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Other Games / Valheim - Survivaling the norse way!
« on: February 15, 2021, 05:11:33 pm »
Steam page
Kinda surprised this hasn't popped up here yet, considering the amount of noise it's been making around the internet (specifically Steam and Twitch).
What it basically is, is a survival game (like there wasn't an overabundance of those already) set in a procedurally generated world, inspired heavily by the Norse mythos. You're a dead warrior sent by Odin to the exiled world of Valheim to take care of the baddies locked up there before they cause too much trouble. Start out naked, punch trees, get wood, craft tools, hunt animals, build a home, kill bosses, progress, etc etc
It's best described as a 3d Terraria imo, as the progression is heavily tied into exploration and overcoming challenges (for example you only got the basic wood/stone tools and weapons until you kill the first boss, which unlocks proper mining and smelting, which leads to basic metal tools and weapons, etc) while at the same time having a good bit of base building and crafting tied into the whole process. You get massive buffs from resting in a proper place with a roof over your head and a fire burning nearby, as well as buffs from eating food (bigger and longer lasting buffs from better meals). Your gear also needs to be maintained (tho this doesn't require resources, so it only limits how long you can go on without taking a break of sorts) and upgraded from time to time. There's a fairly developed building system that takes into account physics somewhat, so you have to build supports and the like to not have your dwelling collapse on your ass, fairly intuitive in how it communicates this in terms of tinting pieces depending on how sturdy their support is. You can go sailing about since the world is fairly large, dungeon diving as well since there's certain stuff you only get from there.
The combat itself is fairly decent and has some depth, but not without jankiness that most early access/indie games have at release. There's different weapons, blocking/parrying, dodging, all the bells and whistles. Progression in terms of skills is basically do thing to get better at thing, making it more efficient or damaging or what have you. Your hp/stamina is fixed however and the only way to increase it is by eating/resting, basic food gives small buffs, cooked and more complex meals give long lasting and large increases, further encouraging having a proper base of operations so you can get buffed enough to handle some of the nastier enemies.
Death is temporary, you drop all your shit and lose a certain amount of skill levels (but then get temporary immunity to further loss), plus getting your stuff back gives you a corpse run buff which is nice from getting away from whatever kicked your ass in the first place. Another similarity to Terraria is how characters are handled, you make your guy/gal and then you can generate a seed based world for them. Any gear you have on you you can take to other worlds, and since most shit doesn't respawn, making multiple worlds to farm certain things seems to be a viable tactic.
Also there's coop, makes shit harder, but from the looks of it, having multiple people does help quite a bit.
Anyways, I can't think of anything else off the top of my head to say. Played several hours, it was fairly enjoyable, the graphics are a bit dated but what it lacks in fidelity it more than makes up for in atmosphere (weathering a rainstorm is fucking cool). It's fairly cheap right now too at some 20$ or your equivalent, especially once you realize how much stuff is in there already and that this is just their first EA version, with more shit to come down the road.
So yeah, Valheim, anyone else hooked on it?
Kinda surprised this hasn't popped up here yet, considering the amount of noise it's been making around the internet (specifically Steam and Twitch).
What it basically is, is a survival game (like there wasn't an overabundance of those already) set in a procedurally generated world, inspired heavily by the Norse mythos. You're a dead warrior sent by Odin to the exiled world of Valheim to take care of the baddies locked up there before they cause too much trouble. Start out naked, punch trees, get wood, craft tools, hunt animals, build a home, kill bosses, progress, etc etc
It's best described as a 3d Terraria imo, as the progression is heavily tied into exploration and overcoming challenges (for example you only got the basic wood/stone tools and weapons until you kill the first boss, which unlocks proper mining and smelting, which leads to basic metal tools and weapons, etc) while at the same time having a good bit of base building and crafting tied into the whole process. You get massive buffs from resting in a proper place with a roof over your head and a fire burning nearby, as well as buffs from eating food (bigger and longer lasting buffs from better meals). Your gear also needs to be maintained (tho this doesn't require resources, so it only limits how long you can go on without taking a break of sorts) and upgraded from time to time. There's a fairly developed building system that takes into account physics somewhat, so you have to build supports and the like to not have your dwelling collapse on your ass, fairly intuitive in how it communicates this in terms of tinting pieces depending on how sturdy their support is. You can go sailing about since the world is fairly large, dungeon diving as well since there's certain stuff you only get from there.
The combat itself is fairly decent and has some depth, but not without jankiness that most early access/indie games have at release. There's different weapons, blocking/parrying, dodging, all the bells and whistles. Progression in terms of skills is basically do thing to get better at thing, making it more efficient or damaging or what have you. Your hp/stamina is fixed however and the only way to increase it is by eating/resting, basic food gives small buffs, cooked and more complex meals give long lasting and large increases, further encouraging having a proper base of operations so you can get buffed enough to handle some of the nastier enemies.
Death is temporary, you drop all your shit and lose a certain amount of skill levels (but then get temporary immunity to further loss), plus getting your stuff back gives you a corpse run buff which is nice from getting away from whatever kicked your ass in the first place. Another similarity to Terraria is how characters are handled, you make your guy/gal and then you can generate a seed based world for them. Any gear you have on you you can take to other worlds, and since most shit doesn't respawn, making multiple worlds to farm certain things seems to be a viable tactic.
Also there's coop, makes shit harder, but from the looks of it, having multiple people does help quite a bit.
Anyways, I can't think of anything else off the top of my head to say. Played several hours, it was fairly enjoyable, the graphics are a bit dated but what it lacks in fidelity it more than makes up for in atmosphere (weathering a rainstorm is fucking cool). It's fairly cheap right now too at some 20$ or your equivalent, especially once you realize how much stuff is in there already and that this is just their first EA version, with more shit to come down the road.
So yeah, Valheim, anyone else hooked on it?