The emergence of survival crafting games has been a relatively recent phenomenon, but it’s easy to understand why they’re popular. The idea of desperately clinging to survival in a situation without modern conveniences is just very compelling, and as an avid viewer of Naked and Afraid I have to be counted as part of the target audience. I am rather picky with survival games though, requiring something special to keep me hooked. So far only ARK and The Long Dark have truly managed it, but were both rewarded with hundreds of hours of my time. I wasn’t sure what to expect when first dipping my toes into Valheim, but it turns out there’s a reason it’s so popular.
At this point Valheim is already one of the most successful games in years, but going into the 1.0 release I actually had no idea what to expect. I’d seen screenshots on store pages and heard some of the hype, but really I was going in blind. Knowing the genre I went in with fairly low expectations, because survival jank is more than a little common. Even fully released titles like ARK still have plenty of bugs and systems that feel cumbersome, and I was delighted to see that Valheim isn’t at all like this.
Set in a Norse inspired world, Valheim plops you into the game with one goal – slay all the evil creatures and reclaim this place for the gods. Usually this would mean diving into battle with a badass blade and shining armour, but here all you start with is a grubby pair of undies. You’ll need to work your way up to greatness in true survival fashion, by making tools and gathering materials.
Whereas many survival games require levelling or experimentation to unlock crafting recipes, Valheim makes it simple. Any time you pick up a new material you’ll be given all the recipes it involves, be it a deer hide or a simple rock. From there it’s nothing you haven’t seen before, where you’ll start by picking up debris to make an axe, chop down trees, and eventually build a functional base with a workshop and a bed to relax in. It’s a rewarding loop, implemented to near perfection.
I’m making it sound like I had an easy time breezing through these early hours, but that’s glossing over some spectacular failures. My very first death wasn’t to an angry wild boar or a pesky greyling, it was to a tree that I cut and let roll me into a pancake. My next death was due to smoke inhalation, as I sealed my home perfectly and choked to death while stuck behind my bed. To this day my base is near impossible to navigate without taking damage, because I crammed the fire in the middle of the room and you have to dodge roll past it to get to the door. I love that all the elements of the game lead to emergent moments like this, even if they make me look like a complete bellend.
The building is very freeform in Valheim, without the same snapping into place that similar games often utilise. This means you can be creative with your designs and make truly wonderful and/or horrific structures, as long as you’ve got the resources and patience to pull them off. For me it often just meant that my bases looked a little ugly when I misplaced stuff, but I was more bothered about a functional home than a pretty one.
As you’d probably expect from an outcast world of Norse origin, Valheim is a pretty dangerous place. You’ll need to craft the best bows and swords to take on the toughest monsters, or at least a particularly well upgraded club. Combat is simple but effective, with the ability to block hits or dodge roll away to use up stamina instead of losing health. You’ll be really tested in your skills when you brave a boss encounter too, because these fire off tough area of effect attacks and nasty counter whacks at a ridiculous rate.
Surpassing any other game in this genre I’ve played, the progression in Valheim is just wonderful. When you defeat bosses you’ll gain new materials that help you brave new biomes, or eventually harvest new materials. You’ll also gain a powerful ability that buffs you in a few ways, like the damage reduction power or the speed boosting one. Even when you aren’t fighting bosses you’ll always be getting more powerful and efficient as a survivor too, with all sorts of skills that level up as you go about your daily business. You’ll constantly get pop ups telling you that your running and woodcutting is improving, providing that sweet dopamine hit we all know and love.
Valheim is one of the most polished and playable survival games I’ve ever played, and the 1.0 version is a culmination of many updates and changes throughout the early access period. There’s been a new final area added with the toughest environment and enemies, and I’m sure plenty of other smaller fixes I don’t even know about have been implemented in this “release” build update, too.
I’ve had a great time surviving in the Norse nightmare that is Valheim, but I must admit it still has a few issues. The visuals are particularly lo-fi, and even for someone who loves a retro aesthetic it took some letting used to. If you’re playing solo too it can feel pretty slow paced, with hours often spent harvesting specific materials in a session before you can craft the single upgrade you want. Multiplayer absolutely lets you share the load with this though, and makes survival a bit less stressful to boot.
I was, frankly, blown away by Valheim, and really didn’t expect to love it as much as I do. I’m already planning to start over with my husband and survive for hundreds more hours, and it’s usually hard to tear him away from Dead by Daylight. It’s easy to see how Valheim became such a huge success story, and if you somehow haven’t tried it yet then 1.0 is the perfect reason to.
