Valheim [REVIEW] – A Fantastic Norse Survival Experience

The survival crafting genre is INCREDIBLY crowded, so much so that my own six-year-old daughter is invested (I’m looking at you, 99 Nights in the Forest). Valheim has always managed to stand out from the pack though, and even during its early access days, it has been a big favourite amongst gamers thanks to the depth of its gameplay and sheer creativity that it offered. And now, with the official 1.0 release finally here, it manages to deliver upon everything it had been building, offering an impressively polished and gripping adventure that EASILY ranks among the best in the business.

Check out some screenshots down below:

Valheim puts players in the role of a fallen Viking warrior, but instead of waking up to a glorious, endless feast in the afterlife, you are dumped into a hostile, untamed realm. The gods have effectively tasked you with cleaning up their messes, giving you a checklist of legendary monsters to hunt down to restore order to this severed world… not quite Valhalla, right? It offers a satisfying and purposeful excuse to explore though, whilst the constant nods to Norse mythology – including a shadowy, one-eyed figure watching your progress from the woods – makes you feel like you genuinely are a… well… Viking. I loved it.

The core gameplay loop starts simply enough with players punching trees, picking up rocks, and doing the sort of typical resource gathering expected of the genre, but it scales up beautifully. Instead of forcing you to navigate confusing skill trees or resort to blind trial and error as you build up your skills, the game intuitively unlocks crafting recipes the moment you pick up a required material for the first time. It immediately makes the craft system all the more accessible, allowing you to figure out exactly what you need to progress (and giving an indicator of what sort of resources you need to be focusing on).

And believe me, with a large emphasis on building a camp, it feels essential. The construction tools give you loads of freedom, allowing for complex, multi-story designs, provided you factor in structural physics so your roof does not cave in (it’ll happen, trust me). You also have to think about ventilation, as placing a fire indoors without a chimney will quickly end your adventure via smoke inhalation… yeah, Valheim isn’t for the faint-hearted. One of my favourite things in the genre is simply making a home that looks good, is functional, and feels personal, and Valheim absolutely delivers upon that. It offers so much depth, but thanks to the aforementioned ease of crafting and knowing what exactly you need, it never feels overwhelming… it’s just fun.

“Valheim is simply brilliant, with the joy of building your encampment, exploring its gorgeous world, surviving epic battles against Norse monstrosities, and the pure excitement of sailing treacherous seas helping make for a thrilling survival experience.”

There’s also the fact that you’ll need a pretty good base because the world outside of it is bloody unforgiving. A core aspect of this comes with the unique food system, which essentially acts as a three-slot inventory for your stomach where different meals dictate your maximum health and stamina. Eating something small might get you through the start of the game, but you will need to cook proper meals using ingredients dropped by terrifying monsters if you want to survive the tougher zones. It’s a really unique mechanic that genuinely helps Valheim feel different – and it’ll also mean your culinary skills are just as vital as your combat or building capabilities, especially since your stamina bar dictates absolutely everything you do. Running, jumping, chopping wood, and swinging a sword all drain your energy, and with combat relying heavily on perfectly timed blocks and dodge rolls, you can be left entirely defenceless if you don’t balance things perfectly. Don’t get me wrong, the combat mechanics themselves are straightforward enough so don’t feel too intimidated, but there’s definitely a deceptive strategic nuance required when trying to survive against tougher foes. And if you do suffer a brutal death, you’ll need stamina to sprint back to your gravestone to recover your dropped gear.

Progressing through the game means sailing across vast, procedurally generated oceans to discover new biomes, summon massive overlords, and harvest better materials, with the sense of progress steady and meaningful. Defeating these major bosses not only grants the tools needed to survive the next area but also unlocks permanent buffs that can make tasks like running, logging, or sailing significantly easier, so you do feel the difficulty curve balancing out as you push forward. The catch to all this exploration is that you cannot take precious ores through the fast-travel portals you set up, meaning you have to physically load up a cart or a ship’s hold and manually transport your haul back to your base. On one hand, this might sound tedious, but on the other (and more significant hand), it forces you into incredibly tense journeys, battling storms, sea monsters, and everything else that the game can throw at you along the way. I absolutely LOVED these moments, especially when playing with friends (more on that in a bit), with the survival stakes feeling higher than ever… but the victories all the more satisfying.

There’s just so much to love in the game. I still haven’t seen all it has to offer, but with a vast selection of biomes, endless things to craft, and more ferocious foes to face off against, I just can’t stop playing. Best of all, you can play with up to nine friends, making for a truly epic multiplayer experience. There have been three of us on my playthrough, and we’ve had an absolute blast – sure, it could be enjoyable as a solo experience, but having that extra sword in battle, that extra back to carry the load on a resource run, or that extra pair of hands when sailing through a storm makes one hell of a difference. It’s just a fantastic multiplayer experience and one that I have no plans of stepping away from anytime soon.

Check out some screenshots down below:

Visually, the art style of Valheim is an interesting mix of retro, low-resolution textures paired with stunning modern lighting and weather effects – it might sound a little odd on paper, but it creates a remarkably atmospheric world. It definitely feels distinct, though maybe divisive? One of my friends that I was playing with hated the visual style at first, but personally, I was a big fan. It offers more depth and intricacy than titles with a similar aesthetic, whilst the fact that the game is packed with gorgeous vistas is the cherry on top.

Developer: Iron Gate Studio, Fishlabs
Publisher: Coffee Stain Publishing
Platform(s): PlayStation 5 (Reviewed), Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch 2, PC
Website: https://www.valheimgame.com/