddy bear in the absence of her big sister.
- The only time we 'see' child zombies in the series (outside a couple of the tapes left by Roger Howard) is in Dead Island: The Book, where child zombies are described in several instances, as well as the heroes killing them shortly afterwards.
Two AK-47s with different color schemes and an assault rifle with a flashlight attachment
- Guns with colour schemes were also cut from the game. In early screenshots, guns of the same type can be seen with different designs, such as jungle or desert camouflage.
- The M60 machine gun was meant to appear in the game, but was cut from the final release. It can still be modded into a playable state, but it has no model and appears as a pistol instead. A mod can be used to give it its own properties and model, but it is third party and not a part of the base game.
- The M72 LAW was also meant to appear in the original game, but was cut as well. It's likely that both these weapons would have come in the Bloodbath Arena DLC before being cut. The M72 can also be modded into a playable state, but also has no model. It also can't kill players unless shot at a propane tank to make it explode. Unlike the M60, the M72 appeared in Dead Island: Riptide.
- Other firearms were supposed to be featured in the game, likely as quest rewards. These include an M1 Garand, RPG, a Sawn-Off Shotgun, a AK47, a AKM, a M16, a M9, a Lever Action Rifle and various throwables including Thermite Grenades. However, these were all scrapped for unknown reason. A possible cause of this is other quests that were scrapped early in development that could have possibly given out these weapons as rewards. The only information we have on these ever existing are some lines in the "DI/Data0/data/inventory.scr" file. Like with the M60, some of these weapons have been modded to be playable with their own stats and weapon models, but again these are third party and not a part of the base game.
- Rams were originally going to be featured in the Hotel and around the Resort.
- Suiciders were originally going to be featured in the hotel.
- As seen in the screenshot of Ram in the Hotel, the Hotel was probably going to have a larger role in the game. In the final version of the game, the Hotel corridors are only featured in the opening cutscene, the prologue and the quest Born to be Wild, which only takes place in the lower levels of the Hotel, such as kitchen and the server room.
- There are screenshots of survivors fighting off zombies at an early version of the Lifeguard Tower. Note that the screenshot takes place around noon rather than during the day like the final version of the game. Also, pistols (not revolvers) are available until the Heroes arrive in Moresby.
- A Day/night cycle was cut from the game. Random periods of rain are featured in its place.
- A day/night cycle was implemented in Dying Light, Techland's next zombie game after Dead Island: Riptide.
- We can see what Moresby would have looked like with a day/night cycle in Ryder White's Campaign, where Moresby is shrouded in darkness.
- Shoving off grappling zombies with melee weapons in quick-time events was cut. The player can still shove off grappling zombies in quick-time events but they will punch the zombie in the head instead. Originally, Heroes were going to have unique techniques such as stabbing zombies in the eyes or cutting off their heads. Some of the animations intended for countering grappling are still used in the game as secondary animations for the machete, crowbar and baseball bat.
- As seen in the quick time event screenshot, the crowbar originally had a much more detailed texture.
- Several characters were cut, along with a quest. The characters Werrol Folson, Adna and Abel were supposed to be in the game somewhere, but were cut from the final release.
- Text dialogue for Abel can be found in the game files and it seems that he was going to be involved in a cut quest making 'moonshine'.
- There's a hidden button on the map "Tomb of Natives" that was believed to have something to do with an upcoming DLC (however, it turned out it's just a hidden button); see more here.
A Ram in a Hotel corridor
A Ram near the lighthouse
A cut scenario at the Life Guard Station
Moresby at night. Note the lack of rain.
A Suicider in the hotel kitchen
An early version of the zombie quick-time event with a crowbar
Dead Island: Riptide[]
- Crawling zombies were cut from the final version of the game, called a Crawler. If a zombie was to lose either of their legs, it would be able to crawl towards Heroes. This can still be seen in early screenshots of the game. Crawlers will appear in the next Dead Island game, Dead Island 2.
- Grenadiers were originally going to be featured in the Flooded Jungle.
- Survivors aiding other survivors outside of safe areas was cut.
- In the pre-release screenshots, one of them is of a siege defence that is happening at a crashed aircraft. However, no trace of any aircraft is found in the game world whatsoever, so this was either a mission that was scrapped or completely made up to advertise the game.
- The aircraft wreckage bears a strong resemblance to Oceanic Flight 1012, meaning that its crash model was just reused for the screenshot.
- More firearms were cut from the final game. These not only included the previous named firearms in the game files (likely left over from the code of the previous game), but also named Sniper Rifles, the M24 SWS and Dragunov, but also a Double-Barreled Flare Gun and Sawed-Off Shotgun.
- A cut ammunition type for the Sniper Rifles was also cut - Sniper Ammo, likely serving the same purpose as Rifle Ammo except specifically for Sniper Rifles.
- John Sinamoi was meant to appear in Riptide, featured in a side quest in the Japanese Tunnels titled An Old Friend, however this was eventually cut from the game. A basic framework for the quest can be found in the game files.
In the lower right, a zombie can be seen crawling without any legs. Also, Henderson is only seen during the day.
Another screenshot with a crawling zombie
A pair of Grenadiers in the Flooded Jungle
A survivor can be seen dragging a wounded survivor to safety
The cut defence mission at a crashed aircraft
Dead Island: Epidemic[]
Due to the shutting down and cease of development of Dead Island: Epidemic, there's a lot of cut content from that game that was never finished, including several maps, characters and steam features such as steam workshop.
You can see all the unused content HERE.
Dead Island 2 (2014)[]
- Main article: Dead Island 2 (2014)
Dead Island 2 was announced as the next major instalment in the franchise in 2014 with a trailer and several gameplay videos releasing on the Dead Island YouTube channel. However, after several years in development hell, with multiple different developers, the game was eventually scrapped, making the entire thing cut content from the series. In 2020, a playable version of the build from 2015 was found and shared online, which consisted mainly of a dev room which contained all the items in the game up to that point, a spawner that could be used to spawn any zombie wished, as well as the opening portion of the game.
Dead Island 2 (2023)[]
- Various cut weapons were found in the game files, complete with weapon models, stats and interactions with zombies. These include a Crossbow and Sawblade Launcher.
- A special Machete variant called the AI Machete can also be found amongst the game files, likely a leftover from when human enemies were considered for the game before the decision was made to remove them.
- The Ripper can be found in the game files, however unlike the mod of the same name, this is a standalone weapon which again was not implemented in the finished game at launch. However, with the release of the final standalone DLC, SoLA, the weapon was fully released to the game.
- The odd thing about this is that in various artworks and even some trailers for the game, the weapon can be seen being held by various Slayers as well as being used in gameplay, though the weapon was never in the base game.