Valheim (2021)
A brutal exploration and survival game for 1-10 players, set in a procedurally-generated purgatory inspired by viking culture.
First released
Feb 2, 2021
Developed by
Iron Gate Studios
Published by
Coffee Stain Studios
Platforms
PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
Genres
Action-Adventure
Themes
Medieval
Releases
- PC - Valheim (Early Access) United States
Community reviews
Boring, empty and just the same as all the others.
I did not like Valheim. I reviewed a lot of other Sandbox Survival Crafing games, which all work the same, and this game is no different.
Like all the others, you start as some nude Viking dude in the middle of nowhere, in a forest, and start your adventure. Immediately, you see some black shade monster things, walk towards them and want to teach them the way of the fist. However, they simply touch you and you are dead.
You respawn, say to yourself that you are not going to attempt that again and focus your attention on collecting resources. You punch a tree to get the wood; you use the wood to build a cabin. You mine, chop, harvest, collect and improve and, like all the other sandbox games, eventually stop caring and shutting down the game.
In Valheim you can build your own nice little house. However, the building mechanics, placement and rules are one of the worst I have ever seen. Only Ark is worse. You can never fit pieces together, the time it takes to choose a part that you want to build and switch back to a different part is horrendous and overall, it is a mess.
The graphics are ugly. It tries to have a unique and compressed artstyle, and in that, it certainly succeeded. I don't mind older games with square polygon graphics, old 2D games etc. but Valheim is just too pixelated, and I cannot see very well what I am doing.
The music is calming and relaxing, but the sound effects are really terrible. They sound hollow and muted.
The controls and inventory system are very general and easy to understand.
One thing I have to give Valheim credit for, is the fact that the developers managed to create a massive open world game, that is just 1 GB in total. This is very impressive.
With many of the Survival crafting open world games, I get bored out of my freaking mind very fast. This is because these games do not have and endgoal. When I make this statement, my buddies always say: "Bro, you can raid caves, defeat bosses and stuff". This is true, but they are just a distraction, give you some stuff and then you move on into the endless void. It is not like Enshrouded (a game that I also hate to the core) were you need to destroy all the shadow thingies that plague the land.
The biggest problem is when I am playing together. Although this made Valheim a lot more fun, creating a little Viking village, going on adventures and just have a good laugh, the following problem recurs in every game like Conan, Ark, Minecraft, Enshrouded, Atlas, and this one:
You slay a mighty Troll and collect its special resources. On your way back to your little village, you find a treasure chest with some very special loot in it. Proud that you did your part, you arrive at the village and want to share the spoils of war with your friends. However, uppon arriving, you see that one of your friends (yeah, THAT guy), has eight different chests, filled to the brim with all the special resources and legendary items that exists. In an instance all purpose, fun or goals die, and I instantly am done playing.
In the end, I just thought Valheim was not that special or unique and, as expected, I was bored out of my freaking mind after completing my little cabin, beating up some Trolls and endlessly wandering the limbo valley, never to complete the game.
Personally, I would not recommend this game.
Like all the others, you start as some nude Viking dude in the middle of nowhere, in a forest, and start your adventure. Immediately, you see some black shade monster things, walk towards them and want to teach them the way of the fist. However, they simply touch you and you are dead.
You respawn, say to yourself that you are not going to attempt that again and focus your attention on collecting resources. You punch a tree to get the wood; you use the wood to build a cabin. You mine, chop, harvest, collect and improve and, like all the other sandbox games, eventually stop caring and shutting down the game.
In Valheim you can build your own nice little house. However, the building mechanics, placement and rules are one of the worst I have ever seen. Only Ark is worse. You can never fit pieces together, the time it takes to choose a part that you want to build and switch back to a different part is horrendous and overall, it is a mess.
The graphics are ugly. It tries to have a unique and compressed artstyle, and in that, it certainly succeeded. I don't mind older games with square polygon graphics, old 2D games etc. but Valheim is just too pixelated, and I cannot see very well what I am doing.
The music is calming and relaxing, but the sound effects are really terrible. They sound hollow and muted.
The controls and inventory system are very general and easy to understand.
One thing I have to give Valheim credit for, is the fact that the developers managed to create a massive open world game, that is just 1 GB in total. This is very impressive.
With many of the Survival crafting open world games, I get bored out of my freaking mind very fast. This is because these games do not have and endgoal. When I make this statement, my buddies always say: "Bro, you can raid caves, defeat bosses and stuff". This is true, but they are just a distraction, give you some stuff and then you move on into the endless void. It is not like Enshrouded (a game that I also hate to the core) were you need to destroy all the shadow thingies that plague the land.
The biggest problem is when I am playing together. Although this made Valheim a lot more fun, creating a little Viking village, going on adventures and just have a good laugh, the following problem recurs in every game like Conan, Ark, Minecraft, Enshrouded, Atlas, and this one:
You slay a mighty Troll and collect its special resources. On your way back to your little village, you find a treasure chest with some very special loot in it. Proud that you did your part, you arrive at the village and want to share the spoils of war with your friends. However, uppon arriving, you see that one of your friends (yeah, THAT guy), has eight different chests, filled to the brim with all the special resources and legendary items that exists. In an instance all purpose, fun or goals die, and I instantly am done playing.
In the end, I just thought Valheim was not that special or unique and, as expected, I was bored out of my freaking mind after completing my little cabin, beating up some Trolls and endlessly wandering the limbo valley, never to complete the game.
Personally, I would not recommend this game.