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Introduction
Valheim is a survival game set in the viking era (793 A.D. - 1066 A.D.) where you can play either single player or multiplayer with up to 10 friends. In Valheim the game will have you exploring, crafting, building, and fighting to survive in a world that’s full of goblins, skeletons, and oozes who want you dead. Most third person survival games are extremely open-ended, and while Valheim will let you go anywhere you want, it’s extremely difficult to survive in later locations without gear that is decisively progression-gated. Valheim sounds like any other survival game on the surface. But, once you dive into it and go a bit deeper, you’ll see that it’s unlike anything else on the market.
Your character will be flown to the starting area and there you will meet the bird, Huggie, who will act as your guide through the world. The story follows you, a viking warrior who is dropped into the realm of Valheim by a Valkyrie. Valheim is the 10th realm of Norse Mythology in which all the terrible creatures live, and even the gods are terrified of it. It is your duty as the warrior to slay all of the vicious monsters and turn Valheim into an inhabitable realm where you can live out the remainder of your life in peace. Your main long-term goal is to progress through and kill each of the bosses. Each boss that you kill, puts you into a new era, starting with the “Stone Age” and moving forward into the “Bronze” and “Iron Age”. Throughout your journey, you take smaller steps to get you to where you need to be to fight each of these bosses and beat the game. The progression is super unique for a survival game and that’s the first thing that makes it so awesome.

The Survival System
When you first start in Valheim, survival is very similar to most survival games. Gather gear, food and resources, construct a “starter” base and then proceed on your way through the realm/world of Valheim. But, as you progress, defeat bosses and proceed to harder area’s of the game, you will need to unlock better “skills” and acquire stronger gear to survive in these areas. Otherwise, for most casual players, you will most likely die in these areas.
Valheim players can spend hours constructing cabins, fortresses, or an entire village without having to worry about hunger and thirst which I really enjoy compared to say Minecraft where eating is a main component or survival. Increasing stamina through food can help expedite the process, but players are able to do so because they actually want to rather than have to. And because players' characters experience Valheim as fallen warriors, not eating doesn't break the game's immersion.
Obtaining higher quality food in Valheim can be difficult, but is essential for fighting strong enemies, such as Valheim's goblin-like Fulings, which drop precious resources like Black Metal scraps. It's advisable for players to stock up and store food whenever possible, especially those with high base stats, like Lox Meat Pie or Serpent Stew, to prepare for these encounters. These recipes require ingredients that can be hard to get, like Barley Flour or Serpent Meat. Yet, because Valheim's survival system deals away with maintaining hunger, acquiring these items is more of a fun challenge than a monotonous pain.
In a world of Viking and Norse lore, it makes sense that death is not the end of your adventures in Valheim. Upon death, the player drops a tombstone and useful death marker that points back to where you met your untimely end. Sometimes the trek back to your tombstone isn't a difficult one. You might have been accidentally crushed by a falling tree a few steps from your base. No problem. You can run over and get your full inventory back in a few minutes. On the other hand, you might have fallen foul of one of Valheim's more intimidating monsters several miles from your home base.
But like most survival games, if you die in Valheim you will lose everything. No equipment (your silver gear, your trusty cape) and no meads or other items. This means the journey back to your tombstone is always going to be a difficult one, particularly if you died many miles from your base. It might be the case that you simply have to rebuild. Start afresh. This is easier to stomach if the gear you dropped wasn't that rare or interesting, but sometimes just getting back to basics is the best way to eventually retrieve your gear at a later date. Valheim is harsh, you just have to roll with it. But that is entirely up to you.

The Biomes
The biomes in the game are tiered, with some regions being harder than others and requiring you to get geared up before you adventure into them. While that may sound repetitive, it really isn’t because the world is still procedurally generated and there’s quite a bit to explore with your first few playthroughs. I will say, however, that by the time you finish your first few playthroughs of the game, the exploration probably won’t be as exciting to you. But, I'm sure that will change soon considering the game is in early access.

The Crafting System
The crafting system is interesting, as it’s not a traditional “earn skills points and unlock skills”. Instead, you’ll be awarded new recipes for completing certain things or upgrading your workbench. I kind of like it this way, as it adds some mystery to the game and you’re not sure what you’ll unlock next.
The Combat System
Combat in Valheim is remarkably simple, and offers very little in terms of audio-visual feedback or player engagement, which is pretty par for the course in the survival genre.The one thing I will say is there’s a lack of a targeting action and swinging any of your weapons will drain your stamina quickly. Normally, that wouldn’t be a bad thing, but some of the enemies are pretty jerky with their movements and like to constantly be on the move while fighting them, making them quite annoying. Fights can take some patience to get used to, but once you fight these enemies enough, they can be fought with ease to an extent.
The game uses a parry combat system similar to Dark Souls or God of War and once you master it, the fights in my opinion become much more fun. As you come across bigger and better enemies such as the trolls in the Black Forest, blocking their attacks becomes necessary because these guys will definitely murder you if you aren’t careful. You can come at them with Bows, Swords, Spears, axes, and some other weapons that are pretty impressive later on in the game. Depending on what you use, your gameplay style will change
The Leveling System
Leveling in Valheim is closer to games like Romancing SaGa or The Elder Scrolls IV: Using a skill improves that skill. Want to increase your blocking skill? Strap on a shield and let things wail on you. Want to level woodcutting? You’ll need to equip and axe and chop until you drop. Players have a huge variety of actions to do, as well, as you can tame animals such as wolves, or practice agriculture. Cooking to prepare food, mead, and other items that can fill your stomach and boost your resistances and health is also quite important.
Building System
Similar to Ark: Survival Evolved. Valheim uses a “snapping” based system/design when it comes to building. At first it was a bit hard to work with and understand. However, the more I played it, the more I came to appreciate how it works. You have full and absolute freedom for the most part of how you build your base. For a game that isn’t completely sandbox like MInecraft or Terraria with blocks that can be mined infinitely and in any order, there is still a lot that you can do if you become creative enough. There are simple items like floors, walls, pillars and more alike, but you can rotate and combine them in unique ways to make your creation super cool. All base building works off a stability system, where if you don't have a solid foundation, everything can start to fall and your house can collapse. Thus it’s important to focus on the quality of you