First take on the game after a few hours.

Hey, Vikings,

Just wanted to share my impressions after 9 hours in Valheim and see if my experience matches other folks. Now, I'm new to the genre, I've played mostly FPS before and this actually is one of my first "survival" games. After hundreds of hours in CoD and BF like games I decided to move on to something less stressful (more on that later, lol) and meditative, and I'm absolutely okay with switching to PvE/coop. I've been seeing Valheim gameplay here and there and finally decided to give it a go, the game being very affordable also helped.

TBH character creation scared me off a bit – despite of having a very good rig, the game looked weird and cheap. Roaming the meadows for a while fixed it though – light and shadow, sounds, fog, all the deer running around – the atmosphere really catches you once you past the ugly textured character on creation screen.

It was pretty difficult to get hold of the building system. Now, I'm not the brightest person, but I played Satisfactory and Subnautica before, and building stuff seems to be much easier there. I can't explain this in detail, but the general feel, UI, how blocks snap to each other felt a tad clunky to me. However, it seems like Valheim gives you more freedom of how you build stuff as well, so probably it's all about learning curve here.

Taking about curves, I am not sure I understand the difficulty curve in this game. After spending several hours on the meadows I equipped myself decently (for a dude who had literally nothing but rag tunic at least) and defeated the first boss. It was not really hard, I was trying to be evasive and took my time with the big bad tesla deer (sorry, I don't remember the name). Then I undertook the expedition to the black forest. And there, even skeletons and blue eyed spooky dwarfs gave me a hard time. I did not even approach the trolls! After dying a couple of times, I managed to clear a couple of nests and a dungeon, but it felt really hard, and despite of mining some bronze ore, I am yet to fine a core for the furnace. I suppose that's how the game works – you have a decent difficulty step each time you move, but it's really steep. I felt safe and confident in the meadows, but black forest feels like a hazard zone for now. On the other hand, despite of ranting about it here, that's what gives me a new challenge to continue, and looking at the popularity of Valheim, looks like it works!

All in all I love the game so far, and I intend to keep exploring the world. Maybe some day I unlock enough items to build a little cozy palace to share it here. Some minor stuff I didn't like does not matter in general, because the enjoyment and the trill is real. Also, I have a plan of tempting my friend with this game. Pretty sure co-op can bring even more fun!

Thanks for reading my hot take review, and I'm happy to join this community.
Cheers!