271hrs spent on the game and game completed as far as can be. Would I recommend this game to others?

Here are some key points that really stand out after some serious time spent in this game:

THE WORST PART...

As someone who appreciates high skill combat where your ability to play is more important than the gear you wear I would normally find this kind of experience rewarding, but with Valheim all it does is lock you into an eternal grind.

Your number one enemy from start to finish is - Stamina. No matter how fancy you make your home, or how much you stock up on potions, the number 1 cause of death will be when stamina runs out and you find yourself unable to escape. This can take many forms:

Big hardy viking warrior tries to swim 10 paces - dies
Climbing a mountain and suddenly an enemy finds you? dies
Get stuck on a tiny incline of land/rock/fallen branch while fighting - dies

In short stamina is the worst part of this game, and also the reason why the first god-power (eikthyr) you acquire is also the best and only one worth taking. As soon as you switch to any other god power you will really miss eikthyr's stamina boost and it's the only power you will miss taking out of all of them. Thus making all other god powers rather worthless.

Speaking of the grind. It is a lot of hard work, you'll lose friends over this ( we did! ) As more people join your game the harder it'll get and the more you'll all need to bring in to keep moving forward, this can lead to people keeping serious tabs on what resources are being spent, and if friends aren't pulling their weight, or if they're just coming on and spending what you gather and they don't want to gather themselves, you can quickly find yourself removing them from the game entirely as Valheim is a mistress that ever thirsts for resources and this time consuming stamina chugging fest will make the game utterly un-enjoyable very fast.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE NOT SO WORST PART BUT STILL PRETTY BAD..

The wizard class is great, but there doesn't seem a reason for it to be implemented so late in the game. There are plenty of ways people could start out straight away as wizards but the dev's for whatever reason have only given you the tools to do so right at the end where really your already very set in to your role as a warrior or archer etc and don't really end up with much time to enjoy being a wizard or like me you completed the game before you gave it a try.

Sailing is amazing fun, it's probably the best part of the game (especially with friends!), but even then the random encounters on the sea are limited to just 2 events, beyond that sailing is just used to transport metal goods. There is no way to add shields to your longboat for added health/defence and you'll find you only do it when you have to.

One of the biggest upsets for me is that no matter how much you progress your character never really grows, his base strength,health,stamina will remain the same no matter how long you've played how much weight you've lifted or how much you've accomplished, and while you may level your item skills like swords/bows etc those levels will drop like crazy over the cost of your stamina-aided-deaths. This can leave you feeling like no matter how much you put in you don't really grow or ever catch up to the difficulty curve of the game, this also leaves players in a position where they are unable to flex their own power and while I personally didn't - i saw many friends turn to friends of there's to give them higher end-game loot to help them power through current areas. In short the way the game really ploughs difficulty and burdens on the players shoulders it encourages them to seek out a cheap-cheaty way to overcome these obstacles as the only legitimate way to progress is the mega-grind!

This also makes going back for your body at later parts of the game much more tricky (deathsquito's can easily pick off a naked player running for their old corpse which has been really upsetting for friends), as even if you eat up well before leaving if you don't leave ample food at your spawn point or even gear to help you recover gear you can effectively lose the ability to get your loot back for a very very long time.

Your inventory will never grow in capacity, all it will ever do is shrink, at some point you can get a belt that lets you carry a greater carry weight, but that belt takes up a slot and you can only use one item of that sort with your char at one time, eg: you have belt of strength or the wishbone active. This is also very frustrating as most games of this nature allow you to get a backpack for example.

The building in this game is great and we've made some truly amazing forts/castles though flattening land can be tricky in places as you can only reduce the land height so much compared to the original height of that land block. so some places you will never be able to get flat to the same height as the rest of the ground you are working on. This can be problematic when building a large base with friends.

It appears the only way the devs know how to make new areas is to make them harder to exist in, rather than fun to explore, especially with Mistlands the terrain was an utter bore to travel back and forth over, I feel previous biomes have been greatly over-looked and much more work could be put into making each biome more special/interesting-varied in means of how they generate content. With more materials and monsters/events/buildings in each of them, so they are less plain and hum-drum to explore.

Overall the game is incredible value for it's money but I personally would rather pay more for a game that is less of a grind and more of an exciting adventure.

=================================================================

some other notes I felt worth making are:

Metal ore/ingots can't pass through portals but you can walk through portals in an entire metal outfit, something that always vexxed me greatly.

For whatever reason people are very happy to spoil what comes next in the game, even joining a friends game can unlock a load of equipment you were unaware of.

Through the game people are used to getting their items and gear to lvl4 but this game ends with items only able to reach lvl2.

There are no steam achievements for this game and ultimately as you play it you kind of get the impression the dev's don't like the players much due to the lack of quality of life improvements in the game and the hardships you are forced to endure.

It's always raining or foggy.

no one likes the raven it'd be great to be able to turn him off.

One handed spears are used like stabby knives with a massive handle, give us a thrust animation over a stab one please.

I think for example in the black forest instead of always swarming the players with grey dwarfs the game could create other experiences for the players, like trees that come to life or just a quiet break from being attacked all the time. Or a giant snake the size of a blue whale slithers through.

I think the game offers a great adventure and it's only down to the lack of content for each released biome that it's not more of an amazing red dead 2 online experience. More focus on old areas would greatly improve the experience over generating harder new ones. And generally the game could just do with more of everything, hopefully one day it gets there and it becomes a truly amazing experience.

271hrs spent on the game and game completed as far as can be. Would I recommend this game to others? Here are some key points that really stand out after some serious time spent in this game: THE WORST PART... As someone who appreciates high skill combat where your ability to play is more important than the gear you wear I would normally find this kind of experience rewarding, but with Valheim all it does is lock you into an eternal grind. Your number one enemy from start to finish is - Stamina. No matter how fancy you make your home, or how much you stock up on potions, the number 1 cause of death will be when stamina runs out and you find yourself unable to escape. This can take many forms: Big hardy viking warrior tries to swim 10 paces - dies Climbing a mountain and suddenly an enemy finds you? dies Get stuck on a tiny incline of land/rock/fallen branch while fighting - dies In short stamina is the worst part of this game, and also the reason why the first god-power (eikthyr) you acquire is also the best and only one worth taking. As soon as you switch to any other god power you will really miss eikthyr's stamina boost and it's the only power you will miss taking out of all of them. Thus making all other god powers rather worthless. Speaking of the grind. It is a lot of hard work, you'll lose friends over this ( we did! ) As more people join your game the harder it'll get and the more you'll all need to bring in to keep moving forward, this can lead to people keeping serious tabs on what resources are being spent, and if friends aren't pulling their weight, or if they're just coming on and spending what you gather and they don't want to gather themselves, you can quickly find yourself removing them from the game entirely as Valheim is a mistress that ever thirsts for resources and this time consuming stamina chugging fest will make the game utterly un-enjoyable very fast. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE NOT SO WORST PART BUT STILL PRETTY BAD.. The wizard class is great, but there doesn't seem a reason for it to be implemented so late in the game. There are plenty of ways people could start out straight away as wizards but the dev's for whatever reason have only given you the tools to do so right at the end where really your already very set in to your role as a warrior or archer etc and don't really end up with much time to enjoy being a wizard or like me you completed the game before you gave it a try. Sailing is amazing fun, it's probably the best part of the game (especially with friends!), but even then the random encounters on the sea are limited to just 2 events, beyond that sailing is just used to transport metal goods. There is no way to add shields to your longboat for added health/defence and you'll find you only do it when you have to. One of the biggest upsets for me is that no matter how much you progress your character never really grows, his base strength,health,stamina will remain the same no matter how long you've played how much weight you've lifted or how much you've accomplished, and while you may level your item skills like swords/bows etc those levels will drop like crazy over the cost of your stamina-aided-deaths. This can leave you feeling like no matter how much you put in you don't really grow or ever catch up to the difficulty curve of the game, this also leaves players in a position where they are unable to flex their own power and while I personally didn't - i saw many friends turn to friends of there's to give them higher end-game loot to help them power through current areas. In short the way the game really ploughs difficulty and burdens on the players shoulders it encourages them to seek out a cheap-cheaty way to overcome these obstacles as the only legitimate way to progress is the mega-grind! This also makes going back for your body at later parts of the game much more tricky (deathsquito's can easily pick off a naked player running for their old corpse which has been really upsetting for friends), as even if you eat up well before leaving if you don't leave ample food at your spawn point or even gear to help you recover gear you can effectively lose the ability to get your loot back for a very very long time. Your inventory will never grow in capacity, all it will ever do is shrink, at some point you can get a belt that lets you carry a greater carry weight, but that belt takes up a slot and you can only use one item of that sort with your char at one time, eg: you have belt of strength or the wishbone active. This is also very frustrating as most games of this nature allow you to get a backpack for example. The building in this game is great and we've made some truly amazing forts/castles though flattening land can be tricky in places as you can only reduce the land height so much compared to the original height of that land block. so some places you will never be able to get flat to the same height as the rest of the ground you are working on. This can be problematic when building a large base with friends. It appears the only way the devs know how to make new areas is to make them harder to exist in, rather than fun to explore, especially with Mistlands the terrain was an utter bore to travel back and forth over, I feel previous biomes have been greatly over-looked and much more work could be put into making each biome more special/interesting-varied in means of how they generate content. With more materials and monsters/events/buildings in each of them, so they are less plain and hum-drum to explore. Overall the game is incredible value for it's money but I personally would rather pay more for a game that is less of a grind and more of an exciting adventure. ================================================================= some other notes I felt worth making are: Metal ore/ingots can't pass through portals but you can walk through portals in an entire metal outfit, something that always vexxed me greatly. For whatever reason people are very happy to spoil what comes next in the game, even joining a friends game can unlock a load of equipment you were unaware of. Through the game people are used to getting their items and gear to lvl4 but this game ends with items only able to reach lvl2. There are no steam achievements for this game and ultimately as you play it you kind of get the impression the dev's don't like the players much due to the lack of quality of life improvements in the game and the hardships you are forced to endure. It's always raining or foggy. no one likes the raven it'd be great to be able to turn him off. One handed spears are used like stabby knives with a massive handle, give us a thrust animation over a stab one please. I think for example in the black forest instead of always swarming the players with grey dwarfs the game could create other experiences for the players, like trees that come to life or just a quiet break from being attacked all the time. Or a giant snake the size of a blue whale slithers through. I think the game offers a great adventure and it's only down to the lack of content for each released biome that it's not more of an amazing red dead 2 online experience. More focus on old areas would greatly improve the experience over generating harder new ones. And generally the game could just do with more of everything, hopefully one day it gets there and it becomes a truly amazing experience.