Valheim

Quite frankly, this is an incredible game, no matter what you compare it to, which is even more impressive given it's not out of early access yet The devs are continuously supporting with bug fixes, small and regular updates and even seasonal and april 1. patches Valheim has such a unique, special way of letting you interact with the world. I find it to be my favourite "build your comfy, cool world" type game The graphics are genuinely inspiring, the sound design is beautiful and the vibes are impeccable I find the natural progression and the skill system very fun to engage with Lastly, with or without mods, alone or with friends, this game has a lot to offer and I really recommend it Thank you Iron Gate for this incredible piece of art and thank you for reading this. I hope you have a good time

The combat is way too janky to be enjoyable. The storage is extremely inconvenient to the point that it detracts from the game being enjoyable. Easy quality of life things are just not implemented. I did not enjoy this game.

Valheim is one of those rare games that never loses its magic. No matter how many times I come back, it somehow pulls me right back in. I finished my third full playthrough about six months ago, and it still managed to consume my entire weekend the moment I reinstalled it. That's saying something for a survival game that's been in early access this long. Either Odin really wants me chopping trees, or I have absolutely no self-control. Visually, Valheim punches way above its weight. The lighting does so much of the heavy lifting, and the atmosphere is incredible. Sunrises, sunsets, and shafts of light breaking through dark forest canopies look genuinely cinematic. It's one of those games where you'll stop just to admire the view... right before a troll reminds you that sightseeing has consequences. I've seen people dismiss Valheim because of its low-poly graphics, but I couldn't disagree more. The art direction is fantastic and proves that style matters far more than photorealism. I still remember building my first tiny cabin by the water and being weirdly proud of it. Between the weather, lighting, music, and atmosphere, that little shack somehow felt more like home than the giant castles I've built in other survival games. If you're someone who values immersion over graphical realism, Valheim absolutely delivers. The co-op experience is easily one of the game's biggest strengths. I've met some genuinely great people through Valheim, both here on Steam and in the official Discord, and it's one of the few games my friend group never complains about reinstalling. There's always something useful to do, so everyone naturally falls into a role... unless you're that one friend (aka me, sorry Hafsol) who mysteriously disappears every time it's time to haul ore. Apparently my Viking ancestors weren't miners. Progression stays satisfying from beginning to end. Each biome introduces new resources, new crafting options, tougher enemies, and another boss to conquer. Combat encourages experimentation because no weapon works for every situation, and eventually you unlock magic, which feels hilariously out of place in a game that starts with, "Go hit a tree with a stick." Even after three full playthroughs, Valheim still has that "I'll just grab some wood" curse. Four hours later you've sailed halfway across the map, picked a fight you definitely weren't ready for, discovered another island, and started planning yet another base because this one is definitely going to be your forever home. Very few survival games have kept me coming back the way Valheim has. The exploration, building, atmosphere, and co-op experience are some of the best in the genre, and somehow the game still captures the same sense of adventure every time I start a new world. I can't wait for the full PlayStation release so my entire friend group can finally jump into the same world together. Skål to another few hundred hours... and probably another "forever" base.

Valhiem is not a game for the weak. Valhiem is a beautiful game, the soundtrack is amazing but is hard. Most of the negative Reviews will be players saying it is to hard. The key to valhiem is preparation, the further you are into the game, the more preparation is required. Pros - Lovely game functioning combat system not to much drain on the computer Excellent building system Cons- Soo so many hours, just in preparation, if you don't have the proper foods, potions, armor and weaponary, then you will spend more time in the base preparing. On death everything you had will be on you, so if you didn't Prepare, then there wouldn't be a portal connecting your last voyage to the main island, this means sending back the player because they won't be able to retrieve their gear for a while. Overall, it is a great game. With many enjoyable aspects, as much as i hate a wolf raid while mining silver, it is do able.

If I had to choose one word to describe this game, it would be "obnoxious". I can not think of another game that goes so hard out of its way to make you miserable in the pettiest way possible. It makes everything possible to waste your time and bog down your progress. You want to land on this swamp and make a post? Here is a relentless spawn of ghosts and skellies that would not allow you to even land properly, would constantly destroy your workbench, your portal and your ship. Do you want to just get some ore? No, we will spawn endless wave of mobs literally out of thin air just to be obnoxious. What about building a fortress on un-accessible hill that has only one narrow passage to it - now we will have the mobs literally scale the unscalable terrain just to ruin your plans. Even the world server options are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and implemented in the petties way possible, just because the devs obviously hate giving the players what might be considered more relaxed experience. The "not losing equipment on death" actually means you do not drop only what is actively equipped on you at the time of death - so if you have full quickbar of weapons and tools, you will drop everything except for the weapon you hold when dying. If you drown, you keep only your armour - because swimming auto-sheathes your weapons and shield. The point of not dropping your gear on death is to avoid corpse-runs if you are willing to sacrifice what you gathered - but you still need to corpse-run to gather all your weapons, tools and food. What is then the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ point to even have this option? This are one of the worst examples I have seen of malicious compliance from the side of the devs. "Here are the options you wanted.... but they are ♥♥♥♥, enjoy!" There is a severe lack of quality of life that is a given on most other games in the genre, like pulling crafting materials automatically form chests or auto-dumping your materials in chests instead of manually storing everything every 5 minutes, because your average viking can not wear more than an old lady with arthritis. You need a number of mods to make the experience bearable, but I can not be bothered to have to deal with that ♥♥♥♥ again like in the past. Why would the devs even consider making official mod support, it is clear they hate any form of player convenience. I enjoyed my time with the game in the past, but at this point I can not be bothered to have my time wasted considering there are so many other good games that I can play. The survival crafting genre has learned a lot from Valheim, has improved on it and moved on, but the Valheim itself seems to have been stuck in the past. I had hopes for the 1.0 release, but few hours in I just can't be bothered anymore. There is a difference between hard and punishing but the devs just do not seme to understand it. If you love getting your balls crushed multiple times an hour, your progress deleted and your time wasted - this is the perfect game for you.

Valheim showed huge potential, but each step of Early Access rushes to the next major biome while leaving glaring issues with the prior one unaddressed. I'm not sure to what extent the Iron Gate team is reading feedback about the overall experience. These issues start early, but begin severely compounding with the Swamp. Iron, used for support beams, is finite unless you farm a rare drop from a rare enemy for a trickle. A later biome showers you in a different metal that can't be used for support beams. Sailing is a fundamentally empty experience, in spite of how essential it is to getting established and exploring new lands. This gets even worse when bad streaks of wind direction RNG force you to tack or reroute. Rather than the ocean gaining any content, the need to sail is instead trivialized once you go through the Ashlands and can make portals that don't reject metal. Combat is increasingly plagued by issues that go well beyond gear gaps. Balance and AI are all over the place, as exemplified by the Ashlands. The entire biome is meant to have an alternative feel of constant hostility and a focus on sieging enemy fortresses. These fortresses are empty and can be dirt-pillared into. Your allies will die by recklessly charging through lava or trying to fight in it. The biome boss can randomly leave or camp in lava. In conclusion: The flow of Valheim is interrupted by sudden and persistent instances of broken, empty content, and the releases leave them unaddressed to add the next piece of content that will in turn suffer the same problems. 1.0 is approaching, and all that seems to be on the horizon is another content drop. Even if the Deep North ends up proving amazing when taken in isolation, there is too much jank along the way for me to recommend Valheim to new players. Get it if you really, really like the building style and don't mind playing with material costs disabled. Otherwise, wait for post-release notes to see if the major gaps left by the wayside will be addressed.

Played this game with my partner a lot who recently passed. I have picked it back up and it's given me a lot of comfort in my grief to share a game with someone I love and memories of the times we played it. Can't wait for 1.0.

Nah, i just can't with this game. If it's not the day night cycle, if it's not the weather conditions, if it's not the health/stamina bar, if it's not the tiny inventory, if it's not carrying too much weight, if it's not YOUR EQUIPPED GEAR TAKES UP SLOTS IN SAID INVENTORY, if it's not your pickaxe breaking after mining roughly 10 copper ore, then its for sure the F**KING GREYDWARVES - EVERYWHERE, ALL THE TIME, that broke me. Every design element in the game, every single one, is made to do one thing: Piss you off. I've played tons of these survival games, and i can handle a poor inventory, or a convoluted crafting cycle - its fine, you get over it. But i really just f**king cannot, with these enemy spawns. You wake up in the morning? A small army of Greydwarves. Take one step outside your house? A small army of Greydwarves. You run for 10 seconds, still in viewing range of your house? A small army of Greydwarves. You chop a tree? A small army of Greydwarves. You crossed the river? A small army of Greydwarves. You made a 360, with not a single enemy in sight - only to take one swing of your pickaxe at a copper deposit? A small army of Greydwarves. These rock throwing, baiting, running away evil f**king garden gnomes seemingly just spawn in and start attacking you no matter what action you perform in the game. And even the naturally spawning ones will also just aggro you from half the country away. And they will follow you to hell and back, through fire, and then to the worlds edge and still not de-leash, they will hunt you down. The game isn't hard, and the combat isn't anything special at all. But first and foremost, its just tedious - its time wasting, its irritating, and not in the "oh its just a bit of friction" way, like in many other games. The constant interruption of basic activities is so irritating that I don't want to engage with the rest of the game. Never has a game, in my first 8 hours, made me shout irl to myself "Just let me play the game" this much.

The good: Setting, music, visuals. The bad: Crafting is a nightmare. Items are not pulled automatically from nearby chests, so you HAVE to carry everything yourself (And some recipes require ~40 ingots which WILL make you overweight). No sorting, no auto deposit (On a MP world we've had 30+ chests and upon return we've had to go through almost every one to sort out the loot). Taming is clunky at best and a nightmare with some animals. No dedicated equip slots, so 30% of your inventory is occupied by armor, weapons, food, potions, trinkets (And I'm so sorry if you are an archer), with upgrades doesn't feel like making any dent. Sailing is fun the first maybe 5 hours, after that it's a chore. The default setting for portals doesn't allow you to go through if you have ores ????). If you have the death penalty setting set to anything other than non-existent you WILL NOT gain any skills, you will lose WAY TOO MUCH upon death, especially on hard difficulty (Oh boy we'll get to that). The requirements and speed of leveling up some skills are absurd. The ugly: Where to begin? Let's start with the Hard difficulty. After you get to the second biome you will start getting one-shot by almost anything. The problem gets only worse each time you progress to the next stage. The food and armor only helps to a point (Instead of getting one-shot from 200 damage mosquito, it will leave you with 10 hp). There is quite literally no point in eating food that gives you health since it doesn't matter most of the time. Just dodge. No parrying, no using shields enemies deal way too much damage so interacting with these systems generally is not worth it, since it takes one mistake for you to die. Enemy spawns are ******. I will never believe the spawn system works as intended. You can't go a meter without someone jumping you. The problem goes to the stratosphere in the ashlands. It's quite literally unplayable at this point. The system that should remove items from the ground doesn't do ♥♥♥♥. The world gets laggy, and we can't use a console command to clear everything because it will tag us a cheater (Cool, thanks). IMPORTANT PART. IF YOU ARE AN ACHIEVEMENT HUNTER UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU BUY THIS GAME. The grindy achievements are fine, I'm used to that, but the real problem lays with build everything, craft everything. First, WHO THE **** thought it was a good idea to hide the next chest upgrade behind a 5% drop trophy? AND YOU NEED 5 OF THEM TO CRAFT A SINGLE CHEST!? The serpent trophies doesn't have a 'float' property so you physically can't get it, cz it will sink to the ocean floor. That trophy locks you out of 3 achievements. The build everything achievement requires you to build seasonal items (such items are only available during Halloween and Christmas) + the mysterious rock is the icing on the cake (If you know you know). Cut down 500 trees is way too much. Fishing is just bad. The fish gets stuck on geometry every time. The Hard scaling + MP scaling makes every enemy a chore to kill. There are most likely things I forgot to add but I think this is enough.