Anyone else read this as “Deep Horth”?

Is that not it?

Call me nuts, but I think I preferred the earlier version of valhiem (pre magic). I’ve played ~300 hours of Valheim (last played 2 years ago) so I’ll definitely give this a go but I’m not pumped.

I haven't played at all since they added magic, so I don't know what to expect. I'm sure there will be some rough spots that need to be sanded down, but I hope it doesn't break the flow of gameplay.

It's a sturdy frame with a diagonal brace. After so much building in Valheim, totally agree that's an H.

Magic is great and it's totally optional. You don't get into magic until after the plains. The melee and non-magical ranged options at Mistlands tier and beyond are super fun, and they've added a lot more content to the early/mid game.

Shoutout to my asshole ex who INSISTED when the game came out in early access that it was already a full release.

No shade to people who enjoy early access games, but I'm glad I waited until now to buy it.

Yeah I wish I waited. I loved it in early access and spent hundreds of hours on it. But I'm one the those people who have a hard time replaying things. I quit before a lot of the later releases and now it would feel like a chore to start over and play through long enough to see the final additions and end game content.

I missed all the hubbub about this game when it first dropped, didn't really catch many streams or let's plays.

What is this game like?
Similar to Minecraft? Spawn in a world and just Go Do Stuff™ ?
Do you get quests? A tutorial when you start a new game?

Thinking about giving it a shot.

It is really good until you get to the ashlands, then it suddenly sucks.

Haven’t played since release, but it is indeed a crafting / survival game.

There is/was a Raven who provides tutorial to get your bearings.

There are quests, but not in the same manner as a big open world RPG / there is no formal quest log.

There are 7 bosses that you’re working your way through each material age to be anle to fight. Advancement largely involves finding and talking to the right NPCs in order to learn how to proceed.

It’s really quite fun, game became a problem for my partner and I as we kept leaving work early to go play and then staying up far too late playing every night. We ate a lot of freezer dinners those first few weeks.

It really did play like a finished game and I would have been happy even if it never evolved past what it was.

Pretty excited to go back and see what 5 years worth of updates did, I stopped playing that first year and told myself I wouldn’t touch it until 1.0

Nah. I'd say give it a other shot. They've done some good balancing on it since it's release. Also keep in mind that's end game content. It's supposed to be more challenging.

Since you haven't gotten a proper response I'll bite:
Yes, it is a crafting survival game. Your progress is marked through the entire game by a helpful raven that will provide tips on how to proceed, but for the most part the game is extremely easy to follow. You start with basic crafting recipes, and move from wood to flint to bronze and so on. The progression is unique in the fact that it requires travel. You'll move from the starter area, to the dark forest, and so on. The worlds are randomly generated so you get a pretty unique experience every time. I've done 4 playthroughs and have never struggled or become frustrated due to being unable to travel to get to the next area. If you were to have issue there's a bounty of info in the wiki, just be careful of spoilers.

Honestly this is one of those games I will def rebuy for friends because the game was worth $30 when it came out, and now I feel is worth 60. There is a ton of content to enjoy, and they've legitimately kept a pretty good pace at development until the last 2 biomes, but obviously that's of no consequence to you as you'll get everything all at once.

My one and only gripe is that the further bosses cannot be soloed easily at all. They're meant for 2+ people. Now, this isn't necessarily a game over as there are hardcore ways of doing it, but it will be slow, require cheesing, and in my opinion is an absolute slog. To remediate THAT though you could also opt for a console command if things get too overwhelming.

I hope you give it a chance. It's a great experience, and of course who doesn't want to run around as a badass Viking?

Magic is just a different type of weapon, it's not particularly crazy. Honestly, I played mage while my friend played a traditional fighter, and she was way stronger than I was, and way easier to upgrade.

I appreciate that, but unless they fixed the water killing you and exploding your boats, I'm out. Every biome in the game was challenging and meeting the challenges was fun. Ashlands just felt like a big "FU for playing" to me.

I did my first playthrough with a buddy this past Spring and I don't recall the water being particularly lethal nor the boats too explodey. It was definitely hellish getting a camp set up but we eventually got in the swing of things. So I think they fixed what you're talking about, unless I somehow just missed it entirely.

I had a lot of fun with it at first, but later on the game has serious balance issues for singleplayer. The bosses have way too much health and you just run around in a circle and shoot them for an hour. If you're playing with friends the bosses are much easier and quicker to defeat. Since I usually play singleplayer, I just use cheats to kill the boss after I get bored of fighting them for so long.

You have to get a special type of boat to go there. If you're using regular boats that's why they are exploding.

This was my pandemic game. I remember paying online with my coworkers as it was one of the only things for us to do. I miss those times.

I’ll have to give it another go. I always lose interest past the Black Forest for whatever reason. I think it’s because I don’t enjoy the swamp as a biome. For casuals like me, or people who don’t want to grind as much, I recommend playing in semi-creative mode: turn on unlimited ressources when building the base, turn it off when exploring. The grind to gather wood and iron gets boring real quick.

Ashlands are hard. I never managed to get the full set of melee armor from there or finish off the boss. I’ll have to try again.

I actually understand because at first, when Ashland's was first released, it was absolutely horrible. Getting there requires a special boat which may have been your issue, but once you got there it was super super hard to make any progress. Did another playthrough this year and it was definitely a more balanced experience.