Assassin's Creed Valhalla's soundtrack trailer is actually a female Eivor trailer
Beard or no beard?
Ubisoft have published a new version of their cinematic trailer for Assassin's Creed Valhalla. It's mighty similar to the first one we saw, though this one includes music from the official soundtrack instead of modern rock. Oh, and it also swaps out bearded Eivor for not-bearded Eivor, the other half of of Valhalla's interchangeable protagonist.
We originally only got a look at female Eivor after the original cinematic trailer debut as a collectible statue that honestly doesn't do her a lick of justice. We did eventually get eyes on her in Alice Bee's preview in which Eivor got busy with a bloke at a wedding and then immediately forgot his name. It would be fair to say she looks the most ass-kickin' in the cinematic trailer though. The proper soundtrack with drums and violins and chanting is pretty swell too of course.
The new trailer, posted Friday, doesn't particularly let on that it features female Eivor. The title "Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Official Soundtrack Cinematic Trailer" is paired with a video description that focuses on where to listen to the soundtrack "The Ravens Saga," which was composed by Sarah Schachner and Jesper Kyd, featuring Einar Selvik.
It's an odd choice, given all the recent news about Ubisoft itself. Allegations of abuse and discrimination within the company have been reported this summer. A Bloomberg report also claims that female protagonist roles in Ubisoft games have been cut or minimised by the climate of sexism within the company.
Now seems like a decent time to follow up those pledges to investigate systemic company issues with a loud and proud declaration that lady Eivor has her own trailer. But hey, what do I know about marketing? I just consume too much of it.
As for other things we know about Valhalla, Alice Bee says it's not exactly an AC game but is still great. There are also supposed to be "Viking rap battles". We'll probably find out more still about Valhalla during the next Ubisoft Forward livestream in September.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla launches on November 17th. For PC players, it'll arrive via the Epic Games Store and the Ubisoft Store, priced at £50/$60.