It's taken me long enough, but I finally got around to playing Valheim recently, Iron Gate Studio's surprise survival sandbox hit. It made quite a splash when it was released in early access a couple of years ago, selling five million copies in one month, but I pretty much ignored it, dismissing it as just another of the dozens of survival-crafting games that follow in Minecraft's hallowed footsteps.
I've never really been into survival games, you see. I tried for the longest time to get into Minecraft during its early days, but I just couldn't do it. I loved the sense of freedom, and the eureka moments that came with discovering a new recipe or blueprint were a real rush, but it wasn't enough to keep me going. The responsibility was what wore me down.
Games like Minecraft do very little player training, and the onus is on the player to make their own fun. I had the same problem playing Terraria. Once I'd dug myself a hole and made sure I had all the basic tools, my mind went completely blank. The possibilities were endless, and I found that completely overwhelming.
But after years of largely ignoring games like Don't Starve, Rust, and The Forest, I decided to give Valheim a try. I had heard that it was doing things a little differently, and frankly, I was just curious to see what all the fuss was about. It came out of nowhere and took Steam by storm, so it had to be doing something right, didn't it?
First impressions were a little mixed. I did appreciate how straightforward the basic premise was. You are a fallen Viking, trapped in Valheim, a world where warriors must prove themselves worthy of entry into Valhalla by slaying the enemies of Odin - six bosses who the player must track down and brutally murder with whatever weapons they can craft or scavenge.
On the other hand, there was still a lot of the traditional survival game rigmarole to deal with. You know the deal: wake up in the wilderness with no clothes on, start smacking trees until you can build some stuff to help you smack trees with greater speed and efficiency. Then, once you've got yourself into a nice tree-smacking groove, you build a house and work your way up the myriad tech trees on offer.
Should I focus on crafting armour and weapons? Do I need to build a boat? Is it too early to build a house? I could feel myself starting to get overwhelmed, but the premise and the visuals had drawn me in enough that I wanted to see what this game had to offer. To that end, I decided to knock together a spear and shield and set off to see what lay in wait over the horizon.
I've alluded to this already, but despite the fairly basic graphics, Valheim really is a beautiful game, and my little trip into the unknown really gave me a chance to appreciate that. Looking up at the twisted branches of Yggdrasil, which fill the entire sky, is simply awe-inspiring, and the way the sunlight plays on the ocean is delightful. The creature designs display a nice level of imagination too, from the lowly grey-dwarfs, to the huge, terrifying trolls.
It was an encounter with the latter beast that actually got me hooked. I was just starting to feel confident; I'd established a home base, complete with bed, crafting table, and cooking station, and I had managed to craft a full set of armour, as well as a bow and arrow. I could hunt deer and boar for a steady food supply, and none of the smaller monsters in the area posed a real threat.
One day while out exploring, however, I came across the remains of a small village on the edge of a forest. The houses were dilapidated, and the only signs of life were a few deer that scarpered as soon as I arrived. It looked like a perfect opportunity for a spot of looting. Some houses contain chests, which usually have a few useful materials stuffed inside.
Fairly routine stuff, but as I went about my business I heard a noise from the nearby forest, and looked up just in time to see a 20-foot troll charging out of the undergrowth straight toward me. This was the first time I had seen a troll, and it took me completely by surprise. I only just managed to roll out of the way of its first swing with its club, which sailed over my head and shattered a nearby tree.
The battle that followed was utterly exhilarating. One blow from the troll would have been enough to kill me instantly, but I stayed calm, using my bow and arrow while out of range, and carefully baiting then punishing the trolls' attacks. Once it was all over, I felt a rush that I can only compare to the one I get downing a boss in Dark Souls.
That's when I knew I was all-in on Valheim.
Unlike a lot of survival games, Valheim is part action-RPG - a genre I'm a huge fan of. The battle with the troll, and later the battles with the game's bosses, really do feel like something FromSoftware might have come up with. What this means is that all the exploring and crafting is in service of something that is fun for its own sake: the combat. You craft better gear so that you take on tougher enemies, which is worth doing because it's fun, not just so you can say you did it, or so that you have something nice to look at while you're out gathering materials to make even more new gear.
Valheim's winning formula is multifaceted. First, it's a surprisingly brutal game. It isn't afraid to throw a troll at new players and see what happens, and that's before you get to any of the actual boss fights, which are even tougher. There's satisfaction in victory, and the game is able to generate some truly compelling organic story moments.
There are still parts of Valheim that I struggle with (knowing what and when to craft), but the promise of new and exciting things to see, especially since the Mistlands update, and the strength of the core gameplay, keeps me coming back. It provides the missing piece of the puzzle that has finally made this genre click for me. Perhaps one day I will finally be worthy of Odin's patronage.