4Game

And it's not even a genre I liked. Minecraft? It's fun from time to time, but not my thing, way too "cubic" if you know what I mean. Rust and other survival games? Always felt super clunky and funky to me. Open world games in general? Unless I have ways of teleporting or travelling super fast, or unless the world is actually pretty immersive… blegh.

Valheim? It's a game I didn't know I needed in my life. The theme is awesome. Art direction is pretty damn good, as the worlds are beautifully generated. It might not be as freeform as some of its counterparts when it comes to building, but it's a worthy sacrifice for the sake of theme and focus of gameplay. Speaking of gameplay: RPG-like progression that doesn't need to feel like a grind: it's genuinely relaxing and fun to just mess around and build a little village or cottage if that's what you wish. There's no rush for anything, it's just a beautiful adventure.

I don't know, maybe other games implement this as well and I never gave them the opportunity, but something about this game feels just right: there's fantasy without falling into many clichés of DnD, it's just straight up norse mythology (therefore based in Europe, which is always refreshing), the visuals that somehow manage to blend high-tech graphics with low-poly models… I don't know man. It's just beautiful.