Valheim

awful game, ashlands is a huge spike in difficulty with no decent rewards. You see thay playtime? thats from grinding materials to get armor and weapons that do 0 damage nullification against the next biome enemies

Absolutely amazing game, progression dopamine is amazing. I 100% wish I could go back and buy it full price to support the devs.
Such a fun game which is then amplified by mods etc.

basically
early game is fun, mid game is semi tedious, late game is a slog

Probably the best open world survival game I have ever played. Great atmosphere and soundtrack, real sense of progression and well made combat system. The building system is also fun, but it can feel a bit limiting sometimes. My main gripe with building is how close to each other workbench upgrades and comfort upgrades need to be. I play only solo and the game feels decently well balanced if you engage with all mechanics (stealth, food, potions, comfort bonus, etc.).

Some people seem to be bothered by the graphics, although I think they are beautiful. Texture resolution and polygon count are not everything. Artstyle is much more important. Optimization could maybe be improved a bit, it runs perfectly fine for the most part, but there are some areas (especially when it rains) where the performance can tank a bit. And as I have heard big buildings with many parts can also be a big problem.

Well worth the 20 euros.

The game's about the journey and the climb to get to each boss fully prepped. Valheim has become my comfort game.

Incredible survival game that keeps receiving great updates

The game is amazing until you get to the swamp biome, everything will kill you, they attack your base non stop, there is no enjoyment past that point.

Then there is the fact that Drauger can shoot you from the bottom of the ocean floor mean while if you put your waist under water your character forgets how to hold a weapon. If thats not enough, wait until one of these magical submarine drauger snipers destroys your boat and your equipment sits out there in the ocean for the rest of your play through. 10/10 would not recomend.

!!LET ME START OFF BY SAYING THIS GAME IS GRINDY AS ALL HELL AND I STRONGLY RECOMMEND GETTING MODS FOR FASTER RESOURCE GATHERING!!

Anyway- nice ps1-esque graphics and an overall solid experience of a survival game with lots to explore. It is a bit difficult.

Just one of the best progression based games I have played in a long time. Just can't get enough of it.

"Station is too exposed" MY FUCKING ASS
Everything's build around it, fucking work bench is in my house, and it still says "Station is too exposed"
FIX THIS SHIT FFS, SICK OF THIS MISERABLE "GAME MECHANIC" SHIT.

Valheim is a test of endurance, patience, and your willingness to suffer. My friend James and I slogged through every brutal challenge it threw at us, and let me tell you: it was painful and f***** brutal*.

Exploration? Gorgeous. Combat? Unforgiving. Building? Satisfying. Progression? A slow, masochistic grind. By the time we clawed our way to the Mistlands, we were done. Mods became our savior just to push through to the end.

If you love punishment and the feeling of barely scraping by, this game is for you. But know this: Valheim will break you, over and over. And somehow, you might just enjoy it.

Would I recommend it? Sure, but only if you’re prepared for the most punishing adventure of your life.

I loved this game when it first released, played it to completion and set it aside. I was super excited to come back and explore the new content that's been added since. There is a fair amount of additional content added to the early-mid game that DID improve QoL and the general playing experience, such as feasts, new traders, new build items, etc.

Reaching the Mistlands has ruined my excitement and I have no interest in wasting my time further. It is not that the difficulty is too high, nor a lack of features. The primary mechanic (more like gimmick) is the mists, go figure, and it is fundamentally not enjoyable. At all. Yes, there are ways to provide *some* light when adventuring -- and with adequate farming you may light your base -- however these don't change the fact that exploring the zone can only be described as overwhelmingly not fun.

In a game designed around adventure, exploration, and building, intentionally turning all of these into a miserable process is a questionable design choice.

fuck this shit, its not brutal survival, its eat a dick game. FUCK STAMINA!!!!

After over 80 hours of play I must say, I haven't even begun to get bored. Is it a perfect game- well no. But it has the potential to be one my kids, grand kids, and I will be playing for 100"s of hours more together. I two thumbs up recommend!

A friend talked me into this and I'm so glad he did. Videos and descriptions don't tell the whole story of the depth of the game. It is a wonderful mix of genres of city, civilization, strategy with a FP perspective that I usually struggle with. For me using a combination of mouse and controller was a little difficult to master but is now second nature. I can also customize the game to my skill level desires which I really like. There is SO much to do here and I have spent hours getting enjoyment in the game. You can progress through the ages and fight the bosses to the end game or just stay in your comfort zone age and work and fight to survive and build magnificent camps and ships to explore your world. Highly encourage you to try this game. I got it for 9.99 but would have been satisfied to pay full price with what I know now. A steal of a game at full price. Hope you try it.

There's a lot of exploration and replayability in this game. There is so much to do. It combines survival, MMO, and soul game elements in such a way that you'll become addicted. The art style is simple but atmospheric, and the audio is ideally suited to the experience. I almost assumed it came from a triple A studio.

I can't wait until the next biome upgrade.

Trolls. Slime blobs. Ice dragons. Stone monsters. Tar blobs. Sea serpents. Seagulls. Various fish. Bees. All of this and more awaits you in Valheim.

Some people succeed in these games by mastering the combat mechanics, leveling armor, farming, etc. They play the game like it's a simulator for life in the middle ages, minus all the black death and tuberculosis. Other people just bork the game mechanics like a jerk, littering the landscape with fire pits, dirt piles and backwards staircases. They build a fortress for every boss fight, just to avoid crafting better food and gear. Everywhere you step, there's some bizarre construction they created based on an exploit they found out about on YouTube. If you want stone, just harvest stone. You don't need to AFK at a Graydwarf spawner to get stone. Also, we're in the plains, Jeff. Stop using a flint spear. It's embarrassing. You're embarrassing Odin. You're embarrassing your family. I spend more time hiding Lox pies from you than I do playing the game. I thought playing this game would bring us together, but I was lying to myself.

I highly recommend this game. It's a great way to figure out which friends are not lazy, inconsiderate liars and which ones are my actual real life friend Jeff.

such a wholesome game to play with friends, where you can build, hunt, craft and kill giants and can experience all the beauty of the nature. as the game provides both daylight and nightlife experiences with random rain, making the game more realistic and outstanding visually. a must try for all the guys who are looking forward for games like minecraft !!

Valheim offers an extraordinary experience for anyone who loves exploration, survival, and co-op adventures. The vast, enchanting world allows you to roam through forests, mountains, and seas while battling mythical creatures and uncovering secrets 🧌🧌.

This game is still early access but it's already this good, what if it's a full release it must be very cool 🔥

The closest open-world survival-crafters have ever gotten to the magic of the original Minecraft, this is a real darling of a game. Valheim makes for an engaging challenge where caution and preparation are rewarded when giant mosquitos rip out your voice box; but is probably the most relaxing game I have ever played, where you can relax in front of a fire, cook, build a warm home, then remember you're playing a video game. The graphics are excellent and the terrain is really convincing, and the Norse theme is a nice breath of fresh air in a genre suffocated by sci-fi or horror tropes. Must-play!

Prepare your shields, draw your swords, and let your Viking soul awaken, for I bring you news of a world that calls to your courage, your craftiness, and put your creativity into use.

This is not just a game, it’s a journey. A tale woven from Norse mythology, where YOU, are the chosen warrior. Explore a realm of untamed beauty and ruthless danger. In Valheim, every sunrise over the meadows and every storm over the dark seas is a canvas for your epic journey.

Build! Construct grand halls worthy of the vikings or modest shelters to weather the storms. From simple tools to mighty fortresses, your hands will shape the landscape.

Battle! Face down terrifying beasts and ancient gods, from the wrathful Eikthyr to the unrelenting Fader. Each victory etches your name into the halls of legend!

Explore! Traverse biomes teeming with mystery, each harboring secrets, resources, and challenges that will test your mettle.

Survive! Gather resources, hunt wild beasts, and master the craft of Viking ingenuity. Every meal you cook, every weapon you forge, brings you closer to becoming the legend Odin knows you to be.

And the best part? You don’t have to go in alone! Rally your clan, embark on quests together, and carve your legacy in Valheim’s ever-expanding world.

So don your armor, sharpen your blade, and prepare to set sail. Valheim isn’t just a game you play; it’s a world you conquer, a story you live, and a legend you become.

this game is nice to play solo and even better to play with fiends hope for many more years of updates

Great game! I loved the mechanic from this game. But enemy raid are too annoying.
I'm too idiotic and exhausted to play alone in this game. I only hope i could played this game with my friend soon.

nice game. building is fun. progression is challenging. overall its a fun game.

Interesting game with some flaws. Too much running back and forth to collect mineral mats, no mounts, inventory size way too small.

Important stuff:
9/10
Gameplay is fun, exploration feels very rewarding, combat can be apporached through multiple tactics and more options unlock as you progress in the game.
Graphic wise, Valheim might not look like much on the surface but every model is in fact modeled with care and precision. Even simple structures look beatuiful and every zone is unique
If you like building, Valheim offers a toon of possibilites, from basic wood to exotic materials, though I will not go into detail to prevent any spoilers.
One mechanic that can get tedious is skill loss, especially around end game, but there are ways to circumvent that.

Personal note:
Valheim is one of those games I just have to play every once in a while. I started back when there were only 5 bosses and come back with each major update. The game has improved massively over this period, the devs added a ton of cool stuff and they seem too genuinely care for both the game and the fanbase. The only thing that puts a damper on the gameplay is skill loss upon death, especially in more difficuilt areas. Although there are options to disable this now, especially with mods like Valheim plus which lets you massively cuustomize your gameplay experience, though I would recommend trying vanilla first, if you are a newcomer.

Its so easy to just get lost in. From the building to the combat, everything about this game is amazing and i look forward to what the devs will make of it

Amazing visuals for a fun survival co-op game, makes you really appreciate the hours spent into grinding mats with friends and make precious memories along the way. Few biomes could be annoying to get through and might make one want to rage quit the game but holding on and conquering the same with your fellow Vikings make it that much satisfying! I have spent 300+ hours in this game with my friends and i'm happy with the time invested. I highly recommend you all to get into this game and experience the journey of a Viking !!

Absolutely fire survival game 9/10. This game has come such a long way since it first got released and I loved it then too. I don't know if I could get bored of this game because even just wandering around and exploring feels rewarding.

I'd definitely recommend. The modding community is huge and there are so many mods one can add. If I had to criticize the base game, I'd say it could definitely use a lot more item and building block varieties, earlier access to magic which in its current form takes so long to get to, more spells, more weapon types and maybe even dual-wielding, a better skills system and such. Overall, it's a nice game and the presence of so many mods makes it possible to tailor the game however one would enjoy more.

Very good game until the Mistlands and the Ashlands. Mistlands is a navigational nightmare that is tedious to the point of quitting. Ashlands is a non-stop monster slog that is likely to get you soft-locked in a death loop.

Yet another indie survival game where the devs dig deep up their own asses to find the worst possible design decisions to completely ruin their own game and everyone just gives them a positive review because mods fixed it. I'm gonna just spell it out in case a dev reads it: When you make a good game, the top mod result is not usually "Here's a fix for every bad idea the devs had", especially when there's no official mod support yet.

Anyways, let's start from the start. You look at the world options, because of course you do, and you see that this game has the garbage "drop items on death" mechanic that simply makes games unplayable and forces people to download mods to fix. The slider goes all the way down to casual, so you turn that off.

You start off with nothing, as is usual, and you start getting wood and stone to make garbage tools, as usual. Then you take an entire minute chopping down a tree with your garbage wood and stone axe, only to find out that cutting a tree actually gives you less wood than if you were to smack the saplings in that same amount of time. But you don't want to trivialize the game, so you just keep going. You start unlocking all the usual crafting stuff, and then you see that all of the items have a ridiculously high cost given that your character can't actually reliably hit deers or boars at this point because you just don't have a ranged weapon. So you assume that that means that this is garbage gear that you can just skip by going into another biome and getting the next tier of gear which will surely be easier to get. You might find flint on the way there if you're the kind of person that doesn't care that you're running straight for the ocean. Flint stuff is pretty decent, on account of not requiring deer pelts or boar pelts. Then after picking up flint for a bit you realize the carry weight if absolutely fucking painful and you ahve to go back already and spend 30 minutes farming chests to offload the flint and wood you've been grabbing. During that time, you turn off the music, because it's really mid and really annoying to listen to.

Then you head back and you try to kill deers because they've been going HONK HONK EUUUUGH in your ear for an hour now and you find out that these fucking things are impossible to hit because they run like a Mario Kart DS player. You grab one of their pelts ,unlock some recipes, go back and see that the game wants you to collect 30 of them before you can start playing the game. Then you head back again trying to find the next biome because that's just ridiculous so surely there's something better you can get. Then you run into a horde of greydwarves who literally never lose aggro and you end up dying because you can't make the basic armor yet. And then you find out all your gear is gone. So you restart the game, check the server settings, and sure enough, drop items on death is still set to "casual". Except in their infinite wisdom, they've decided it would be too intelligent to not have the garbage mechanic in the game. And then you also turn up the ressources to 3x because you're not mentally deranged. You grab your stuff back and t hen you assume "well clearly they don't want me here if these basic enemies just rocked my shit, literally" so you spent a couple of hours just farming deer pelts. Then you go fight the deer boss because clearly you're geared enough now. The deer boss turns out to be easier to fight than the greydwarves and you finally unlock a pickaxe. Why you had to kill a boss to acquire a basic tool, no one knows. You find out that stones don't actually drop anything so you need to find the special ores. That crow tells you "at the shore and in the ground" You dig straight down, nothing either. So, you run to the shore and continue to find nothing.

And this is when you cave and start using the wiki. As it turns out, those ores are hidden in the black forest. So you run there and start mining while greydwarves pour out of the woodwork to stop you from doing that because this is a well made game and clearly you need to randomly spawn enemies in aggro range in order to have an authentic experience. One of those enemies turns out to be a troll, and either one shots you or you've played a video game before and you realize he literally can't hit you if you walk backwards. Then, you either own a bow already and just start smacking him with arrows because again, he is literally unable to hit you, or you have to run away to get a bow because you realized he can't actually hit you. If you're particularly stupid you will realize you can make him walk into fireplaces just like you did a few hours ago and he will catch fire and you can fight him like that. Then you come back and smack him, and realize that dozens of greydwarves pour out of the woodwork if you *dare* to do that to them. But greydwarves also can't hit you if you just walk backwards, so you just end up with a very stupid train of enemies while you slowly kill the troll. Then you grab his ballsack and try to make armor out of it. As it turns out, a single piece of troll armor is worth more than your entire deer set you spent 2 hours farming. Anyways, you bring back your tin and copper, and you find out, there's no fucking way to smelt them, so you go off to the wiki to figure out how to get a smelter, then you find out it requires items from a randomly spawning cave. So you spend an hour trying to find this cave, then the cave doesn't have enough, so you spend another hour finding 4 more of them. Then you check the wiki again and find out these cores are necessary for portals, meaning you will have to spend even more time looking for more of them if you want to conveniently travel around the map.

Anyways, one of the tombs gave you the location of the next boss, so you try to go there. Problem, it's on another island. So you build a raft, and get introduced to the "best" mechanic. They have wind. You know, that thing that makes Sea of Thieves a 5/10 game instead of an 8/10 game? Yeah that's in here too. So you sail against the wind to get to the new place after an old reddit post teaches you that one arrow forward lets you go against the wind. With your cores in hand, you create a landing zone and you prepare to go kill the boss. Much like the first boss, you could have quite literally done this with no armor because he can't really hit you, so you grab your loot and you go back. Then you realize you can't teleport the metal for some reason even though that's the entire reason why you'd want a portal in the first place. So you turn off that garbage mechanic. By this point your base has had a constant stream of greydwarves walking in for no reason and getting lost. So you also turn that off. As it turns out, that doesn't actually stop randomly spawning greydwarves from wandering in.

Then you google how to get to the third boss, because the game sure as shit won't tell you, and as it turns out, you do that by randomly sailing until you find a swamp. outstanding game design as usual. You also find out you can't sail into a swamp because they will sink your boat. Hopefully anyways, if you don't find that out you're essentially sent back to spawn without any items or your boat because ah ah funny game devs do the funny thing. After an hour of sailing against the wind, you get to the swamp, you set up your next portal, and you get fucking killed in 2 hits by a basic enemy again. What a lovely trend this game is setting. You spend 2 hours trying to pick your gear back up again, during which you encounter the abomination. As expected, the abomination is even worse than a troll at hitting you and you can literally just walk circles around it. amazing enemy design. Anyways, you get the location of the next boss and spend 3 hours making boats to try to get your gear back from the plains because you didn't put a portal down in time and the devs turned off console commands and write a review, the end.

the cloud updates is not keeping up with saves and causing me to lose my boat and everything I've worked for days and just worth playing it anymore. sadly the steam cloud is not working as it once had in the beginning when the first started.

Valheim would've been a good game, if Iron gate actually went and capitalized on the games success 3 years ago.

it takes them 7-12 months to add new content to the game (No. hotfixes are not content.)

they conflate tedium with difficulty where every small accomplishment feels meaningless with the amount of effort that needs to be put into, *Cough* *Cough* 20 leather scrap workbench upgrade where boars only drop 1 unless they are a higher star level.

Basic quality of life like more inventory space, converting deer hide to leather scraps or crafting from chests have yet to be implemented despite them being requested for a long time.

etc. etc, there's plenty of other reviews that share my gripes with the game.

Do yourself a favor, save your 20$ and spend it on a game that doesn't use early access as an excuse to justify year long content droughts.

Got pulled in by the creative build designs of streams and videos yet the building mechanics are clunky and horrid to work with. Rest of the game would probably be good fun most likely with friends.

This is the single best survival craft game out there. It isn't even close.

I like the world, the different biomes with unique enemies and mechanics, the building system with structural integrity and many pieces to choose from.

The combat is ok. There is a decent amount of weapon types to choose from. However, with the amount of uneven terrain in the game, it can be difficult to hit something above or below you with a melee weapon. The bosses are mostly fun, once you know how to prep for each.

I think the game lacks a lot of basic quality of life features - craft from storage, stack inventory into nearby chests, adjusting how long growing crops and processing materials takes on a server, proper map pin sharing that doesn't create a bunch of duplicate pins, dealing with equipment you no longer need (salvage, destroy), making the taming system actually usable. It's painful to play without the mods that fix a lot of these issues. It feels like the devs thought to themselves: "there are already mods to fix these basic issues, so we don't need to urgently fix them and can focus on adding new content instead". I don't think a game should rely this much on mods to make an entire playthrough playable.

Also, some biomes, especially Ashlands, really need performance optimization.

Unless you are ok with installing a bunch of mods to fix basic issues, I recommend waiting until this ridiculously long early access period is over.

Very good tech, very good tech let me say. The technology is of the chart when it comes to the yellow breasted cream bird analysis. from the stallion cream to the modified wood, Valheim has it all, i cannot recommend this technique enough!

Valheim: A Hidden Gem with a Fading Spark

Valheim is one of those rare hidden gems you stumble upon on Steam. With its engaging gameplay, charming graphics, and a perfect blend of survival mechanics, base building, immersive audio, and a well-crafted combat system, it truly stands out. But the real magic? The ability to team up with your friends on a dedicated server for cooperative adventures!

The first playthrough is where the game truly shines. There's a constant sense of wonder and an insatiable urge to explore. What's beyond the next hill? Of course, you might get your rear handed to you by a troll, reminding you that better gear is essential. And so, the loop begins: improve, gear up, and venture further. That progression, where each new piece of equipment feels like a monumental achievement (your first copper weapon feels legendary!), is what makes Valheim so captivating.

The game’s food system adds another layer of strategy, allowing you to tweak your character's stats to favor health or stamina—whatever suits your playstyle. Later, Eitr (mana) joins the mix, broadening your options. The world feels alive, teeming with creatures and dynamic environments. In short, Valheim offers something for everyone, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to any gamer seeking a thrilling adventure. But…

The Glory Days and the Grind

My friends and I joined Valheim's world early, back in February 2021, when the game was still in its unfinished glory. It didn’t matter. The Black Forest, Mountains, and Plains were ready for exploration, and bosses awaited our challenge. We embarked on multiple playthroughs, relishing the cooperative gameplay, the specialization of characters, and the adrenaline of victories hard-won.

Fast forward a few years, and updates like Mistlands and Ashlands have expanded the game. Last summer, we decided to dive back in, generating a fresh map for another adventure.

Initially, the nostalgia hit hard. We breezed through the familiar Meadows, Black Forest, Mountains, and Plains, gearing up for the new biomes. Equipped with the best Plains gear, we ventured into the Mistlands.

The Mistlands: A Hazy Grind

True to its name, the Mistlands challenges you with limited visibility, constant climbing, and stamina management. Yet, despite the frustrations (and frequent deaths), the allure of new weapons, armor, and food kept us going. The grind was real: dying, reclaiming gear, mining resources, and repeating the cycle. But defeating the Queen was a triumphant moment—a hard-earned victory that left us feeling accomplished.

The Ashlands: The Spark Fades

Then came the Ashlands. Armed with what we thought was top-tier gear, we set foot on the burning terrain, only to find ourselves woefully unprepared. Every enemy seemed to laugh at our efforts, reducing us to a frustrating rhythm of dying, grinding, and crafting. Again and again.

This repetitive loop—grinding for resources, upgrading gear, and facing inevitable deaths—was tolerable through the earlier biomes. But by the sixth cycle, the novelty had worn off. The Ashlands felt more punishing than rewarding, and the challenge began to feel like a chore.

An End to the Saga

One by one, my friends lost interest, including myself. Since then, the portals to the Ashlands are now overgrown with weeds, our characters slumped in their thrones, mead in hand, reminiscing about past victories. Even I—after logging over 800 hours in this world—found myself burned out. The thought of tending the forge, managing gardens, chopping wood, and enduring endless raids by pesky bats just to face the final boss, Fader, felt exhausting rather than exciting.

Final Thoughts

Valheim is undeniably a masterpiece of design, especially in its early stages. The sense of discovery, the camaraderie of co-op play, and the thrill of progression make it unforgettable. But the grind-heavy nature of the later stages ultimately takes its toll. While the developers continue to add new content like potions, decorative clothing, and crafting materials, these additions often feel more like extra chores than meaningful enhancements. Instead of enriching the gameplay, they pile on more tasks, making the experience feel increasingly like work rather than fun.

If you’ve never played Valheim, I still recommend giving it a try—you’ll undoubtedly create some incredible memories. But for veterans like me, the journey seems to have reached its natural conclusion. Here's hoping the next update brings innovations that rekindle the spark without adding to the grind. Or maybe even a Valheim 2?

When it came out, it was perfect. Yes it dosnt look good, but it had everything. Gathering, collecting, nice chill biomes. Even the ones that was hard (plains) was pleasing for the eyes to run around. And then it all went downhill. The Mistlands, and the Ashlands are simply terrible. Not just the style, the feeling and the choices that the developers made are more stupid than i can describe. Pure frustration. Enemies that kill you with only one blow, when you have the best armour on, hit visibility, the constant need to farm materials like a robot. The devs clearly doesnt understand anything about game experience, like the whole team was changed, from ppl that love playing a game, to ppl that just want you to wast as much of your time as possible. It is really really sad.

Regardless of how people choose to play Valheim, it is a fantastic survival crafting experience that is more than worth its cost for the potentially hundreds of hours you could spend in its world, and it will only get better with time.

Fun game to play with friends. The content in the game is pretty deep, and there is a lot to do. Exploration, dungeons, bosses, etc. all provide a good breath and depth of things to do. However, it feels kinda artificially grindy as you get later in the game, esp if you have friends starting to drop out.

Highly recommend playing Valheim with friends (unless you have none). Might not be worth it if you play solo.

Valheim is a game that, over the years, has garnered mixed opinions. Since its launch, many have criticized its graphics and minimalist aesthetic. While it’s true that the animations are simple, the world it offers is beautiful and meticulously crafted, inviting players to explore and lose themselves in its landscapes.

One of its greatest strengths is the building system, which has improved over time. Building in Valheim is now an incredibly satisfying experience and, without a doubt, the main reason I keep coming back to the game.

I’ve always been fortunate to play with friends, and this is where Valheim presents an interesting challenge. Players who take a more relaxed approach might feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of tiers and materials available. On the other hand, those with a more action-oriented style tend to progress quickly, focusing on gathering resources to keep moving forward. This disparity in play styles can create some friction, making it harder to combine both approaches compared to other games in the genre.

When the game first launched, I expected its graphical simplicity to lead to a steady flow of content, but I was wrong. To this day, some bosses still have clunky and unpolished movements. While the new biomes and maps are well-designed, their release feels overdue.

even though I have play over 1,000 hours, I have to down vote this game
this game deserve a mixed review,
because developer never listen to feedback from community

the primary reason this game is *grindy* is because the inventory space and carry weight limit is too small
other exploration game has decent inventory space enough for exploring in the wild for at least 30mins
but this game, once you reach copper age, you have to carry some basic necessity in your inventory
just explore like 5-10mins have to open portal (carry the 4 materials) to drop your stuffs at nearby base
this is the PRIMARY reason why this game feels grindy
I don't mind making more bases to hoard all my items, but going back to base every 10 mins is such a turn off
I can't really enjoy exploring the landscape properly when I have to travel to base every 5-10 mins
.... there are mods to address this issue but this problem has been asked over and over again but developer refuse to address this

the 2nd problem is the mistland mechanic
the idea to carry wisp to reveal things inside the mist is great, but the mist pushback radius is too little
and when the wisplight and megingjord use same equipment slot,
the basic 300 carry weight capacity is equal to chopping down 5 yggdrasil tree ... WTF ??
.... again there are mods to address this issue

I am not down vote because of the lack of update, I can understand games takes time to make,
but developer refuse to listen feedback deserve a mix review even though this is such a great game on other area

Game starts off fine and pretty fun but quickly turns into searching for dungeons and mining ores. Then after all that time of grinding for new gear you realize that melee is pointless compared to the bow. The game feels like its actively discouraging you to do melee, dodge rolls feel slow, some enemies have a lack of choreographing for some attacks, blocking is pointless because a dragur with a bow can basically stance break you, fighting big enemies isn't fun as their attacks have weird timings to dodge roll or try to parry, plus they get to attack very quickly only letting you get a hit or two in depending on your weapon, and almost all enemies that are on your level do all of your health and can kill you in two to three hits even with high health food items. Also Bonemass and the swamp has some of the worst design I've seen. This has legit all been a problem since the game released. Ignoring all of this the games pretty cool, but the game desperately needs re-balancing.

After the genre boom of open world survival, many developers and games fell victim to a series of pitfalls common to the genre: giant empty worlds, miserable half-baked gameplay mechanics, and style over substance. Now we look back at these failures and wince that we ever spent more than a few hours in them. Valheim, unfortunately, has all these problems and more, despite having a decade of failings in the genre to learn from.

I remember playing Valheim a decent amount when it came out and never remembered why I specifically dropped it after 20-30 hours. Recently I picked it up again with friends and it all comes flooding back. There are many good ideas executed poorly, and many bad ideas that make gameplay a chore.

The survival mechanics are largely tedious and time-consuming. It is a good idea in principle that meals and their variations affect your health and stamina, until you realise most of them are extensively more time consuming for marginal improvements on the meals you first unlock. This is a good example of how the game does not really have meaningful progression: I could spend 10 hours homesteading and still find altogether little difference in my survivability opposed to when I was eating berries out of the dirt.

Progression is nightmarish at certain points. To get some of your first basic tools and resources you must go into a biome that constantly spawns enemies which leaves you unable to use stamina to mine minerals or fight back against the endless unwashed hordes. If you mine the resources, you will quickly notice that you are extremely encumbered by the weight of these resources which must be now ferried back and forth en masse from the biome. Most players come to one of three or so logical responses given the tools given to them by the game at this point:

1 - Make a cart to transport the resources.
2 - Make a ship to transport the resources.
3 - Make a portal to transport the resources.

Guess which one of these is actually the best idea? None of them. The best solution 99% of the time is to manually walk back and forth from your base to the biome with the resources in hand. You are in for a miserable grind if you are doing this solo. The cart is fragile and may as well be plywood for how durable it is. Even just bumping into bushes will reduce its health, you are slow and vulnerable to attack while you pull it, and again, a gust of wind is enough for this thing to explode into a thousand pieces spraying your precious cargo everywhere. A ship can work, but the first one you have access to before you get this material is slow, fragile, and depending on the wind might not even be faster than just walking it. The most obvious answer is a portal, made from materials found in a dungeon.

Except it doesn't allow you to transport precious materials like ores through it.

This is a great example of how the game seems to have absolute contempt for you as the player thinking about the tools the game gives you and by extension also your time. I'm not sure I appreciate the 'realism' of the bronze actually requiring twice the amount of copper to tin when it required me to mine multiple biomes of materials just to make equipment that still had me getting one shot. There are so many great, fantastical and mythological elements, it seems completely arbitrary the mechanics the game decides will be painful at the cost of fun.

Progression, altogether, is a nightmare. When you die, you lose levels in skills and the food in your stomach. This'd be fine if enemy attacks didn't clip through everything, shields were useless, and it seeming that you run out of stamina only from a few seconds of swinging even with a full belly of meat and stew. Prepare to be running back to your body across continents, through jaggy skyrim slip-n-slide terrain, again and again to die. Even with a portal, it’s very easy to fall into a feedback loop of failure where it makes you question why you are playing. Death is simply far too common and too punishing for the little progression to time you are trying to make. Ironically enough it makes you feel like your progression is worthless, because even if you run back, get your gear and succeed in whatever task you were doing, you are still probably going to get one shot anyway in an hour’s time.

A big part of this game is sailing. I hope you like sailing. You'll be doing a lot of it. You need to explore a lot to find new biomes, new materials, traders, and even if you have the wind you feel like you are truly making a year long expedition across the sea, when in reality it’s 30 minutes where you’re doing nothing but watch the environment and fish pop in and out of rendering. Even if you aren’t exploring, you need to sail to transport back the ores you’ve mined because the portals are afraid of metal or something. You can't help your friends row, you just pray that somebody is going to talk about something interesting enough that people don't throw themselves off the ship before you reach the destination. Thankfully, the friends I play with are great and I don't have to do that. I wrote most of this review while sailing.

The game is big, but ultimately it feels empty, and when it isn't empty, it is full of things that are largely not very fun to interact with. It is quite atmospheric and wondrous, clearly has a deep appreciation for Norse myth, and is obviously a project full of passion. Unfortunately, I would not play this game ever by myself, and even playing with people I like a lot, I find the gameplay and its mechanics quite painful. For a survival game it takes the grind to an incredibly painful length.

It's not an easy game to relax in with friends, but it's also a game that punishes you for taking it seriously and trying to be thoughtful about how you play. If I didn't really like the friends I was playing with I don't think I would ever play this game ever again. There are better games for both fun and serious survival experiences and I really can't think of anything it does better than another game in the genre outside of the atmosphere.

I want to like Valheim. Going on a Viking survival adventure through a Norse mythology afterlife sounds like precisely the game I would sink hundreds of hours into with friends.

Sadly, the game doesn't seem capable of delivering on almost anything. “Fun with friends” can be applied to almost anything, and therefore I don’t think it's worth your money or your time.

Such a beautiful game. The visuals are so intriguing, the enemies and NPCs have so much character. So many different routes to take aside from fighting bosses, farming, fishing and my absolute favourite - Building. From the structures and dungeons to the boss fights, Valheim offers a thrilling and visually pleasing experience to take in alone or with your companions. If you like building in games, Valheim will definitely intrigue you. You can build anything you want from houses, to structures and even whole villages if you so pleased. All building pieces in the game can be placed very specifically for a certain affect or you can use the well made snapping system too! The possibilities are endless and the results show! To anyone who plays I hope you have the best experience like me and my gf have, its what brought us together <3

The bits that keeps pulling you along ...... the initial working things out, getting better weapons ...... only last so long before you realise it's just a case of increasing the damage you can give and take. Enemies with the brain capacity of a midges todger and repetition that would make a production line operative beg for a double shift finding wonky biscuits. I tried twice to get into this game but just had to give up for my own sanity. Fair play to those who can put many thousands of hours in without hurling themselves off a roof.

Run 30 minutes away from spawn
Die
Run another 30 minutes with my old gear
Die
Go back a 3rd time and die
10/10 game

Well it was fun until I reached the swamp. Then you just get swarmed by a ton of enemies that are way overpowered compared to the level of progression available to the player. And the corpse runs are frankly no fun.