Survival games require teamwork and effort, next to only MMORPGs. Playing that scenario has its appeal—what if you actually had to survive in the real world? While this genre of games is very, very crowded, with games such as Ark and Rust mainly being popular among fans of this genre, Valheim has emerged as the latest hot survival game to open 2021.
Upon opening the game, you are dropped into a wild forest with rune-covered stones and pillars in the afterlife of Norse mythology. The Meadows is the starting biome, and as you defeat bosses you open up additional biomes such as the Black Forest, the Swamp, the Mountain, and the Plains. Another biome, the Ocean, is also available. There are other biomes that are still in development as of this writing.
Much like a certain popular MMORPG, you start out by killing random wildlife to survive. There is an issue with this that might be tweaked (since the game is in Early Access, after all) because the wildlife simply outpaces your generic starting character. Much like Minecraft, you have to start punching trees in order to get the crafting system going.
Gathering raw materials like wood, stone, and ore is a mindless task in many survival games or strategy games, but Valheim makes them interesting through using one of Odin’s ravens to instruct you to gather resources for item creation. At the beginning of the game, falling trees seem to be more dangerous, but once you build your camp, you can start crafting weapons, armor, items, and ships. One of the best places to put your camp is on the coast (this is a Viking-themed game, after all). This is a game that requires you and your friends to sustain the world—you can also create your own servers and invite people to play on them, although the servers are only limited to 10 people.
One of the reasons Valheim is extremely popular is that it doesn’t have the realism of survival games such as spoiling food or spiraling repair costs. Combat is very intuitive and is more player versus environment (PvE) than player versus player (PvP). Hopefully, Iron Gate AB will allow for large-scale PvP in the future where you and your friends can take on another group of Vikings, which is what the Vikings did best. PvP is consensual, which removes an element of surprise from the game. Combat isn’t particularly groundbreaking, but boss fights can be very fun and engaging assuming you have lots of people to call on to defeat them.
The graphics more resemble the late 2000s than anything made today, which is both a blessing and a curse. Lately, we’ve learned that you don’t need great graphics to create a fun and engaging gaming experience (just look at Among Us). You can play with either keyboard and mouse or controller; I personally prefer the latter.
Developer(s): Iron Gate AB
Publisher(s): Coffee Stain Studios, Coffee Stain Publishing
Platform: PC
Words by Jose Alvarez
Also published in Gadgets Magazine March 2021 Issue