When Mistlands came out, I fired up an old save. Found some Mistlands and explored some. Not too worried about deaths, I was rusty and planned on starting a new world. Died after just a few minutes, completely swarmed and punted into a ravine.

Had a blast on a new world and new character. A few frustrating deaths. Going into Mistlands, I knew what to expect, I came prepared with the best gear and the best food. But learning curve and deaths really aren't an issue.

Mistlands is just not fun. I grit my teeth through a ton of difficult deaths and harrowing corpse runs in all of the existing biomes. Super frustrating. But each new biome was enticing, I wanted to explore them. All of them. The combination of ineffective inundating wisplight, horrible (worse than horrible) terrain and learning new enemies and their tactics all at the introduction to the biome is just too much. The terrain is really the breaking point, it's not like Valheim has great verticality gameplay, it's janky, I have died countless times to phantom fall damage. It took me forever just to clamber up and down the terrain to travel a short distance all while I was virtually blind.

I can't imagine having fun at all exploring this biome. Whether enemies are nerfed or not. Whether they even exist or not. The biome just doesn't inspire curiosity. Row after row of impossible obnoxious obelisks jutting haphazardly shrouded in murk. It's just not fun being blind. It's just not fun being imprisoned in impassable terrain. The devs took a game begging you to screenshot and then made you blind. They took a world that begged you to explore and filled it with giant prison walls. It doesn't feel like the same game at all. Mistlands is equivalent to plains if plains was covered entirely by tar pits.

For the first time, I just don't care enough to figure out a way back to my corpse. I have died hundreds of times through four complete playthroughs. I always wanted to make the run back to my corpse and continue playing. There was a ruin on the hill that piqued my curiosity. A knoll that I wanted to explore, a glimpse of a cave or an eerie glow in the swamp. Or the draugr village that I wanted to exact my revenge upon. Enemies and combat are not the draw or the problem with Mistlands. The enemies have always just been hurdles that you need to jump over to continue exploring. I expect a learning curve, new tactics but I really don't care, the enemies become uninteresting (repetitively annoying) rather quickly. The jump in difficulty is not the problem. It does not bother me that I died, I expect it. It bothers me that I don't want to go back like I always have.

Pretty sure that the first thing I did when entering Black Forest for the first time was stopping to take a screenshot. Followed quickly by crapping my pants when I heard a troll stomping towards me. The swamp has an eery calm and mountain sunsets are a beauty to behold. The plains with blowing grasses and leaves. Within 10 minutes of entering a new biome, I start to envision where I want to build. How could testers play Mistlands and not realize that kind appeal was missing? Why would I want to build in Mistlands? Can I even see what I built?

I imagine it's too late for sweeping changes and maybe there is a huge silent majority that loves Mistlands the way it is. I am tired of the "every enemy should one shot you and then teabag you until you get your corpse back" rhetoric that is dominating the discussion about Mistlands. The difficulty curve in all of the other zones is fine, I am guessing that Mistlands is fine too once you learn the tactics. It is the charm, exploration and building that is lacking. I would restrict the black marble obelisk jungles to outcroppings. Put the mist in bug nests (is there such a thing?) and water features (is there such a thing?). Give me something that looks epic the moment I step foot into it. Terrain and features that beg me to explore and build on.

It was a mistake to blind the player. It was a mistake to make the biome impassable. It was a blunder to combine the two and make that the introduction and the totality of the biome. Those things should be the points of interest that draw you further in. That tempt you with reward and punish your greed.

I appreciate the devs dedication and passion but for me, Mistlands strayed too far off course. My Valheim journey ends at Yagluth's altar, Odin will have to find another warrior.