Valheim Review (Str8 Spankn)
In a span of 2 months, I have put 230 hours into Valheim, solo. I would highly recommend this game to anyone reading this review; to play alone or with up to 9 friends. I have not encountered a single bug and, while this is an early access game, this is a full experience. Some key features that drew me in and resulted in my slight addiction are below:
Soundtrack and graphics - The soundtrack is absolutely beautiful and chill af. There were times i found myself working on my laptop with valheim running in the background, just so i could listen to the calming melodies of the soundtrack and the soft crackle of the fireplace in my base. The lighting and atmosphere are really top notch. The low resolution style was almost a turn-off for me when researching this game and watching videos. However, once inside the Valheim world, i saw it is truly beautiful and worth experiencing.
Discovery - The second thing that really drew me into Valheim was this feature where once you pick up a new inventory item for the first time, you will then discover crafting recipes associated to that item. This, as opposed to being awarded items for leveling up, felt very enticing. It made me want to explore to find new items, and to push into more unforgiving lands for the rewards the items there may have. This left me feeling like there was always something more out there to discover. There are items in the game which currently have no function, leaving some excitement to see what they are used for once that becomes available. Even after defeating the 5 current bosses and thinking i had complete the game, there were 2 biomes i had never even seen and more items to discover.
Development - The Devs have a roadmap that is widely accessible and clear on their plans for the future of the game. Personally, I have no social media accounts, but even through steam they post development blogs to keep the community in the loop with their plans. To the prior point on discovery, after seeing what valheim has to offer now, it is constantly changing. Even in the short 2 months i have had my hands on the game they have introduced a new enemy, new armor set, several QOL updates. They have near-future plans to add caves in the mountains and updates for the mistlands biome; with far-future plans for the ashlands and possibly others.
Difficulty - The game is just hard enough. Like Darksouls, once you die, there is a marker left at the location of your death where you must return to get your items. However, this didn't feel too punishing as you can have unlimited death markers with no time limit to recover them. There were some times my items were stuck in a location that i couldn't immediately run there to recover them and knowing they weren't lost forever was enough to keep me from getting (overly) frustrated by death. Furthermore, the amount of resources obtained from a source vs the resources used in crafting felt very encouraging to building. For one tree, you get 10 wood, which is enough to build 5 walls.
1:1 Resource Return - When dismantling a structure, the game returns the full resources used to build it. This means (assuming you had room in your inventory) you can demolish a base and rebuild it somewhere else without any additional grind. Similar games i have played in this genre typically give only a partial return. With Valheim, i felt much more free to try things and then just delete them if they didn't look right or work how i expected.
Building - Lastly, after spending 200+ hours in this world, defeating every boss, discovering and crafting every item, and upgrading all current items to their highest tier, i STILL spend time in this game because the building is fun and satisfying and easy. Chop one tree and you can build 5 walls. Clipping is easy and forgiving, even round walls and roofs look great once constructed. And
All in all, great experience. Highly recommend.