The Assassin’s Creed Valhalla gameplay trailer that was revealed in the May 2020 Inside Xbox is missing something kind of important: gameplay. The next big reveal of content for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla seems to entirely be a cinematic trailer, disappointing fans and increasing YouTube dislikes at a lighting-fast pace.
Today’s episode of Inside Xbox promised a big gameplay reveal for the next Assassin’s Creed game. Unfortunately, it appears that Ubisoft didn’t quite deliver what players expected. Rather than seeing some in-game action and mechanics, we instead got to see a 1 1/2 minute trailer with cinematic sequences. Despite this, the trailer is still called the “First Look Gameplay Trailer” on YouTube.
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Understandably, fans are rather upset about what appears to be a bait-and-switch. At the time of writing, the trailer sits at 1.8K Likes and 4.1K Dislikes on YouTube — a clear indication that fans aren’t happy about how things turned out.
Reactions to the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla gameplay trailer on Twitter didn’t take too kindly to the apparent lack of in-engine action:
Xbox think we stupid? Theres a difference from seeing montages from gameplay and seeing the actual gameplay actually being played out #InsideXbox
— BG (Hater Supreme) (@BrokenGamezHDR_) May 7, 2020
For a event based on “next gen gameplay reveals,” there sure were a lot of CGI trailers 🧐 #InsideXbox
— MrMattyPlays (@G27Status) May 7, 2020
Look, I don't like to finger wag at companies when they do pressers, but STOP calling cinematic trailers "gameplay". You just end up looking silly and frustrate your audience.#InsideXbox
— Reforge Media (@ReforgeMedia) May 7, 2020
The /r/xbox subreddit was equally perturbed about the cinematic trailer we saw today.
“WAIT UP. Where was the Valhalla gameplay??????” exclaimed one comment. “How the hell is that guy and the director saying that was gameplay. That was it?!”
“AC Valhalla ‘gameplay[,]'” another comment began. “[Do] they not know what gameplay means? We saw a 3 minute long cinematic. Not a single second of gameplay despite different people talking about gameplay showcase.”
And lest we forget, the /r/AssassinsCreed subreddit seemed particularly disappointed with the trailer.
“I expected nothing in terms of gameplay, and I’m still disappointed beyond belief,” stated one comment.
“My hype is still on top, but we were [misled] on the gameplay part of the announcement…” yet another disappointed Redditor said in a comment. “I’m gonna go watch [The Last Kingdom] for a while … I loved the [Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2] trailer[,] though[.]”
As Assassin’s Creed has been a long-running franchise, some people are naturally comparing today’s trailer to a reveal of an earlier game. Assassin’s Creed Origins, for example, instead debuted with a 5-minute trailer that actually included in-engine gameplay.
Take a look at the Assassin’s Creed Origins E3 2017 gameplay trailer for yourself and see what we mean:
In Ubisoft’s defense, Creative Director Ashraf Ismail took to Twitter yesterday (via PCGamesN) to explain that this wouldn’t actually be a gameplay trailer.
https://twitter.com/AshrafAIsmail/status/1258080173175472129
https://twitter.com/AshrafAIsmail/status/1258088248116731904
Judging by the comments we’ve seen here today and the YouTube Like/Dislike ratio, it seems that the fans didn’t get the message.
It’s clear that calling this a “gameplay trailer” was a severe miscalculation on Ubisoft’s part. It’s important to set proper expectations and this latest trailer for a hotly-anticipated upcoming game missed the mark. You can see the (rather disappointing) Assassin’s Creed Valhalla gameplay trailer for yourself below.
