Valheim - Get your survival fix with this low fantasy game of the year candidate.

[thejackal]

Store page link.

Best survival game I've played since Rust. Easy. The emergent gameplay is incredible. Exploring feels dangerous and rewarding. Staying near your base and crafting is a nice calming experience. The AI is spooky smart and keeps you on your toes. I'm 10-12 hours in and have only just now started to explore the dangerous forest that comes after the starting zone. There's like 50+ hours of content here already. When they get the multiplayer servers hammered out this summer look out.

 

[Disc]

Store page link.

Best survival game I've played since Rust. Easy. The emergent gameplay is incredible. Exploring feels dangerous and rewarding. Staying near your base and crafting is a nice calming experience. The AI is spooky smart and keeps you on your toes. I'm 10-12 hours in and have only just now started to explore the dangerous forest that comes after the starting zone. There's like 50+ hours of content here already. When they get the multiplayer servers hammered out this summer look out.

How much did they pay you to let them put their hand up your ass

 

[trent]

Against my better judgement i bought this earlier on today because a couple of my friends suggested it. They've even rented a server between them and i eventually managed to join their session by means of an early 00s style "enter the IP address and password" method.

The game is generic sandbox "make your own fun" shite. It's the exact same as a billion other half-baked survival/crafting games littering Steam but you are a Viking or some shit. I played for around an hour and built a house and then realised the rest of the game is just grinding for resources to make slightly better things.

It holds the unique honor of being the only game i have ever requested a refund for on my Steam account that i've had since Half Life 2 launched. I'm convinced it's 4chan or reddit or someone trolling to get people to buy this random dogshit Early Access thing that will be completely abandoned within 6 months.

 

[thejackal]

How much did they pay you to let them put their hand up your ass

Imagine being this salty that I told you about a potential game of the year when it was $19.99. Imagine thinking 360k users are just hawking a product. Anyways, buy the game man.

Trent your opinion is so dumb man. This game has a complete physics AND weather system in the 2nd week of EA. What other survival games have ever had that at full launch, let alone EA? There's nothing generic about this game, trust me I've played a million EA survival games.

This game is the next Subnautica or Long Dark or Rust, not some shit.

 

[pleasegoaway]

Imagine thinking 360k users are just hawking a product.

Popularity isn't a good indicator of quality, even Among Us had over 400k concurrent players at its peak.

 

[thejackal]

Popularity isn't a good indicator of quality, even Among Us had over 400k concurrent players at its peak.

It's a decent proxy. Let me say this: I have (embarrassingly) over 3K hours in Rust, dating back to Legacy. Valheim is the 1st game I've played since Rust that hits all the same amazing places for emergent gameplay in a survival game. Rust now has over 100K concurrent after sitting around 5-20K for years.

Valheim is already as good as Rust 2.0 (after Legacy) was after 3 years of development. Valheim is going to be a huge game for years to come, just like Rust.

 

[Disc]

Imagine being this salty that I told you about a potential game of the year when it was $19.99. Imagine thinking 360k users are just hawking a product. Anyways, buy the game man.

Trent your opinion is so dumb man. This game has a complete physics AND weather system in the 2nd week of EA. What other survival games have ever had that at full launch, let alone EA? There's nothing generic about this game, trust me I've played a million EA survival games.

This game is the next Subnautica or Long Dark or Rust, not some shit.

I'm not saying 360k people are hawking a product, I'm saying one jackal is. Everything you're saying comes off as a tagline - vague box-level praise with no actual description of what you do or how it's fun.

 

[Corn Flakes]

Not gonna lie, I'm actually enjoying the hell out of Valheim, and I've been giving survival crafting games a wide berth since a few friends convinced me to get Ark back when it was still in early access. This thing has been eating my evenings. Got 50+ hours on it already, between my solo game and playing with friends.

I think what's hooked me is the ambience. That game is very low-poly, but they make the shaders and volumetric effects work. The world may be static but it doesn't feel like it with how things change in look between night and day and different weather conditions. It's got some weird bugs and it definitely has Early Access levels of polish, but haven't had this much fun with an EA game since Deep Rock Galactic. So whether thejackal is shilling for it or not, I would recommend it.

I can only hope they don't fuck it up as they develop it further.

 

[X Pac Heat]

I was interested until I saw everyone compare it to Rust.

Easy pass for me.

 

[thejackal]

Not gonna lie, I'm actually enjoying the hell out of Valheim, and I've been giving survival crafting games a wide berth since a few friends convinced me to get Ark back when it was still in early access. This thing has been eating my evenings. Got 50+ hours on it already, between my solo game and playing with friends.

I think what's hooked me is the ambience. That game is very low-poly, but they make the shaders and volumetric effects work. The world may be static but it doesn't feel like it with how things change in look between night and day and different weather conditions. It's got some weird bugs and it definitely has Early Access levels of polish, but haven't had this much fun with an EA game since Deep Rock Galactic. So whether thejackal is shilling for it or not, I would recommend it.

I can only hope they don't fuck it up as they develop it further.

The ambience is incredible. There are moments when I just find myself staring at the environment around me. And the world is dynamic. The first time I burst upon a troll fighting skeletons and throwing fucking rocks at the skeleton's home to flush them out I was flabbergasted, this is EA? These are systems that AAA games struggle to implement. The old school textures don't distract from the environment at all, they just add to it IMO without making the world look cartoonish.

As for the Rust comparisons, my comparison is in the ambience and the systems, not the multiplayer aspect. Rust is a brutal multiplayer survival game, there are very few times in game you can relax and of course you can log off and wake up to it all gone. Valheim is not like that. There is a PVP toggle and you can create your own private servers.

 

[Stilgar of Troon]

It's ... okay... Nothing special at all. Fuck paying money for Early Access, too. Pirate that shit.

 

[likeacrackado]

Against my better judgement i bought this earlier on today because a couple of my friends suggested it. They've even rented a server between them and i eventually managed to join their session by means of an early 00s style "enter the IP address and password" method.

The game is generic sandbox "make your own fun" shite. It's the exact same as a billion other half-baked survival/crafting games littering Steam but you are a Viking or some shit. I played for around an hour and built a house and then realised the rest of the game is just grinding for resources to make slightly better things.

It holds the unique honor of being the only game i have ever requested a refund for on my Steam account that i've had since Half Life 2 launched. I'm convinced it's 4chan or reddit or someone trolling to get people to buy this random dogshit Early Access thing that will be completely abandoned within 6 months.

Its a twitch/eceleb thing. A couple years ago these games popped up multiple times a year in EA, twitch streamers played them(probably paid to), and then everyone forgot about them. Rust and ARK are the only ones which get referenced much outside of their niche communities.

The ambience is incredible. There are moments when I just find myself staring at the environment around me. And the world is dynamic. The first time I burst upon a troll fighting skeletons and throwing fucking rocks at the skeleton's home to flush them out I was flabbergasted, this is EA? These are systems that AAA games struggle to implement.

Lol ok

 

[thejackal]

Its a twitch/eceleb thing. A couple years ago these games popped up multiple times a year in EA, twitch streamers played them(probably paid to), and then everyone forgot about them. Rust and ARK are the only ones which get referenced much outside of their niche communities.

Lol ok

So one pops up with zero hype, zero paid streams and hits 360K within two weeks of launch and you think it's similar to like...Miscreated or H1Z1? Come on man. I don't really think you've played that many survival games if you think that. This is nothing like those games, which were total cash grabs capitalizing on the Day Z hype.

 

[I Love Beef]

Is the gameplay also like Elder Scrolls with magic and stuff, or is it a really down to earth survival simulator with weighty mechanics?

 

[Corn Flakes]

Is the gameplay also like Elder Scrolls with magic and stuff, or is it a really down to earth survival simulator with weighty mechanics?

Feels more like Baby's First Souls to me, complete with parrying and dodge-rolling. Crossed with your average survival crafter, that is. Food doesn't heal you, but it increases your maximum health/stamina and health/stamina regeneration, no actual magic spells (that I could find so far), each boss you kill gives you one activated ability you can keep on you (the first boss allows you lower stamina drain while running for 5 minutes, with a 20-minute cooldown)... Oh, and the game is clearly geared towards co-op play. You can flag yourself for PvP, but it's not on by default, and you can set a password for your server and avoid potential griefers.

So... let's call it down to earth, just in a fantasy setting.

 

[X Pac Heat]

As for the Rust comparisons, my comparison is in the ambience and the systems, not the multiplayer aspect. Rust is a brutal multiplayer survival game, there are very few times in game you can relax and of course you can log off and wake up to it all gone. Valheim is not like that. There is a PVP toggle and you can create your own private servers.

alright I'll get it then. I fucking hated the multiplayer aspect to Rust which is what turned me off after seeing it on Steam and being interested.

 

[thejackal]

Feels more like Baby's First Souls to me, complete with parrying and dodge-rolling. Crossed with your average survival crafter, that is. Food doesn't heal you, but it increases your maximum health/stamina and health/stamina regeneration, no actual magic spells (that I could find so far), each boss you kill gives you one activated ability you can keep on you (the first boss allows you lower stamina drain while running for 5 minutes, with a 20-minute cooldown)... Oh, and the game is clearly geared towards co-op play. You can flag yourself for PvP, but it's not on by default, and you can set a password for your server and avoid potential griefers.

So... let's call it down to earth, just in a fantasy setting.

What's your opinion on the building mechanics? Coming from Rust I'd say pretty damn impressive although I prefer the wheel hammer in Rust.

 

[Reverend]

LMK when it's on Xbox Game Pass, then I'll care.

 

[Corn Flakes]

What's your opinion on the building mechanics? Coming from Rust I'd say pretty damn impressive although I prefer the wheel hammer in Rust.

Clunky. They definitely need to work on the interface for that game, and the building mechanics are a prime example of that. For example, not telling you how many of a resource you need for the currently selected recipe you have in your inventory (or how many times you can place that block before you run out) and forcing the player to check the inventory directly is a deadly sin when it comes to interface design.

On the other hand, that game knows what visual design it's going with the building blocks and it does everything very well. I'm not going to be building any Victorian mansions or Gothic cathedrals in Valheim, but it's fine. It's a viking game, I'm in it for the longhouses and pointy log huts with thatch roofs. The snapping of blocks to the grid is also fairly reliable, and I like that you can place blocks pretty far away from you without issue. I just hope they add more decorative blocks as we go. Let us place those trophies on a wall, at least.

 

[KonradCruise]

I have to say its quite nice as far as ambience goes, my group of friends has encountered a few minor bugs and some funny ones (like being able to parry archers/rock tosses)
The art style is really well balanced, everything is minecraft pixels, but through proper use of shading, bumpmapping, and arrangement of said textures it achieves a much higher fidelity look, for instance the iron scalemail uses reflectiveness on only certain mega-pixel shapes in contrast with dark blocks to create much more depth to the effect

Gameplay wise I do enjoy the combat system, if you goes soulslike or chivalry like it doesn't matter so long as your game doesn't become minecraft or skyrim melee.
Stamina system can make or break you, my friends watched as, out of stamina I got thrown into the water by a troll and them promptly bouldered to death by the oversized Imam.

As far as content and gameplay loops goes, the game can stand on its own currently, it has a clear objective, a building system that mostly functions, fleshed out crafting trees.
The ocean is fucking beautiful, especially during storms, some of the best ocean i've seen, even Archage and Shat Desert didn't get it this good. Weather is 10/10
This all being said im glad its only 20$ I have some concerns about replayability once me and the boys are finished.

Quick tip for new players: pvp spar with your friends for quick levels, namely block skill and your preferred weapon.
Minor edit: Fuck all mosquitoes, fuck goblins, fuck slimes, fuck you baltimore.