Should you play Valheim?

If you haven’t been living in a rock for these last couple of weeks, then you’ve probably caught on to the newest fad that is Valheim.

Valheim is an indie open-world survival game by indie company Iron Gate Studios, currently in early access. You play as a slain Viking who is sent down to Valheim via Hugin airlines, and your task is simple: slay the Forsaken in order to ascend to Valhalla.

Well, if it were THAT simple, then everyone would be done with the game after a few hours. Truth is, when you came down to Valheim, you forgot to pack your glorious Viking stuff with you, so you land on the ground, barely naked. So in order to beat those big bad Forsaken baddies, you’d have to — oh what’s that? you’re asking me what a Forsaken is? Well, they’re the evils that Odin has locked away in the tenth realm of Valheim. There are reportedly nine of these beasts in Valheim, but the early access only gives you the chance to summon and slay four of them.

Now you’ve heard of the what, let’s get to the how. The only way of defeating these monsters is by, you guessed it, killing them. And how would we kill them? With our weapons, of course (unless you beef up your unarmed skill to the point where it deals tons of damage to an enemy, then sure, go for it). But how do we get weapons? You left all of them in Midgard when you died, remember? Well, we farm them! *insert cricket noises*

You spend most of your time in Valheim as a crafter, farmer, and hunter, spending your days cutting trees and killing boars for leather and meat. The game makes you feel immersed by introducing a diet system — and no, I am not talking about losing weight — I’m talking about how the game only allows you to eat three kinds of foods at a time, each with a hidden timer so as not to allow those careless spammy eaters to dwindle their supplies quickly. It’s quite good, except for the times when you need to heal up from taking a nearly fatal damage, but a yellow text pops up and says “You cannot eat more Cooked Meat“, which is basically Valheim-speak for “no, you’re gonna have to die here.”

Speaking of death, the game treats it in a not-so-harsh way. Once you die, you leave behind a tombstone that contains all your items, as well as experience some skill drain for the skills that you’ve been working hard to level up. The tombstone mechanic isn’t so brutal, as you can easily pick it up once you respawn. However, it’s a different matter when you die in the vicinity of raging summoned Forsaken. It’s not punishing, but it will be frustrating.

Let’s talk about the Forsaken. They’re the big bosses of the game, the main goal, the keys to Valhalla. As mentioned earlier, due to the game being in early access, you only get to engage in glorious battle with four of them.

These bosses, once defeated, drop a trophy that could be hanged on the sacrificial stones in your landing spot when you first got to Valheim. When activated once hung on said stones, they grant you different abilities, like stamina drain reduction, among others.

It wouldn’t be a Viking game without the signature Viking act, and no, we’ve already talked about the killing. I’m talking about sailing! Unfortunately, Hugin will not take you to the skies again after he dropped you here, so you’d need a raft or a boat to travel longer distances. You may be a Viking, but you can’t swim across an entire ocean. This short video by the developers themselves showcase what it’s like to sail through the vast randomly seeded world of Valheim.

The game is fun to play when solo, but it’s even more fun when you play it with a group of friends. Be careful though, as the bosses are way harder the more people you have playing with you.

So, should you play Valheim? If you love grinding and scavenging and foraging for food and materials, then go ahead! However, if you don’t have the patience to grind hard for materials while basically building yourself a home and having to look for food yourself but still want to feel the thrill of success when you finally strike down that boss with your farmed weapon, then maybe go play some Monster Hunter instead.

All in all, given the game’s current state as an early access game, it’s safe to say that it looks promising. It captures the survival game mode really well, and it doesn’t really quickly bore the players to death, with the farming and all. It could do away with the awfully long sailing times without taking away the immersive experience of sailing your own boat. It’s not perfect, but it brings a new kind of thrill for games in the survival genre. We don’t normally give numerical ratings to games we review, but if we would, we’d give Valheim a solid 7/10, but only because it isn’t complete yet.

So, if you’ve got spare time in your hands, go ahead and dive into Valheim!