I have been playing Mineraft since stone age and Valheim since it's debut, but I had not played Terraria, so when I picked it up, I was for a little shock, and saw a lot of similarity with Valheim and understand that some inspirations come from that direction.
After a bit of playing, I just could not keep from comparing those games with each other, so I want to share my experience with others, and maybe hope for some future expansions for Valheim.
So here is the comparison in my experience with these games, beginning from The Obvious:
Completed state:
Valheim is obviously still in early access, but the other two although still in development, feel complete
Terraria > Minecraft >>> Valheim
Immersion:
On the other hand this is the newer game with better visual tech behind it, as you spend your time in a full 3d environment with true polygons vs the voxels of Minecraft vs the pixels of Terraria, seen from far away.
Valheim has such great visual effects like the beautiful lighting effects, and the perfect transition between the biomes and great day and night cycles and the like.
Valheim >> Minecraft >>> Terraria
Exploration:
In this category, Minecraft v1.18 has the absolute upper hand.
You explore a near infinite 3d world with lots of different vista, which has a lot more variance than Valheim and more immersion than Terraria's 2d Landscape, and is much bigger than both.
You can dig right down beneath your house, and probably reach a huge underground cavern complex with great variety and hanging vines with glowing flowers, or pools of lava or water flowing in from somewhere above, and explore the caverns until you reach chasms, dungeons, minerals, monsters, underwater grottoes, and enter another area of new wonders and so on…
In comparison, Valheim has just a surface area, although beautiful and great to explore, but no interconnected underground places to explore, and no overhang, or something like that, but the random ruins and structures that we find are great.
Terraria is a bit more like Minecraft as you can dig down anywhere and would reach underground places, but it is 2d seen from outside, so the exploration lacks a bit of needed immersion and the surprise factor, and it's a lot more restricted in what environments and structures we can find.
And then there is the Nether and the End World in Minecraft.
Minecraft >> Terraria >> Valheim
Environmental changes:
You know, the actions and events that change the environment.
Valheim has some great effects like the beautiful snow cover effect, or the weathering of the wooden structure, and the buildings and structures that you can create, and the plants and trees that yoiu can grow, and the like, but it is a lot behind the other two games.
For instance, you can not actually dig a tunnel in the ground or the mountain side to create an overhang and cannot make a flowing river or lava, and the like.
In minecraft as you transform the landscape, some dirt would gradually get covered in grass and some overhanging vines would appear, not to say about the growing of the plants and trees.
In this category, Terraria is the absolute winner, as it has all those effects, but a lot more, as some parts of the world would gradually get more and more corrupted, or hellish, and after a certain stage of the game, the whole world would transform and a new era would arise with new biomes and monsters and the hard mode would begin, with new bosses to defeat.
Water and lava flows feel much more natural in that game, and other environmental changes are more developed.
Terraria >> Minecraft >> Valheim
Progress:
One of the things that I love in games is the sense of progress throughout the game and Valheim has done it right, as you progress through those difficulty tiers between the different biomes, and defeat their bosses.
In comparison, Minecraft is a lot more casual and the sense of progress is in your crafting achievements and your building masterpieces and the like, also exploring the Nether and the End World and beating the end boss.
On the other hand, Terraria feels a lot more complete in this category, with a lot of tiers to beat and bosses that progressively become harder to beat.
One clever achievement of Terraria is the hard mode, as it lets the developers reuse the same environments and biomes for the next era of the progression tiers, without it becoming repetitive and boring, as there is enough changes in the whole world to make it a new experience.
The environment would change and become harder to survive, the mobs become harder and new bosses are available to defeat and conquer new eras.
Terraria >> Valheim >> Minecraft
>>-=[Suggestion]=-<<
I know, Valheim developers want each monster feel different than others, but still they had the clever idea of starred mobs that are a bit different than their normal counterparts and are higher level in difficulty.
But reusing the same environments for a next tier of difficulty after the final boss can be really interesting and would add new experience to the old game with relatively less effort than adding new biomes.
For instance, after defeating the last boss, there can be a cut scene and after that all the biomes can change a bit, and new exotic plants could grow, with new ingredients, and also new types of ore veins can appear from the ground, probably in areas less affected by players.
New tiers of mobs can begin to spawn, maybe even the same monster types but with more stars and different skin colors, and new tiers of bosses can become available for each biome.
The lighting and environmental effects of each biome can change and become more ominous, or exotic, and the weather patterns can change and new weather types can appear, like blight storms of Morrowind, or rad storms of fallout 4.
If biomes become darker and gloomier, then the new plants and mobs can have glowing parts, and new exotic passive spawns can appear, like fireflies and wisps that would have new ingredients for the better meals for the harder times.
After defeating the real final boss, the environmental lighting and weather patterns can revert to the previous state or maybe change to new exotic state to reflect your victory, but the mobs can still remain in their harder state.
These transformations can be relatively less tasking for the developers to make, compared to making whole new biomes, but would double the longevity of their game without it becoming repetitive and boring, and would be quite worth the effort.
Content creation:
When comparing what we can create in these games, there is no doubt that we can make great looking castles or villages in Valheim and it is a great medium to create stunning masterpieces.
Visually it can easily beat Minecraft's voxels and Terraria's pixels, by far.
But working with voxels and pixels is easier, although the end result is less rewarding, but you can stick those blocks together as you like with no restrictions.
On the other hand Minecraft has some mechanisms that are by far more superior to the other games.
You can create actual freaking working computers or factories in that game's environment using the available resources, and achieve things that is not remotely possible in the other two games, and that opens up a whole world of possibilities for content creation.
Minecraft >> Valheim >> Terarria
NPCs:
Interaction with non-player characters can be fun and rewarding, and Valheim is lacking in this category.
Terraria has far more NPC types that we can encounter and interact with.
Minecraft has less variety, but they are encountered in randomly generated villages throughout the surface area or in the Nether, which is great.
Valheim has a talking crow guide, and a merchant.
Terraria > Minecraft >>> Valheim
Casual enjoyment:
I like grinding on the games, but it has to be balanced, and I say Valheim has a pretty balanced grind cycle for each tier of difficulty.
But Minecraft has less grind and can be more accessible for the players who want to just have some fun times and it requires less dedication.
Terraria requires the most dedication and grind in these games, so:
Minecraft >> Valheim >> Terraria
My overall experience:
Well, I'm always a lone wanderer in my games and do not play multiplayer games. This is why I like Bethesda games so much.
I know that Valheim is best experienced with friends, and this has affected my enjoyment in the game, and maybe my overall enjoyment could be different with some friends.
My overall enjoyment of the games:
Minecraft >> Valheim >>> Terraria.
Terraria gets low grades, because of the required amount of dedication and grind, and the less immersion because of the 2d environment seen from far away, but it has some great ideas that Valheim can use to become a better experience.
I know that Valheim has the best multiplayer experience of the three games, because it encourages cooperation and fair play, and it discourages griefing and foul play, but currently it is not a factor in my final score.
So what is your experience in these games, if you have played them?
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/valheim/comments/rlakxk/comparison_of_3_great_games_valheim_minecraft_and/
