Valheim - First Impression

HiddenX

The Elder Spy
Staff Member
Original Sin Donor
Original Sin 2 Donor
Joined
October 18, 2006
Messages
19,818
Location
Germany
Purpleblob gives her first impression of Valheim, a survival single/coop RPG in Early Access:

Impression: Our journey through Valheim - entry #1

Helga woke up to a sound of coals burning from the brazier above her, enjoying the warmth washing over her as the dawn light started to stream into their room.

It was an ordinary day and there were a lots of chores to be done. Helga and Kell quickly split their chores - Kell headed off to the nearby forest to chop down trees to make coals and smelt the ores mined the other day. After tending to boars in the pen, Helga proceeded to harvest turnips and carrots, then made her way to beehive grove to check if the bees are happy.

It was a peaceful day.

...until two trolls showed up with a club in their hand and proceeded on cleaving Kell and Helga's house in half.

Welcome to Valheim.

RIP our training rock, smashed into pieces by stupid trolls *shakes fist* - we still miss you

Our journey began as Hugin, the (un)friendly crow, dropped us - Helga and Kell - onto Valheim, a fearsome land full of our God Odin's enemies. We were destined to survive and defeat these creatures in order to prove our worth to our God.

...unfortunately, I disappointed Odin on my first day in Valheim by getting killed by a group of boars. Oops!

Scared and lost, Kell and I huddled up to a small campfire we had built for the night - unable to sleep without a shelter and a bed.

Next day, we desperately searched for a good place to settle - somewhere relatively flat, with plenty of resources but far away from too much danger. We found a spot in meadows where we could reach forest within a few minutes of stroll and with a beautiful view of a snowy mountain nearby.

Delighted, we quickly threw up a small house, just big enough to place two beds, a workstation and a campfire to keep us warm. By the time we were done with construction of our first home, it was already well into a night. Exhausted, I was eager to hit the bed but something was concerning Kell. I asked in an annoyed tone - "why aren't you coming to bed?" Kell spat out a thick cough in response.

Something was wrong.

[...]
Thanks Redglyph!

More information.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
19,818
Location
Germany
I've been holding off on Valheim, but it's getting harder to not give it a go. I'm not a huge fan of base building but every other part of the game seems like a good time. The sales and reviews are incredible for such a small team.

Nice to see Purpleblob writing about a game since she left this site because of a few clowns.
 
Joined
Aug 28, 2010
Messages
2,838
Location
Wolf Light Woods
I picked it up a while back but while I enjoyed the mechanics the graphics I just couldn't get into for whatever reason. It's a neat game though. I may give it a second try at some point, since I decided to keep it (it was cheap) and on rare occasions I find a second try at a different time and mood can change my mind, although its very rare (POE 1 was one of those games I didn't like at first but it grew on me to be a favorite later).
 
Joined
Jun 4, 2008
Messages
3,959
Location
NH
It must be fun to play it in coop, building and expanding a little house or village, exploring and defeating big bosses to get upgrades... Many different occupations.

Reminds me of a coop community-made campaign I did with a friend in NWN, of which I've kept fond memories. It was a classic story-oriented campaign though, not survival / exploration. I'm not a big fan of MMOs, too streamlined and just too big, but coop can be very fun.
 
Joined
Aug 29, 2020
Messages
10,159
Location
Good old Europe
I've been holding off on Valheim, but it's getting harder to not give it a go. I'm not a huge fan of base building but every other part of the game seems like a good time. The sales and reviews are incredible for such a small team.

Nice to see Purpleblob writing about a game since she left this site because of a few clowns.

Valheim is a fun little game. I bought it even though it was an early access game as theres no forced requirements and even if it never goes past this stage it could be considered 'finished'. Its not as detailed in basebuilding as The Forest but next patch will probably make it equal.

The idea of tracking down the bosses is fun. Getting oneshot by blood mosquito the first time... lol

Clowns = Anyone that did not worship at the feet of Owlcat.
 
Joined
Aug 13, 2013
Messages
2,871
That's a rather splendid review by Purple, it's not normally the type of game I'd gravitate to, can it be played fine just solo, or is the co-op a necessity?

More Purple in '21 and '22, make it so!!~
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2011
Messages
18,799
Location
Holly Hill, FL.
That's a rather splendid review by Purple, it's not normally the type of game I'd gravitate to, can it be played fine just solo, or is the co-op a necessity?

More Purple in '21 and '22, make it so!!~

They 100% catered to solo first. Its great coop of course but totally doable soloable. Once I got over the graphics I realized how many things just work well together. Spawn timers, grow timers etc. Very single orientated.
 
Joined
Aug 13, 2013
Messages
2,871
Started playing. 383 hours later...

Since COVID hit and I was stuck at home, I did a few survival games. I had a server up for Wednesday night gaming with the grognards (we were in lockdown). We started with 7 Days to Die, went to Valheim after we burned out on that. I'm over 2,000 hours with 7 Days. What the hell happened to my life?
 
Joined
Aug 12, 2013
Messages
209
Location
Traverse City, Michigan
He's got me beat. I stopped at 1065 :D
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
8,821
Joined
Aug 13, 2013
Messages
2,871
Wow, I've done less than 200 of 7DTD, across two accounts, and I thought that was lots :p

I've played a few hours of Valheim. It was decent enoough, but I'm probably going to wait until we can put it into our co-op rota.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
2,245
Location
New Zealand
I'm not interested in the game, but I just noticed that it's possible to host the game on a dedicated server. This is huge. Would be awesome if that became a trend again.
 
Joined
May 6, 2013
Messages
4,968
Location
Germany
I'm not interested in the game, but I just noticed that it's possible to host the game on a dedicated server. This is huge. Would be awesome if that became a trend again.

I think it's also the case of Divinity: Original Sin 2, Baldur's Gate 3 and other games with a co-op feature. The cost of maintaining servers wouldn't be justified by piracy (being forced to use an official login, which could be enforced independently anyway these days). Maybe as a service to provide constant servers with other people to play with? But it would be more efficient to manage that separately by providing an IP address.

So I don't see another way to do it.

Anyway, it's comforting to know it's possible to setup one's server independently of any provider :)
 
Joined
Aug 29, 2020
Messages
10,159
Location
Good old Europe
Man, I've died hundreds of times in 7D2D. Their record keeping sucks :D
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
8,821
Man, I've died hundreds of times in 7D2D. Their record keeping sucks :D

I thought about playing this. Is it mandatory shared server? Can you play it solo?
 
Joined
Aug 13, 2013
Messages
2,871
Back
Top Bottom