Valheim

Yet again I wish there was an option for a "hesitant yes" or "mixed" recommendation. The game has a great aesthetic and I overall like the gameplay, but there is an excessive focus on tedium that grows more and more noticeable the further you get into the game. It's not so bad at first, bar the extremely boring grind to mine copper, but then you need to get iron. Where do you get iron? You have to go to a new biome, which is always extremely far away and typically requires you to sail to get to it. Sailing takes forever and a day with barely anything to do because the devs have stopped making content for the oceans and have no plans to pick it back up. Once you get to the iron having biome, you have to then survive the enemies that will kill you in 2 shots because you had the gall to not already be in iron armor with the latest food in your belly. Once you get a tiny amount of iron (that weighs a ton, because inventory is limited on slots and weight) you can waddle back to your boat a...

This game was very fun for a while, and is a really great experience through the biomes that were present at launch. But for the two biomes added since launch... the devs seemingly forgot that the game was supposed to be fun. It feels like the Mistlands and Ashlands were designed for a souls game. They are not fun to explore, they are absurd difficulty spikes, and they do not respect you as a player. The constant mist and the incredibly jagged terrain in the Mistlands make exploring an absolute chore. You have no idea that you're about to walk into an elite enemy until it's way too late. Having your vision restricted is easily one of my biggest turnoffs for adventure games. It's almost like the mist was made to hide how ugly the biome is. If you're going to into the Mistlands, just do yourself a favor and install the mist-removing mod from Thunderstore. It makes the biome actually tolerable. As for the Ashlands... I really feel like the devs forgot what kind of game this is. You tak...

The Best Co-op Experience I’ve Ever Had Never have I had so much fun playing co-op with friends in any other game. After numerous playthroughs, I still can’t wait to get back with my party after each update. With friends from different cities, Valheim has become our best way to spend time together, even if we just hang out in our base for the entire session talking. I love this game so much that few other new co-op titles can meet my expectations anymore. The atmosphere is incredible. Every seed is beautiful in its own way, introducing different logistical challenges. I find myself enjoying the survival elements, resource transportation, building, decorating, fortifying our base, exploring, and sailing just as much as (if not more than) the combat. Even the combat, in its simplicity, has its own beauty and challenges. The only con: it’s beyond me why the dev team hasn’t introduced many of the QoL improvements the community has been requesting for years. While they say they l...

Love the game, but it's been 4 years in Early Access. It's because of Valheim that I avoid EA games now. They got their bag and now it's part-time when they can be bothered, so I can't be bothered to give a positive review.

For someone who played on launch, game just has not come very far. The new additions just don't offer enough to come back to and the mistlands terrain design is just awful with how demanding stamina is for combat and sliding even the slightest on uneven terrain makes trying to melee useless. The older biomes need work and a reason to come back to. The black forest is by far the worse. Discovering boss locations instantly on reading a rune is boring and should take material inputs to translate and gather multiple fragments to gain information from for progressions sake. Biomes need more resources and enemies across the board (besides the swamp). Dungeons need second and third layers to them, meaning once I gain an item I can go back to discovered locations and open up the next tier of a crypt for harder content and progression that loops around making early game biomes meaningful again. Overall the devs just take a long time to add anything meaningful to the game regardless of the quali...

I have spent a truly revolting number of hours in this game so many in fact, that I forgot real life exists and forgot to review it. Time? Linear reality? Relationships? Never heard of them. I would say I had a life before Valheim, but that would be a lie so bold Odin himself would smite me for it. At this point, I've fully embraced the lifestyle of a socially inept Viking hermit. My only goals in life are build the ultimate longhouse, accidentally punch trees to death, slay abominations from Norse nightmares, and sob quietly as my friends "oopsie daisy" torch my base for the fifth time with a misplaced campfire. Even when I take a break to remember things like food and sleep, Valheim whispers me back with its seductive blend of pixelated wilderness, troll trauma, and architecture so structurally unsound it defies both physics and shame. I have logged enough hours to qualify for some sort of honorary Viking citizenship or at least a diagnosis. If loving this chaotic, myth-soaked surviv...

Game feels intentionally designed to waste your time. Played with 15 qol of mods and got to the swamp before realizing how much of a boring, miserable slog it would be even with certain 'intended aspects' of the game modded out. dont waste your money or time, respect it more than valheim devs do

Theres a fine line between taking time to polish an indie game and being caught in EA hell, and sadly, this game leans more towards the latter. I've heard defenses like its a small team, but this game has been going for years, had massive hype and sales, yet still barely crawls forwards. There are more ambitious games, even some made mostly by a single dev (shoutout to The Bloodline, came out 2 years ago, one man project, but truly has heart, soul, and dedication) which have more complete and responsive roadmaps and progress. Even within the genre, Abiotic Factor made by DeepField Games (which as far as I can tell from online sources, seems to have a similar dev team size) has gone above and beyond with keeping their community in the loop, and involved with the dev process, while also managing to keep a consistent and frequent update schedule. I don't think that the devs are malicious, or have bad intent, but I also don't think that things are going to meaningfully improve within the ...

At this point this is a wasteland, it was a good experience but it stopped being fun when they stopped addressing quality of life features and added content more sparingly, the team is still small even after getting millions and it's been so many years of Early Access where ultimately issues in game design piled up with the content that now is coming slower and slower, it's quite disheartening, thankfully there are modders but they can't possibly address the more pressing issues.

80% of the gameplay is running back and forth carrying ores. Cant teleport ores yet theyre extremly heavy and at the same time required to process through the game. If you enjoy running in a straight line, then sailing in a straight line, then running in a straight line for literally 5 hours in a row to craft a single tool then this is the game for you. Combat and boss fights are extremly basic and uninteresting. Lore is basically nonexistent. Graphics are terrible. I have no idea why I forced myself to finish through the game. Gameplay gets worse and worse the further you progress.