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Sometimes, the name is the game. Bugsnax, the new game from Octodad developer Young Horses, is all about catching bugs made of traditionally appetizing foods like pizza, strawberries, carrots, and lollipops, which turn your body parts into food when you eat them. They’re bugs, but made of snacks. Bug… snacks? Bugsnax.

It’s a wacky, whimsical conceit that, when paired with the game’s cute and colorful art style, puts a smile on your face and pushes your imagination to run wild. The surprisingly powerful desire to discover more about this world and its weird, wonderful creatures fuels every aspect of the experience. Its clever, if somewhat temperamental, puzzles revolve around catching Bugsnax. The story sends you off to investigate the mysteries of their home, Snaktooth Island, and its colonists. And though that drive is purely superficial–your real motivation will be to see all the clever Snak names and designs–the game you experience along the way has a lot of substance.

How do I even begin to explain what’s happening in Bugsnax? You control an investigative journalist who’s reporting the expedition of explorer Lizbert Megafig to Snaktooth Island, where she’s discovered evidence of an ancient civilization and the delicious, mysterious Bugsnax. When you arrive, Lizbert has gone missing and her colony, Snaxburg, has disbanded. Your goal, for most of the game, is to find the colonists around the island and convince them to get back together so you can get your story and find out what happened to the lost explorer. Most of the time, “convincing” means feeding them Bugsnax.

The world of Bugsnax is colorful, like something out of a children’s book. All of the humanoid characters are furry, big-eyed Muppet-like creatures called Grumpuses. As someone who loves food but hates all bugs, I was delighted to find the Bugsnax all look adorable and charming. (The key, I think, was giving them all arts-and-crafts-style googly eyes.) Pulling a page from Pokemon, each one has a clever, explanatory name, which they say aloud as they crawl around. Exploring the various biomes of Snaktooth Island, which range from forests to beaches to canyons to snowy mountain peaks, searching out all the inventive little creatures, scanning them to discover their properties, and observing them in their element, is a pure delight. There are 100 Bugsnax, some of which are simply palette-swapped reskins, but finding a new one is always exciting.

To satisfy the former citizens of Snaxburg, though, you will need to do more than look. Getting your hands on delicious Fryders (french fry spiders), Crapples (apple crabs), and Ribblepedes (BBQ rib centipedes) requires you to be clever. Catching each type of Bugsnak presents a unique puzzle; each one has a different set of characteristics that dictate how they react to you, to your tools, and to other Bugsnax. Some will run away when they see you, and others will chase. Some can be caught using your remote trap, while others will break free and need to be incapacitated in some way before you run in and scoop them up with a net. Later on, some of them are literally on fire, so you need to find a way to cool them off before making your move.

You have a toolkit that gives you a few options for manipulating the Snax. Your slingshot lets you fire different sauces–ketchup, hot sauce, ranch, chocolate, and so on–which can act as bait or repellant, depending on what you’re trying to catch. You have a tripwire that can knock over aggressive creatures and bring down Snax that are out of reach. More often, though, you’ll need to use your tools to bring two Snax together and interact to make them susceptible to capture. In an early example, a Bunga (a hamburger bug) will charge at anything covered in ketchup, so when the extremely skittish Shishkabug (shishkabob bug, which kind of looks like an ant) hides in a bush to get away from a trap, you can sling some ketchup at the hiding spot to attract the Bunga and flush the Shishkabug out. Though you rarely need more than two Snax to interact to set up a catch, the process of bringing them together requires some creative thinking. I wouldn’t say any of them are really tough to solve, but you need to think outside the box, and that makes you feel clever when a plan comes together.

Your interview subjects don’t just want you to catch their Bugsnax; they want you to feed the Snax to them, too. And when you feed them, part of their body will turn into the food they just ate (or something related). Early on, you gain the ability to choose which body part changes, which turns the Bugsnax into cosmetic items. You can continue feeding Bugsnax to any character whenever you want, giving them a makeover as increasingly abstract food mutants. No matter how much you change a Grumpus, they still look friendly.

As a gameplay mechanic, it’s a bit underwhelming. In some later, optional missions, certain colonists will ask you to catch Snax with specific colors or characteristics and apply them to specific body parts, but that doesn’t actually affect how you catch the Bugsnax or the feeding process. The body-changing factors into the story, so it never feels totally superfluous, but the actual mechanic is really just for fooling around.

Bugsnax’ larger story plays out mainly through the conversations you have with the colonists once they’ve returned to Snaxburg. Upon their return, you get the chance to interview each one, learn more about their personality and background, and get clues to the larger mysteries of Lizbert’s disappearance and the origin of the Bugsnax. The overarching story is a proverbial page-turner, motivating you to keep moving through it. It’s a bit predictable, but that didn’t keep me from wanting to see how things play out.

The heart of Bugsnax story isn’t in the plot, but in its characters. Though they look like cartoons, colorful and tropey, Snaxburg’s residents have real personalities and personal stories to tell, if you want to hear them. After convincing them to return to town, each character has an optional questline in which you help them with their work and/or personal chores. Beffica, the nosy former gossip columnist, asks you to spy on the other colonists in the middle of the night. Triffany, the archeologist, wants help exploring ancient ruins. Invariably, each character winds up revealing that they’re struggling with deeper personal problems–difficulty coping with loss or failure, depression, anxiety. Sometimes you wind up helping them solve those larger issues, but sometimes you don’t. Even when you can’t, though, there are touching, human moments when these characters reveal themselves to you. (And, shockingly, having strawberry horns or a burrito nose doesn’t make them any less relatable.)

Unsurprisingly, Bugsnax’ best qualities are its cleverness and charm. The surprise and delight you feel when you see a Bugsnak wiggling around or watch someone eat one and change their arm into food never goes away. That alone would make Bugsnax worth your time, but creative puzzles and thoughtful story give it the body and depth to make a Snak feel more like a meal.

As we head into the busy holiday season, retailers are beginning to release their Black Friday 2020 ads teasing their biggest deals of the year. We’ve already seen ads from Best Buy, Walmart, and Target; now, GameStop is getting in on the action by releasing its own Black Friday 2020 ad. The 12-page flyer teases a bunch of upcoming gaming deals, mostly discounts on games for Nintendo Switch, PS4/PS5, and Xbox One/Xbox Series X/S. Notably, it also reveals a PS5 and Series X/S restock at GameStop on Black Friday. GameStop’s Black Friday 2020 sale kicks off later this month, so get caught up on everything you need to know below, including GameStop store hours on Black Friday, start times for the sale, and the best deals from GameStop’s ad.

GameStop Black Friday 2020 schedule

GameStop Black Friday deals kick off online and in the GameStop mobile app on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving (November 25) at 6 PM PT / 9 PM ET. Stores are closed Thanksgiving Day, but online deals should continue through Thursday and into Friday, when stores will open at 7 AM local time for Black Friday shoppers. Black Friday deals will be available online and in stores Friday through Sunday, though some deals are Friday-only. GameStop has not shared its Cyber Monday plans at this time.

GameStop is also running a pre-Black Friday sale from November 14 through 21 with deep discounts on PC gaming bundles, accessories, and console game deals. Another pre-Black Friday event runs from November 22 to 25.

• November 14-21: “Black Friday Countdown” sale
• November 22-25: “Black Friday Early Deals” event
• November 25: Black Friday deals begin at 6 PM PT / 9 PM ET, available online and through GameStop mobile app
• November 27-29: Black Friday deals available in stores and online

GameStop store hours for Thanksgiving weekend

• Thursday (Nov. 26): All retail stores closed
• Friday (Nov. 27): 7 AM to 10 PM
• Saturday (Nov. 28): 10 AM to 8 PM
• Sunday (Nov. 29): 11 AM to 6 PM

GameStop Black Friday console offers

GameStop’s Black Friday ad reveals the PS5 and Xbox Series X will be available in stores only on Black Friday. All stores will have a minimum of two PS5 and two Xbox Series X consoles when they open on Friday at 7 AM, and there’s a limit of one console per customer. We suggest calling your local store ahead of time for availability. If you’re lucky enough to snag one of these consoles at GameStop, you’ll have multiple payment options to choose from, including layaway and installment plans.

GameStop will also have a Nintendo Switch bundle with a digital copy of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and three months of Nintendo Switch Online. There’s no outright discount on the system–the bundle goes for $300–but you’re getting a $60 game and a few months of online play at no cost.

GameStop Black Friday game and accessory deals

GameStop’s Black Friday sale includes a wide range of deals on games for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox this year. Not that for PlayStation and Xbox, you’ll be able to play physical versions of PS4 and Xbox One games on PS5 and Xbox Series X, if you’re upgrading to those consoles this year. Up until now, Best Buy’s Black Friday 2020 ad had the most impressive game deals yet, but GameStop’s sale makes a good effort to match and even beat some of those upcoming discounts. Below, we’ve bolded deals that match or beat the prices in Best Buy’s upcoming sale and included other notable offers as well. Check out GameStop’s Black Friday ad for the full list of deals running November 25-29.

Nintendo Switch deals

Switch games

• BioShock: The Collection — $20 ($50)
• Cobra Kai — $30 ($40)
• FIFA 21 — $27 ($60)
• Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster — $20 ($40)
• The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening — $40 ($60)
• Luigi’s Mansion 3 — $40 ($60)
• Mario + Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 — $30 ($60)
• Minecraft Dungeons – Hero Edition — $20 ($30)
• Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath Kollection — $27 ($50)
• NBA 2K21 — $27 ($60)
• The Outer Worlds — $30 ($60)
• PGA 2K21 — $27 ($60)
• Pokemon: Let’s Go, Eevee — $30 ($60)
• Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu — $30 ($60)
• Saints Row IV: Re-Elected — $20 ($30)
• Sonic Mania + Team Sonic Racing bundle — $30 ($40)
• Super Mario Maker 2 — $40 ($60)
• XCOM 2 Collection — $20 ($50)

Switch accessories

• All-in-one carrying case for Switch — $5 ($15)
• KontrolFreek performance thumbsticks — $10 ($15)
• PDP Fight Pad Pro wired controllers — $12.49 ($25)
• PowerA Enhanced wired controllers — $15 ($25)
• SanDisk Ultra 128GB microSD card — $19 ($35)

PlayStation deals

PS4 and PS5 games

• Borderlands 3 — $10 ($30)
• Cobra Kai — $30 ($40)
• Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time — $40 ($50)
• The Dark Pictures: Little Hope — $20 ($30)
• Death Stranding — $20 ($40)
• Devil May Cry 5 — $17 ($30)
• Doom Eternal — $20 ($60)
• Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot — $20 ($40)
• FIFA 21 — $27 ($60)
• Final Fantasy VII Remake — $35 ($60)
• Ghost of Tsushima — $40 ($60)
• God of War — $10 ($20)
• Horizon Zero Dawn – Complete Edition — $10 ($20)
• Iron Man VR — $20 ($40)
• Kingdom Hearts III — $10 ($20)
• The Last of Us Part II — $30 ($60)
• Life is Strange 2 — $15 ($30)
• Madden NFL 21 — $27 ($60)
• Mafia Definitive Edition — $30 ($40)
• Marvel’s Avengers — $27 ($60)
• Marvel’s Spider-Man – GOTY Edition — $20 ($40)
• Minecraft Dungeons – Hero Edition — $20 ($30)
• MLB The Show 20 — $10 ($40)
• Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath Kollection — $27 ($50)
• NBA 2K21 — $27 ($60)
• Need for Speed Heat — $20 ($40)
• Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered — $27 ($40)
• Nioh 2 — $10 ($40)
• Persona 5 Royal – Steelbook Edition — $25 ($60)
• PGA 2K21 — $27 ($60)
• Project Cars 3 — $25 ($40)
• Red Dead Redemption II — $25 ($60)
• Resident Evil 2 — $17 ($30)
• Resident Evil 3 — $20 ($40)
• 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim — $30 ($60)
• The Sims 4: Journey to Batuu bundle — $20 ($40)
• Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order — $30 ($60)
• Star Wars Squadrons — $17 ($40)
• Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 — $30 ($40)
• Watch Dogs Legion — $33 ($60)

PS5 and PS4 accessories

• Astro A40 TR gaming headset — $120 ($150)
• KontrolFreek gaming lights — $22 ($30)
• KontrolFreek performance grips — $10 ($150)
• PlayStation Plus 12-month membership — $45 ($60)
• Seagate 2TB external hard drive — $70 ($90)

Xbox deals

Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One games

• Bleeding Edge — $15 ($30)
• Borderlands 3 — $10 ($30)
• Cobra Kai — $30 ($40)
• Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time — $40 ($50)
• The Dark Pictures: Little Hope — $20 ($30)
• Devil May Cry 5 — $17 ($30)
• Doom Eternal — $20 ($60)
• Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot — $20 ($40)
• FIFA 21 — $27 ($60)
• Forza Horizon 4 — $20 ($50)
• Gears 5 — $10 ($30)
• Gears Tactics — $30 ($60)
• Kingdom Hearts III — $10 ($20)
• Life is Strange 2 — $15 ($30)
• Madden NFL 21 — $27 ($60)
• Mafia Definitive Edition — $30 ($40)
• Marvel’s Avengers — $27 ($60)
• Minecraft Dungeons – Hero Edition — $20 ($30)
• Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath Kollection — $27 ($50)
• NBA 2K21 — $27 ($60)
• Need for Speed Heat — $20 ($40)
• Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered — $27 ($40)
• Ori and the Will of the Wisps — $15 ($30)
• PGA 2K21 — $27 ($60)
• Project Cars 3 — $25 ($40)
• Red Dead Redemption II — $25 ($60)
• Resident Evil 2 — $17 ($30)
• Resident Evil 3 — $20 ($40)
• The Sims 4: Journey to Batuu bundle — $20 ($40)
• Star Wars Squadrons — $17 ($40)
• Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 — $30 ($40)
• Watch Dogs Legion — $33 ($60)

Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One accessories

• Astro A40 TR wired gaming headset — $120 ($150)
• Astro MixAmp Pro TR — $100 ($130)
• Razer Wolverine Ultimate wired gaming controller — $140 ($160)
• Seagate 2TB external hard drive — $70 ($90)
• Only on Black Friday (Nov. 27): Xbox Game Pass Ultimate 3-month membership — $20 ($45)
• Xbox wireless controllers — save $10 on all controllers (including new Series X model)

PC gaming deals

PC games

• Doom Eternal — $20 ($60)
• Gears Tactics — $30 ($60)

PC gaming accessories

• HyperX Alloy Origins Red Linear Switches wired mechanical keyboard — $80 ($110)
• HyperX Fury S Pro Speed Edition X-Large mouse pad — $20 ($30)
• PC gaming accessory bundles
  • Guild Series bundle with 14-button Pro RGB mouse, full-RGB keyboard with blue mechanical switches, and 35.4″ x 11.8″ mouse pad — $50 ($100)
  • Sniper Series bundle with 9-button Pro RGB mouse, full-RGB keyboard with blue mechanical switches, and 35.4″ x 11.8″ mouse pad — $40 ($80)
• Razer Basilisk X HyperSpeed wireless gaming mouse — $40 ($60)
• Razer Kraken X black wired gaming headset — $35 ($50)
• Razer Kraken Kitty Edition Quartz Chroma wired gaming headset — $100 ($150)
• Online-only: Razer Viper Ultimate wireless gaming mouse — $120 ($150)

Collectibles deals

• All $8.98 and under Funko Pops — $3 each
• All $12 Funko Pops — Buy 2, get 1 free
• Gift bag deal — Buy a $5 bag and get 25% off all toys, apparel, collectibles, and more
• Pokemon TCG: Legends of Johto Collection — $25 ($50)
• Trading cards — Buy 1, get 1 60% off
• T-shirts — $9 each
• Ugly Christmas sweaters — $25 each

If you miss your chance to snag a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X at launch this week, you’ll have another chance later this month during Black Friday 2020. GameStop released its Black Friday ad today and also confirmed it will have limited stock of the PS5 and Series X and S in stores only on Black Friday (November 27).

GameStop stores will open at 7 AM local time on Black Friday, and all stores will have a minimum of two PS5 and two Xbox Series X consoles at opening, according to the ad. A press release confirms the Series S will be available as well, but the PS5 Digital is not shown or explicitly mentioned, so it’s unclear if that system will be widely available. We suggest calling your local store for availability.

GameStop’s move to offer in-store-only console orders on one of the busiest shopping days of the year is in stark contrast with what we’ve seen at other retailers recently. Sony announced all launch day PS5 orders will be online-only due to safety precautions around the COVID-19 pandemic, and though Best Buy’s Black Friday ad also features the PS5 and Xbox Series X, the consoles will be restricted to online purchases only when they’re back in stock.

If you do decide to head to your local GameStop on that Friday morning and manage to secure a PS5 or Xbox Series X/S, you’ll have several payment options available. These include traditional layaway, where you reserve the console at the store until you pay it off completely; installment plans that let you pay off your purchase in four installments over six weeks; and rent-to-own, which allows you to take the console home with “minimum upfront money” and pay it off within one to 12 months. You also retain the option to return it at any point.

Check out our PS5 buying guide and Xbox Series X buying guide for more info on when and where to find the next-gen consoles in stock during launch week and beyond. Plus, catch up on all the latest Black Friday 2020 news and deals, including upcoming sales at Best Buy, Walmart, and Target.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla fully embraces the series’ heritage. The 12th major Assassin’s Creed game shows a keen awareness of the history and gameplay innovations of the saga, and it feels like a love letter to the franchise as a whole. This makes the game a far more rewarding experience for longtime fans, though newcomers can still enjoy Valhalla’s combat, emphasis on exploration, and mystery-driven narrative without years of time spent in the Animus.

In Valhalla, you once again play as present-day protagonist Layla Hassan, who’s still a bit shaken up after the unfortunate events at the end of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey‘s second DLC, The Fate of Atlantis. Understandably ostracized from her old team, she’s now partnered with fellow Assassins Shaun Hastings and Rebecca Crane. The trio find themselves facing the daunting task of needing to save the world, and their only clue as to how is a mysterious message of unknown origin that contains coordinates to a grave. With no other leads, Layla hops into the Animus machine with a DNA sample taken from the skeletal remains, allowing her to relive their life in the distant past. This time she’ll be Eivor, a Viking who lived during the ninth century.

The Assassin’s Creed games have traditionally struggled with the modern-day storyline that runs alongside the stories that take place in the past, and Valhalla is no different. However, its modern-day plot is the most focused it has been in years. There’s a clear and present danger, and a nice setup for the throughline of the game’s campaign: the concept of fate.

However, the same care is not extended to Valhalla’s secondary main character Layla, whose arc in this game concludes in a way that doesn’t feel earned. For a game all about fate and the consequences of trying to break free of it, Layla ends up feeling like a passenger more than the driver of the story. Given the lack of evolution in her character over her multiple appearances, her defining quality has become the bull-headed nature she exhibited in Origins and Odyssey. Thus, her characterization in this game seems all the more contradictory, leaving the modern-day storyline with a bit of an unsatisfying feeling. Thankfully, Layla isn’t Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s primary main character, and Eivor more than picks up the slack when it comes to story.

Vinland Saga

Eivor is portrayed as female in the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Song of Glory comic, which feels like a more natural choice for the character, so that’s how I played them. However, you can choose to play as a male version instead, or have the Animus choose for you, which changes Eivor’s gender at certain points throughout the campaign (and you can switch among all three options whenever you want). A Viking raider, Eivor is a leader of the Raven Clan alongside her adopted brother, Sigurd. At the start of Valhalla, Eivor has a vision that foretells she will meet a terrible fate. Before she can make proper sense of the more minute details of the vision, however, Sigurd decides to leave Norway for England, prompting her to follow. The two reestablish themselves but find their new home is now located at the centerpiece of several wars. Sigurd sets out to ally with each of England’s four kingdoms (Wessex, Northumbria, East Anglia, and Mercia) in order to carve out a safe plot of land for the clan, leaving Eivor behind to oversee their growing settlement and only calling on her when he’s in need of her strength or cunning intellect to put the final touches into securing a new alliance.

Thus, Valhalla’s story plays out over a series of self-contained narrative arcs–a first for Assassin’s Creed. By talking to Sigurd’s wife, Randvi, you can choose which of Sigurd’s leads to pursue next, which kicks off a two-to-three-hour story. Upon completion, you return to Randvi to report on what transpired, invest any collected resources into the settlement, and then pick the next narrative thread.

This structure works both for and against Valhalla’s story. Once an arc is done, it’s done–certain characters can come back in later arcs, but that very rarely happens. This opens up Valhalla to several different types of storytelling styles as well as different stories. It’s not one large campaign of subsequent events but many events that loosely tie together–it’s like Valhalla is divided into dozens of large-scale side quests. To the game’s benefit, this means that if a specific narrative arc has characters or gameplay you don’t necessarily enjoy–like, oh, I don’t know, searching for some annoyingly hard-to-find environmental clues in order to figure out who amongst your group is a traitor–you know that once the arc is over, you’re likely never going to have to engage with that pocket of England ever again. The story will soon move past that arc and then largely act like it never existed, giving you new characters to meet and mission structures to engage with. However, this works against the game too, as anything you like won’t last either.

The biggest detriment of the self-contained arcs is the somewhat shallow supporting cast. Because characters typically only stick around for a few hours, there isn’t much time for development. And where there is any, it’s rushed. I’ve seen a stalwart man who stubbornly maintains that the pagan Danes should be forced to believe in God change his tune after a night of drinking with Eivor and being kidnapped. Now, don’t get me wrong, I can buy into someone changing who they are, but to see your entire set of morals do a 180 in a matter of hours defies belief. Rapid shifts in perspective and principles like this occur in other places throughout the campaign too, and they’re usually just as unbelievable. Romances, especially, suffer for this. Unlike Odyssey’s Kassandra/the other guy, Eivor can enter into long-term relationships with certain characters, regularly visiting them for dates and smooches. It’s all very shallow, though, and, save for one (which I cannot talk about but holy crap the audacity of it makes it wonderful), they don’t have any meaningful impact on Eivor’s story.

Eivor is the one who bucks the trend for Valhalla’s paper-thin characters. We spend nearly 70 hours with her, so she does have a well-written character arc that’s allowed to evolve at a believable pace. Eivor’s primary motivation is to avoid her fate. Though her actual character is already established–she is a brash warrior and quick to anger, but also loyal to her clan, cunning, and a poet at heart–you get to push and prod at her thoughts and actions. Eivor wants to avoid being remembered as a shameful traitor, and you get to influence how far she’s willing to go to ensure that outcome.

The decisions you make determine how others–especially Sigurd–view Eivor, which can result in slight alterations to how certain arcs (and the campaign as a whole) end. They’re small changes that avoid outright redefining the timeline of real human history, instead focusing on giving you the room to somewhat shape Eivor into your desired protagonist. For example, incorrectly deducing the identity of a traitor in one of the later arcs caused one of my allies to ultimately be shot, seemingly gravely so as I never heard from them again. Your decisions can impact gameplay too; for instance, after sparing one of the early game bosses, the man rewarded me for my kindness by telling me how to prevent Eivor’s name from being added to the list of targets that the wandering Zealots hunt. Had I killed him, I would have never learned this information, and the group of some of Valhalla’s most dangerous and powerful enemies would have hunted me throughout the rest campaign.

Though Eivor is the only character that really benefits from it, this storytelling structure works out for Valhalla. With a main campaign that clocks in at 65 hours, dividing Valhalla into more digestible two-to-three-hour stories helps you get through the whole thing. There are clear stopping points in the campaign, which help pace the story so that it’s not immediately jumping between too many high-key set pieces in short succession or going long stretches with nothing happening. Its pacing still isn’t without its issues–Valhalla takes way too long to get to the more exciting and intriguing, nuanced arcs. I remember thinking, “Oh, wow, this game is actually starting to get really freakin’ good,” and then seeing I was already 15 hours in. Once it hits its stride with memorable arcs and more things to do in the settlement, Valhalla starts to exhibit the kind of confidence you’d expect in the third go at the new open-world RPG style of Assassin’s Creed, but it just takes a long time to get to that point.

Initially limited to a choice of only a couple of alliances to pursue, your options of possible missions quickly balloons after the first 15 hours, with Randvi giving you several points of interest on your map. The game does encourage you down a pretty specific path–you may have four possible alliances to go after but maybe only two are within areas that match your current power level, for example. And the game doesn’t give you every possible alliance at once. You’re usually given them in batches of two to four, and get a new batch when the current one is complete. There are exceptions–you get some alliances early on that are located in very high power level areas, showcasing missions you should be working towards, not jumping at immediately. But this is more a suggestion than direction. You can go after alliances well above your power level if you want. As far as I can tell, you can go anywhere on the map as soon as you establish your settlement in England, even if the story isn’t pointing you in that direction yet. Your attack damage and health will just be lower than what is advised. But even that can be fun. I’ve gone after a few alliances where Eivor would die in one or two hits from the high level enemies, pushing me to really learn the exact timing needed to dodge and deflect attacks. Regardless of what order you choose, you’ll eventually make some sort of alliance with or conquer every part of England before the campaign is done. None of the missions that Randvi brings you are optional–you’ll do all of them eventually.

Eivor’s lasting impact, or the potential for it, is an effective driving force to carry you through to this end. Figuring out how a random Viking from the 800s will save the world in 2020 is an intriguing proposition, especially since Valhalla does such a good job laying breadcrumbs of knowledge and small revelations throughout its runtime to keep you chasing the answer to that question. The game quickly lays out that it’s who Eivor is and what she ultimately does that is important, but then deftly sets up several possibilities. Eivor begins to become a respected leader and partner to Randvi in overseeing the settlement, an almost legendary warrior when acting in Sigurd’s name and securing alliances, and an Assassin as she hunts for the Order of Ancients (precursors to the Templar Order) alongside the Hidden Ones (precursors to the Assassin Brotherhood). All the while, she tries to piece together the true meaning of her visions alongside Valka, the Raven Clan’s seer, who talks Eivor through her emotional and mental turmoil. All of these plotlines mix together to form Valhalla’s main campaign, informing Layla (and by extension, us) as to who Eivor is, while providing the clues needed to put together how everything in the franchise adds up. I love that, even once it’s shown its entire hand, Valhalla doesn’t actually explain everything. It just gives you pieces that are there to put an answer together.

Eye Of The Beholder

There’s actually quite a bit of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla that isn’t explained, and the game is better for it since there’s just so much to discover. For example, several characters and notes comment on the Hidden Ones existing in England years prior; you’re told the group had six bureaus but that’s about it. There are no waypoints and no direction for where to find one. And until you actually stumble upon one, it’s not even really clear that you can find them. You know how I’ve found a few? Deductive reasoning. I opened my map, looked at the places I had visited, and thought like a Hidden One based on my understanding of them from previous games. The group likes to operate near cities of prominence, and since I knew they had last been in England when Rome ruled the country, I looked at cities built in the shadows of Roman ruins–specifically ones that seemed to have small buildings near the outskirts of the city. Within an hour, I found three bureaus. Inside, I discovered pieces of Hidden One armor–my favorite piece that I’ve found thus far is a cloak that gives Eivor the cool-looking beaked hood that’s traditionally worn by the protagonists of the Assassin’s Creed games.

Valhalla trusted me to think like an explorer, to put myself in Eivor’s shoes as she navigates and attempts to understand this new, unfamiliar world. The game’s take on ninth-century England feels like an actual world to explore, which is a manageable task since you’ll largely be sticking to contained areas for a narrative arc, then moving to a new location for the next one. Valhalla is the first Assassin’s Creed game in a while where the main campaign saw me explore nearly the entire space. There are still plenty of pockets I’ve only sailed by and haven’t actually walked through yet, but I finished the campaign feeling I had a solid grasp on the world I had explored. This is still a Ubisoft game that’s packed with waypoints to follow for the main campaign and side missions, but in Valhalla, they’re also designed to encourage you toward discovery–and the game has such wonderful, heartbreaking, hilarious, and intriguing things to look for. Sometimes, it’s merely gameplay items like the aforementioned Hidden One’s hood, but it can just as often be something that’s technically useless but goes a long way towards filling in the gaps of what’s happened in England prior to Eivor’s arrival. If I weren’t playing through the game for review on a deadline, my final playtime for Valhalla would have been much higher. I wanted to go off the beaten path more often than I had time for.

Though Eivor is characterized as a bit of a lone wolf, her journey across England won’t always see her travel alone. The easiest way to reach the furthest corners of England is sailing along the country’s vast system of rivers and swamps via longship. Valhalla doesn’t really do naval combat (you can shoot your bow from the ship to snipe soldiers on the shore); instead, your ship is primarily a means of transportation. It also livens up an otherwise lonely adventure–you can ask your crew to sing or tell stories. There’s something so relaxing and peaceful about sailing through the grassy countryside of Mercia or past the ice-covered mountains of Northumbria as your clan of fellow Vikings bellow out a song.

As much as I enjoyed discovering what England had to offer, there is one aspect of exploration that is a little grating: puzzles. Valhalla has several types of puzzles, the most common being obstacles that block your path. Sometimes it’s a lock that needs a key or a barred door where you need to shoot the plank keeping it shut. And sometimes it’s racing around an entire castle for several minutes screaming, “Where’s the f*****g pot?” in what seems like a tedious search for the one flammable oil jar that you need to pick up and slowly walk to the crumbling wall or floor you have to blow up. This kind of puzzle is a momentum killer–the most deadly assassin of them all.

Hammer Of The Gods

It’s in combat that you find the most agency in how you shape Eivor. Earning skill points allows you to invest in the constellation-like skill tree, further buffing Eivor in the Way of the Raven (stealth combat skills), Way of the Bear (melee combat skills), and Way of the Wolf (ranged combat skills). The constellation of lines twist and turn on one another, allowing you to easily double-back and invest in more than one tree, while also having different branches of each tree cross over for more interesting build opportunities. You can respec Eivor’s skills at any time for free, allowing you to easily reshape her if one combat style isn’t to your liking.

Regardless of where you put your skill points, Eivor is a badass raider who dual-wields weapons with a frenzied intensity. Valhalla encourages you to fight aggressively. Eivor doesn’t regenerate health, and your healing rations are limited, so it’s in your best interest to end fights as quickly as possible by assassinating an opponent or disrupting the tempo of their attacks with powerful strikes, counters, or blocks. Button mashing will deliver you to an early grave; strategically playing to your strengths is the only way to succeed against tougher foes.

You can also fight enemies with social stealth, a former core mechanic of the Assassin’s Creed franchise that hasn’t been seen since 2015’s Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. When entering cities where Eivor isn’t a trusted face, she dons a hood and wraps a cloak around herself. Choosing to drop the hood, sprint, bring out your weapons, climb structures, or do pretty much anything that an average person wouldn’t do will draw attention, especially from those who want to kill you. This is used to great effect in some of the more tense story arcs, where Eivor is hunting members of the Order of Ancients in cities that the group or an enemy king controls, forcing her to stick to crowds, parkour across rooftops, utilize drunks to cause a distraction, and blend into the scenery until she can close in on her target and shank them with a hidden blade.

However, Eivor’s parkour mechanics aren’t as good as those seen in some of the previous games (Assassin’s Creed Unity still reigns supreme in this regard), so Eivor can feel a bit clunky when trying to stealth. It’s frustrating when you accidently jump to your death because Eivor didn’t quite snap to the next rooftop, or you are noticed in a crowd because–without a way to force Eivor to walk slowly–you push the thumbstick just a centimeter too much and send Eivor into a suspicious jog. I’m overjoyed to see social stealth return to Assassin’s Creed, but since Valhalla’s controls sometimes work against you, it occasionally feels like it would be easier to announce yourself and kill everyone in the vicinity instead. And if you want to do that, that’s fine–Valhalla does not immediately fail you for being detected.

An End, But Also A Beginning

Although the Assassin’s Creed franchise will no doubt continue, there is a real sense of finality to Valhalla’s main campaign. Valhalla brings together dozens of narrative threads–enough context is provided for newcomers to understand the general gist of what’s going on, but even longtime fans may want to refresh themselves on the lore of the previous games to get everything out of Valhalla. It references nearly every mainline game in the franchise to tell you how they all connect, unifying a series that has largely felt separated into two distinct halves: the Desmond-Miles-saves-the-world era and the newer, more directionless one of 2013-2018.

There have been so many lingering threads since Desmond’s death, and only more have been created with the introduction of the Sages, new Pieces of Eden, the origins of the Assassin Brotherhood and Templar Order, and the now fairly convoluted modern-day storyline. Valhalla resolves all of this in an incredibly satisfying way. It does for the series what Assassin’s Creed III did back in 2012: It clears the board while also paving the way for something brand new.

Despite its strong connection to past games, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is more than capable of standing on its own. It takes a little while to build momentum, but when it hits its stride, Valhalla is a confident Assassin’s Creed title that takes a few narrative risks which, as a whole, pay off. Eivor is a good hero with an identity that drives the mystery behind the main narrative, and she shines in the self-contained arc structure of Valhalla’s story. The supporting cast may not shine as brightly, but it’s easy to forgive that when exploring England and discovering new nuggets of worldbuilding is so rewarding.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla brings the familiar series trappings into a new, icy landscape set in the Viking age. But while it is fairly similar to the two most recent Assassin’s Creed games, Origins and Odyssey, it makes a big change to how you obtain skills, stat boosts, and special abilities. In fact, Skills and Abilities are entirely distinct from each other this time around and are developed in different ways. Here’s a primer on how the two systems work and how to get the most out of both of them.

Eivor’s Skills

Skills in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla become available soon after a brief tutorial, and you’re awarded more skill points both early and often. The familiar leveling system from previous Assassin’s Creed games has been streamlined to award you skill points for each time you fill your EXP meter. That’s in part because there are many more skills to buy in Valhalla than in the prior games, thanks to a broader skill tree that’s full of stat buffs and new moves. To start, you’ll have a choice to invest in one of three directions.

Way of the Bear (melee)

Way of the Bear is the big aggressive brawler type, and awards you with skills to make you a fearsome and front-facing warrior. You get benefits toward melee combat like duel-wielding two-handed weapons, the ability to scare away weaker enemies with your attacks, along with damage resistance and fire resistance. You’ll also get combat counters that let you do more damage at different points during combat, like knocking over enemies while running or dealing damage during a parry.

Way of the Wolf (ranged)

Way of the Wolf is aimed at ranged damage, giving you finishing moves, and making your arrows more plentiful and durable. Since this build isn’t made for close-range combat with hearty buffs like the Way of the Bear, you also get some boosts to survivability like the ability to slow down time or regain lost health with a timed melee attack.

Way of the Raven (stealth)

Way of the Raven is the sneaky stealth-focused tree, most closely resembling the series’ classic roots. You’ll get boosts to your stealth combat like assassination damage, along with access to poison attacks, traps, and perks to your predator bow. Since you mostly try to stay out of sight, your survivability gets enhanced with evasion abilities like catching arrows from the sky or throwing down smoke bombs.

Each of these trees leads to its own constellation of skills, a mostly linear progression path that gives you more buffs to similar traits and leads to other constellations. For example, investing in the stealth-focused Raven path gives you access to more nodes with passive buffs to stealth, while the ranged path gives you more nodes devoted to aspects like your critical hit chances at range.

Additionally, each path contains perks to improve the overall stats of its corresponding armor. For example, investing in certain perks in the Way of the Raven tree will boost the power of Raven armor or weapons you have equipped. You can see which category your weapons and armor fall into by using the inventory screen.

Some of the capstone skills are set in the middle of constellations and must be retrieved to continue through a path, while others require a little detour. Either way, each constellation connects with a few others, and after a while you’ll begin to see them bleeding into each other, even allowing you to have new pathways to capstone skills. The added upside of these alternate pathways is that your passive skills don’t become too lopsided, even if you’re concentrating primarily in one kind of build. There doesn’t seem to be a limit to the number of skill points you can earn, so theoretically you could eventually unlock the entire tree in every direction.

That said, you can reset all of your skills for free anytime you want. This lets you revise your build easily, but more importantly, you can also use it to defog the constellation map. By investing your points down a single path, you’ll uncover more constellations and get a better idea of where they lead. Then you can reset your skills and do it again for another path, and so on, while retaining the defogged constellation you had previously invested in. That may help you plan your skill selection long-term, since you’ll be able to see where the multiple options lead.

The one thing missing from the Skills menu are the flashy, game-changing abilities that get bound to specific buttons. For that, you need to gain Abilities.

Eivor’s Abilities

The Abilities menu is more like what you may expect from Odyssey, though some of the passive enhancements are now found in the Skills menu. Abilities are big, flashy moves that cost you Adrenaline to use. These range from different stealth, ranged, and combat abilities. One might let you play dead to attract enemies to your corpse for a surprise-attack, while another might launch you into the air and come down on your enemies like a valkyrie.

Unlike the Skills menu, which unlocks naturally early in the game, this menu doesn’t appear until you find your first Ability. For most players, that will be when you sail to the kingdom of Rygajafylke, a few hours into the story.

Abilities are found in Books of Knowledge. These powerful artifacts are marked in gold and considered part of an area’s Wealth rating. In Rygajafylke, you’ll see a conspicuous golden book icon signifying a Book of Knowledge, which requires you to solve a simple puzzle. Most of the time they’re found through Viking raids. The higher the Wealth rating, the more likely you are to find a Book of Knowledge laying around. They’re especially common in military complexes or churches. When you find a Book of Knowledge, it will unlock a specific, named ability. If you find another copy of a Book of Knowledge that you already have, it will upgrade to a stronger version. Each ability has a base version and an upgraded version, and the books are set in specific parts of the world rather than randomized.

There are 11 ranged and 11 melee abilities to obtain in all, and you can bind up to eight at a time–four of each. Once they’re mapped, you can trigger them by holding a shoulder button and then triggering them with the face button you’ve mapped. Keep in mind that since they expend Adrenaline, you’ll need to carefully plan when you trigger them.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla takes the series traditional action-RPG trappings and puts them into yet another new historical setting: northern Europe in the age of Vikings. While it’s mostly recognizably similar to recent Assassin’s Creed games Origins and Odyssey, Ubisoft has made some notable changes. Not only that, but the setting itself has led to new game systems such as settlement-building. Here are some things you should know when you’re just starting out on your Viking journey.

Collect Gear Resources

Valhalla isn’t as loot-heavy as Odyssey, so you probably won’t need to constantly swap out new weapons and armor pieces. Instead, you’ll have a handful of armor that you can upgrade using resources to improve their stats and increase their number of rune slots available. So to get the most out of your armor, be on the lookout for resources everywhere you go. Hunting animals generates leather and mountainous regions have rocks that hold ore. You can scan an area for available resources using your assassin vision, or get a bird’s eye view (ha!) of resource deposits with your crow.

Watch Your Power Level And Use Disguises

Always keep an eye on your current power level and try to stay in areas where you match or exceed that number. It’s very easy to wander into areas that are well past your level, which are significantly tougher to survive in due to the presence of more powerful enemies. Plus, some areas are just plain unfriendly toward Vikings. If you find yourself in such an area, put on your cloak to blend in and pass through unnoticed.

Customize Your Difficulties

Valhalla features a few different difficulty settings, including one for Exploration and one for Stealth. The Exploration setting determines how much information appears on your HUD and map. More minimal HUD means more searching for yourself using dialogue and environmental clues. Explorer Mode returns from Odyssey, but there’s an even more minimal version this time called Pathfinder. You can also toggle your compass icons, and an automatic icon to show you the closest exploration opportunities. Stealth difficulty tweaks enemies’ awareness of your movement, and you can turn on a “Guaranteed Assassination” toggle for a more classic Assassin’s Creed experience. The game warns you this isn’t the way it is meant is to be played, however. Finally, a combat difficulty setting also lets you toggle Aim Assist between Partial, Full, Light, and Off.

Sorting Your Missions

Your main campaign quests are taken on by talking to Randvi in the longhouse to determine what are called Conquests; these are long, multi-mission story arcs that you can do in any order. It’s important to note that once you choose a Conquest, you’re locked in until you’ve completed all of its associated missions.

On the other hand, there is Valhalla’s new form of sidequests, which have been retooled and renamed “World Events.” These more organic, randomized missions don’t have a mission tracker but they’re typically short and don’t require much travel. These usually give you some light rewards and experience, and more often than not they’re funny or surprising in some way.

You Can Respec Your Skill Points At Any Time

The skill tree in Valhalla is massive and skill points tend to come pretty quickly since it awards two points per level-up. It’s a wide branching tree, and unlike Odyssey, you can respec whenever you want at no cost. So you’re free to explore a skill tree to check out some of its more advanced techniques, then double back and try out a different branch. This effectively defogs the skill tree, letting you see it with more clarity even if you haven’t filled out certain sections. For a deeper dive into this subject, check out our Skills and Abilities guide.

Turn in Artifacts for Powerful Rewards

Assassin’s Creed is known for having dozens of doodads to collect, and Valhalla is no different. You can turn in Order of Ancient medallions to the Hidden Ones Bureau, which will earn you powerful unlockable abilities. The Hidden One Bureaus also sheds some light on the lore of the assassins, which is an absolute must for all of you longtime Assassin’s Creed lore fans ous there.

Upgrade Your Settlement

Once you get past the tutorial area and venture to England, there’s plenty to do within your camp. You’ll want to prioritize fixing your barracks to create a jomsviking, a unique lieutenant that can occupy other people’s worlds and earn you some coin if they’re hired. You should also invest in the taxidermist so that you can keep trophies from a handful of difficult animal hunts.

When you’re hanging out at the camp, you should take the time to engage in flyt, a form of Viking rap battle, to enhance your charisma rating. And if you’re ever just unsure what to do, it never hurts to talk with the people in your settlement. Sometimes it helps you discover new allies, earn secret abilities, and even spark unexpected romances. But be aware, members of your settlement can die for good as you progress the story, so be sure to spend time with your favorites while you can.

Go Off the Beaten Path

Some of Valhalla’s best secrets and side missions aren’t marked on your map at all, even if you synchronize a waypoint. Instead, it encourages exploration and following your instincts. If you open your map and look for landmarks, chances are there’s something waiting for you there. It could be a secret boss, special ability, or even a funny World Event. Go out and explore the world instead of simply venturing between waypoints; you’ll have a far greater time.

Make a Feline Friend

There’s a cat wandering England who hates most people–y’know, because it’s a cat–but loves sailing the salty blue. You can find it near the end of Oswald’s questline, and then it will join your longboat when you go raiding. This doesn’t have any particular gameplay benefit but why wouldn’t you want a Viking cat?

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