Seeing that "231.1 hours played" on my Steam library says enough about my obsession with this game than I ever could put into words, but the truth is a little more complicated.
I see a lot of potential - sheer limitless, even - in the framework this game uses, compared to most other games with the cursed runes "Early Access", "Open World" and "Survival". What it needs is a lot more "mystique". It leans heavily into that, but doesn't really deliver, since the magic of finding a new area or dungeon deflates the moment you realize that every one of these is mostly identical and offers the same kind of spoils every time. There needs to be more than that.
Combat (especially against bosses) feels a little stilted and needlessly spongy at times, too. Inflated health pools, a very poor moveset and the fact that parrying is the go-to meta make it tedious at times. Solo-ing bosses feels like a chore that needs changing, a boss shouldn't take 20 minutes or more, especially if that boss only has like 3 or 4 moves in total. A combat rework that tries to move it closer to action adventure games like TLoZ would greatly improve the appeal.
But I hope you get what I'm saying here. There is LOTS of (so far) unused potential, in a game that absorbs you through the sheer amount of creativity at play. I'm excited for Valheim's future and really hope they tackle the fine details that can make this game go from great, to fantastic.
(Early Access review)
I see a lot of potential - sheer limitless, even - in the framework this game uses, compared to most other games with the cursed runes "Early Access", "Open World" and "Survival". What it needs is a lot more "mystique". It leans heavily into that, but doesn't really deliver, since the magic of finding a new area or dungeon deflates the moment you realize that every one of these is mostly identical and offers the same kind of spoils every time. There needs to be more than that.
Combat (especially against bosses) feels a little stilted and needlessly spongy at times, too. Inflated health pools, a very poor moveset and the fact that parrying is the go-to meta make it tedious at times. Solo-ing bosses feels like a chore that needs changing, a boss shouldn't take 20 minutes or more, especially if that boss only has like 3 or 4 moves in total. A combat rework that tries to move it closer to action adventure games like TLoZ would greatly improve the appeal.
But I hope you get what I'm saying here. There is LOTS of (so far) unused potential, in a game that absorbs you through the sheer amount of creativity at play. I'm excited for Valheim's future and really hope they tackle the fine details that can make this game go from great, to fantastic.
(Early Access review)