Recent reviews by Northern Airship

I haven't been this into a game since high school. I've seen plenty of comments likening this game to a combination of Minecraft, Skyrim, Rust, and Darksouls. I would agree with that assessment.

I won't repeat what others have said here, but my favorite part about the game (which also appears to be unmentioned in the recent comments) is the management of usefulness. In pretty much every survival game, you reach a point where you have chests and chests full of some item that you have absolutely no use for. But you get it every time you do something trivial and so it piles up (e.g. rotten flesh in Minecraft). I have yet to reach that point for any item in Valheim. Either it's relative hard to obtain (and thus you only get it if you intentionally seek it out), or it will have multiple uses spaced throughout the progress. For example, when I started out I realized hunting deer and boars was a great way to get some good food. But then I acquired more food than I needed and so I figured "I probably don't need more raw meat". Only later did I discover that charring raw meat over a fire is the only way to get coal without a wood kiln, which is hard to get before the first boss. So I had to go out again and stockpile the raw meat. Only to find out later that you can use it to create sausages, which is an even better food. And I'm sure it will play a role in some other useful way later on.

All in all, 10/10 game. I've been so bored with videogames over the past few years and constantly find myself returning to the same favorites. This is the first new title I've really gotten hooked by. Absolutely worth the $20, and feels like a steal given that the game isn't even out of EA yet.

Over 10 years later, and it's still one of my favorites. PC or console, this game rocks. I'll admit, it hasn't aged incredibly. The people look really weird compared to modern RPG's, the combat mechanics are not as immersive as they are today, there's only one voice actor per race/sex, and "cities" never have more than two dozen or so residents. That being said, quests and storytelling are still engaging and interesting. Quests are diverse enough that you don't get bored into the late stages and sometimes provide an additional incentive to complete a quest other than just the material reward. The world looks amazing, especially the night sky. And the music is absolutely unforgettable.

All in all a fantastic series. Excellent precursor to LiS. A must play for any 90s or 00s gamer.

Let me first start off by saying that I have played Unturned since its release several years ago and have come back to it every few months or so to binge a weekend.

Despite my thumbs down, I think this is a great game - it certainly has incredible potential and much more. The cozy graphics, simple but calming gameplay, and ease of UI are among many of the reasons why I keep coming back to it.

But that's just it.... I have to keep coming BACK to it, each time hoping that one seemingly small but incredibly significant area has changed: crafting.

Crafting is currently a nightmare in this game. The menu is confusing as all hell. Many items that should be beginner level and are beginner level in other games (think "Chest" or "Door") require large amounts of time and menial grinding locating and chopping down a specifc kind of tree, hauling them back to your base, using that ENTIRE tree to essentially build a couple of small planks, and then repeating this process five or six times to get the desired item. I know that this game is early access and its one dude (Serious Kudos to him) masterminding everything, but I feel as if the crafting mechanism breaks the game right now. Let me clarify something: I am not complaining about having to grind. It is simply the kind of grinding this game incorporates. Fighting endless hoards of zombies and looting abandoned derelict military bases again and again for a small chance of finding a heavy duty gun or combat armor is enjoyable. Spending thirty minutes chopping down trees to build a single chest is not enjoyable.

I think that this game has had enormous potential for quite some while, and it is so very close to reaching that perfection. It is because of how close this game is to completion that I am writing this review, and I have seen others do the same.

tl;dr The game is nearly perfect. Crafting is almost unusuable and nearly breaks the entire game because of this. If crafting were refined, this game would likely become one of the classics.

Very fun game!

For those who like strategy games, this is for you! Makes you think like Civ games, but has that awesome fantasy atmosphere. Would highly reccomend!