Valheim

A fantasy sandbox with survival elements. You can play alone or with others, exploring the world and gathering resources, finding and raiding tombs, building bases, and creating increasingly powerful weapons and armor, defeating various enemies, monsters, and bosses. The setting of the early Scandinavian Middle Ages has become a strong point of the project.

According to Scandinavian mythology, mortal and divine beings inhabit nine worlds. Humans live in Midgard, while gods like Odin reside in Asgard. Valheim is a wild tenth realm that even the gods fear.

The main character is a Viking, wounded in one of the battles but unworthy of a place in Valhalla. He would rot in Helheim, but by Odin's command, Valkyries transport dying warriors to Valheim. There, they must earn a place in Valhalla through hard work and victory over terrifying creatures, Odin's enemies, and transform Valheim into a hospitable place.

Unlike Minecraft, Valheim has a narrative divided into a main storyline and side quests. The player receives instructions and specific goals, completing which advances the story further. Occasionally, the raven Huginn visits the player, delivering messages from Odin.

You cannot get stuck on survival or building and ignore the plot. Only after defeating a certain boss or completing a quest do new gameplay opportunities and areas of the world open up.

At the time of its early access release, Valheim did not have a large and extended plot; it was added closer to the release of the full version of the game.

Following Viking mythology, Valheim appears as a flat, round, watery world with many islands. At its edge is the land's end in the form of an endless waterfall. At the beginning of each new game, a unique map is created through procedural generation, filled with scattered islands of various shapes and sizes in the ocean.

The islands are divided into biomes — forests and meadows, swamps, plains, mountains, northern lands, etc., totaling 10. Each biome offers a unique combination of nature, climate, resources, enemies, and useful loot.

There are places where the air is poisonous or there is severe frost. Visiting them requires preparation and crafting protective items. The ocean acts as a standalone biome, filled with dangerous aquatic creatures. The world is so vast that fully exploring it will take several hundred hours.

At the time of early access, Valheim had almost no unique content; all points of interest (altars, runes, dungeons, fortresses, etc.) were procedurally generated. The bestiary consisted of both well-known animals (wolves, deer, boars) and fantasy monsters — trolls, goblins, skeletons, walking trees, trolls, dragons, giant sea krakens, and others.

The improved physics of Valheim takes into account the weight of objects, the strength of structures, collision angles, and air movement. A felled tree can crush the player while simultaneously destroying their base, or it may break a couple of other trees. A house built without the necessary supports will collapse. A fire lit in a house without a chimney will quickly fill the interior with smoke, causing the character to start choking.

Like in other games of the genre, in Valheim the hero finds himself in an inhospitable world with bare hands. At first, he ensures his survival in the most primitive way — gathering berries, running with a club, and living in a hut.

Later, the player explores the world, finds new resources, begins hunting wildlife, and can craft a bow, arrows, an axe, and armor. Over time, stone and bone tools give way to bronze, and then to items made of iron and precious metals.

Most items are crafted using a workbench, the most important element of gameplay — only within its radius can full buildings be constructed, and enemy spawns cease. In addition to the workbench, there are other crafting stations; for instance, metal can be extracted through a smelter, and weapons and armor can be made at the forge.

Crafting stations can also be upgraded, unlocking new crafting possibilities. However, creating advanced weapons and tools is impossible without rare materials, which must be obtained from tough enemies and bosses.

The character itself can also be leveled up. Progression in Valheim is done a la Skyrim: the more often the player performs an action, such as running or fighting with a spear, the higher the level of that action, meaning they can run longer and faster or deal more damage with the spear. Even running around a hut or striking a rock counts as practice.

Valheim differs by allowing players to be hungry all the time without leading to death. Food increases health and stamina, the two main character attributes, as well as boosts healing speed and activates health regeneration. However, one cannot eat the same thing all the time; variety is necessary.

Valheim offers not only single-player but also cooperative game modes. The difficulty increases with the number of players. Surviving alone is easy, but in cooperation with a friend, the difficulty becomes medium, and with three or more participants, it becomes high. Up to 10 players can be on one server.

All cooperative participants have the same tasks and quests but can distribute them: one tames and breeds animals, another digs in the garden, the third fishes, the fourth mines ore, and the fifth transports it back to base.

While the sun shines, players need to hunt, gather resources, craft necessary items, and fortify the base. With the onset of night, they must defend themselves — wild animals and enemies become more aggressive, there will be more of them, and their behavior will change. For instance, wolves will start to form huge packs, and defeating them alone will prove challenging.

Without a fortified base, no player or team of players can manage. It is a safe place to store all gathered resources, crafted tools, weapons, and armor. Building is an important aspect of Valheim; even in early access, players could construct outposts and full-fledged fortresses throughout the tenth world.

In Valheim, there is a "Player versus Player" mode, which is enabled when setting up the server. However, balance and mechanics were only refined in the full version of the game, as player confrontations are a secondary task compared to other game features.