Last week, during the Inside Xbox showcase, we got a brand new trailer for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Unfortunately, it was shorter than the cinematic trailer, and didn’t seem to tell us that much about the game on the surface of things. However, if you take a closer look at the trailer, you can see a few things that have been revealed with subtlety by Ubisoft’s incredible marketing team.
1) Eivor Has Blue Eyes
This really isn’t a great gameplay detail, but I do think that it’s nice how the gameplay trailer focuses on Eivor’s eyes a lot. They’re a beautiful shade of blue, like the waters of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. I can’t wait to see them in the game.
2) Trained Raven
A little way into the trailer, we see a raven flying over a viking longship. We’ve been told before that the raven is a symbol that Odin is watching over the group, but this is also very familiar imagery from the last two games in the Assassin’s Creed series. In both Origins and Odyssey we had eagles that would allow us to scout out areas before heading into them. This raven could be Eivor’s equivalent.
3) Stonehenge
I don’t think that Ubisoft is insinuating that vikings created Stonehenge, but it does feature in the trailer. There are also scenes of viking iconography, such as huge trees with various sacrifices attached to them in a pattern. This could indicate that Eivor will be able to go on some sort of spiritual journey at these locations. It would fit with the Assassin’s Creed universe, exploring various memories, and could help flesh out the protagonist’s backstory.
4) Siege Battles
We already knew that we would get to participate in sieges and raids, that’s not new here. What I’m looking at is the part of the trailer that sees a settlement on fire, being attacked by the vikings. It looks like there will be various locations around the game’s world that it will be possible to siege, causing them to change forever. It’s a crazy thing that the game world is dynamic enough to allow for this, but it seems like it will be a big feature for it. I’m excited to raid some Saxon castles myself.
5) Dual-Wielding Shields
So many developers have confirmed this. While it isn’t in the trailer, you can see Eivor dual-wielding axes, and I wanted to clear this up. You can definitely dual-wield shields in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.
