Game has been in development for nearly a decade
'Dead Island 2' had a reputation among gamers as one of the great unreleased games like 'Duke Nukem Forever' or 'Half-Life 3' before it, but now the game will see the light of day in 2023.
3 developer changes later, the zombie game will be released in February 2023.
The game was announced with a flashy trailer at E3 2014, with the trailer racking up over 25 million views on YouTube and promised zombie-killing fun in sun-soaked California.
At the time, the game was being developed by developers Yeager Interactive who had recently redefined the military shooter with 2012's 'Spec Ops: The Line' and hopes were high that they could deconstruct the zombie genre.
The developers were taken off the project in 2015, with English developers Sumo Digital tapped to develop the game.
After 3 more years of development, they too were removed from the project, with Dambuster, an internal studio within Deep Silver chosen to finish the game.
With such a chaotic development process, fans were shocked to see the game re-announced at the Gamescom conference in Germany.
The sun-kissed environments of California will make for what will undoubtedly be a unique experience for fans.
Developer James Worral told Eurogamer that the developers prided themselves on the game incredibly gory.
Discussing the games gore mechanics, he said "it's just fully anatomically correct models, we've basically done everything from hair, skin, fat, muscle, bones, and all the organs are stuffed in there- it's all procedural."
"It's all part and parcel of making sure that our monsters are monsters, but there's enough humanity left in there that when you see them staggering around after explosions or hopping along because I've only got one leg, you have that moment of humour," he added.
Developer David Stenston says the developers consulted 80s horror and sci-fi films in creating the gore system, saying "our aim was to make it absolutely the goriest game out there."
"It ties into the gameplay, with dismemberment and melting and electric charging and burning the zombies and all, so it's not just there as sort of window dressing, it genuinely ties into the way that you play the game."
The original 'Dead Island' set the internet alight with a dramatic teaser trailer in 2011, with the finished product viewed as a disappointment by critics and some fans for not being the heart-wrenching drama that was seen in the trailer.
The game was a hit however, and the surprise re-appearance of 'Dead Island 2' all these years later is a cause for celebration.
'Dead Island 2' will release in February 2023 - for real, this time.