Imagine sitting down with your favorite cup of coffee, ready to settle into your first look at Assassin's Creed Valhalla, only to find that, of the 1 minute and 33 seconds of footage you were expecting to see, less than 3 seconds of it was anything close to gameplay footage.

Enter Ubisoft, who seemed to have no issue doing just that. Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful trailer, but it's almost entirely cinematic, not gameplay. We do see, at some point, things that could loosely be described as gameplay,  such as an axe throw or a stabbing, but quite clearly not from an actual player perspective.

In short, the trailer gives you no idea what actual gameplay will be like, which is an interesting approach for a gameplay trailer. Of course, developers and publishers have been playing fast and loose with the term for some time now, but this has taken things to a new level in the eyes of many.

So much so, both the game's creative director, Ashraf Ismail, and Xbox's Aaron Greenberg, have gone on record to apologize, acknowledging that the trailer fell short of expectations.

Hello all❤️

You rightfully expected to see more today. We have a long marketing campaign ahead of us, you will see in-depth gameplay and get a lot more info about the game.

Thank you for your excitement and passion! Be patient with us and be kind. It will be worth it!?

— Ashraf Ismail (@AshrafAIsmail) May 7, 2020

The trailer has even managed to accrue 32,000 dislikes against 19,000 likes on YouTube - and I've never seen a dislike count that high before as far as I can recall. 

Fans also complained about the lack of the female version of Eivor - the game will let you play through as both a male or a female; however, this was totally absent from the trailer.

I'm sure all will be forgiven soon, perhaps with an actual gameplay trailer, but still, it's all a bit of a kerfuffle, isn't it? Let us know your thoughts down in the comments below.