Valheim First Impressions – Is It Worth Playing?
Valheim is a survival RPG that sold 4 million copies in its first three weeks, after launching on Feb 2, 2021, as an Early Access game on Steam.
Death by tree at 3:38 🙂
Yes, you can die by a tree falling on your head, as you see at 3:38 in the video above!
It is an open-world Viking-themed co-op survival game with crafting. You build and battle as you give patronage to Valhalla. A refreshing mix of survival, boss fights, and progression that clearly appeals to the four million people who bought it so far.
14:01 Fighting a giant troll
16:55 Made it past the island from hell, onwards across the ocean
17:26 It looks as though we have made it to the New World!
Let’s look at the pros and cons, but first, watch the video above to get first impressions of the actual gameplay.
Pros
| Art style | 20:50 I like the stylized art style. At first, I thought the textures were not loading properly, but that’s really how the game looks. Definitely different! |
| Premise | Unlike other sandbox survival games, you actually have a clear long-term goal in Valheim, working towards becoming strong enough to take on the next boss and to survive in the next biome. And you can also build a boat to travel there. 🙂 |
| Progression | I was not bored progressing through the game. It actually became more fun and addictive as I ventured further into the world. |
| Physics | You can die from a tree falling on your head! That is how you spell p-h-y-s-i-c-s in a game. And opponents take damage if a tree rolls down a hill into them. Use your environment to your advantage. 🙂 |
| Map | Valheim has a gigantic map. My mind was blown when I had to sail across an ocean that actually felt like an ocean! There is so much to explore and I just scratched the surface of this game. |
| Teamwork | This is not a solo player’s game. It is absolutely fantastic to play with your spouse or a small group of friends. You can play solo, but you will not have as much fun. |
| Hard | Remember EverQuest 1 when role-playing games were actually hard? This game is hard, so you feel good when you achieve your goals. The risk vs. reward is one reason I will keep playing Valheim. |
| It works! | For a brand-new Early Access game, it played well with no crashes and only a few minor annoyances. |
| Boss fights | The big boss fights feel really epic. |
Cons
| Crafting | 22:00 I think the building aspect of the game needs a lot of work. It was difficult to get things to snap together and it’s difficult to create a flat surface on which to build your base. |
| FPS | The frame rate was low for me using the default settings. I had to turn off motion blur and bloom to get to a smooth FPS. Graphics optimization needs some work. |
| Survival | I personally do not like survival games that are too strict on weight limits and Valheim feels like one of those games. Hopefully, they will increase the weight limits and inventory space as it is currently too tedious to manage much of the time. |
| Stamina | Even with the stamina buff from the first boss, I felt that stamina was a real pain to manage. At least they should remove stamina consumption from gathering, as it adds nothing but tedium to the game. |
Summary
Valheim is the best survival game I ever played and I am going to continue playing it. I feel like the design and structure of the game has taken the survival genre forward and I hope more survival games learn from Valheim’s way of giving meaningful goals for the player to pursue in a world that’s actually hard to survive in due to the challenging PvE.
What do you think of Valheim? Would you like to see more games combine RPG and survival elements as Valheim does? Tell us in the comments below!
Credits
| Program | Founding Writers |
| Author | George Vanous |
| YouTuber | TheLazyPeon |
| Publisher | MGN |
| Game | Valheim |