A little bit of a story I've decided to tell, and what better place than to do so on the forum? If you're looking for a TL;DR or something, unfortunately there won't be for this thread, so just putting that out there :>

A few months ago, I heard about this game and thought it was pretty interesting. Sounded new, different from other Early Access games, bringing something fresh to the genre. Saw some gameplay of 4 or 5 guys fighting a troll with leather and wood equipment, got absolutely stomped on. And it looked quite cool!

Fast forward a few weeks, I've added this game to my wishlist and my birthday comes around. A few weeks after this, my personal friend group absolutely falls apart. I lost a lot of close friends and was betrayed by several on top of that over some drama that was going on, so I was hanging out more with the people I knew well, that either didn't bother with the drama or had taken my side on the whole thing.

All of that, along with some bad relationship issues and losing my dog as well, I was in a pretty bad place. Then, one of my friends, (Unnamed for privacy's sake), gifts me Valheim, and buys it for himself as well.

Man... This game. My Steam review has it all, but this game has quite literally changed my life. I was in a really bad place, but then I played Valheim. I had put around 130 hours into this game, all with my buddy who got it for me and himself, and we played it together all the time. It was great! Many fun experiences, and lots of things that we could do.

We made a network of bases and portals spanning the world, progressed all the way to the silver tier of equipment, and designed all sorts of places throughout "Dirtville" as the world was named. The scenery, crafting, soundtrack, progression, and especially building in this game is amazing.

Then, we burned out a bit. Stopped playing it as much, he started working on his personal life, and I worked on mine as well. We hadn't been talking much, and he just sort of went inactive. In this time, I ended up switching Discord accounts to my original main account due to the drama still going on, and because I had wanted to do so for a while.

We had a whole to-do list to do, and still had a lot of games we could play together, but then, after months of not talking and just sort of being gone, he removed me. On Discord and Steam, and left my personal server. Also removed any shared friends. It kind of broke my heart, he was a great guy to talk to and a nice friend. He was a "no-mic", but he had such a personality over text that it was great to know him.

I think what happened is that he most likely needs time to get his life in order, and his social anxiety may have played a part in it. There was a lot of drama that went on all the time in the groups me and him shared, which may have had some kind of effect on him. He never blocked me, still hasn't. Had me added on Steam for a while, and I sent a few messages asking him what happened, why, etc. - still don't have an answer, but whatever it is, I'll be accepting of the choice, even if in the end, I never got a reason. Doesn't change the fact that I'll definitely miss him. I was friends with him for a good 2+ years.

Now, what does this part have to do with Valheim? That world. I couldn't find it in myself to return to Valheim, not because I didn't like the game or I was bored of it, but because all my memories on this game were formed with that close friend of mine. Everything we did on that game, we did playing together. We built stuff, progressed, fought bosses, explored together.

So, logging into that world a few days ago kind of hit me like a truck. Seeing the living room of the main base, going out the door and seeing the breeze, the world tree in the sky, and hearing the Meadows soundtrack (that I am actually listening to right now while typing this), it was refreshing, to say the least, but also heavily nostalgic.

It made me sad, knowing I would be playing on this world without him around, and still not knowing the reason as to why he left out of nowhere. So then, after looking at the map, the to-do list, and the base, I decided I would play it. For every new base I make, I'll still be including a 2nd bed, just in case he comes back one day.

This past week has been very hard on me stress-wise, and as an Aspie with ADHD and Tourrette's, I get a lot of "mental noise" so to say, and the only way to get rid of it is to de-stress or to do something that isn't heavy on the mind. Noise, plus mental breakdowns, which are just as taxing physically as they are mentally, and now I've needed some kind of way to cope. A way to get rid of these stressful things that plague my mind. So I knew, with what I experienced in Valheim, that it could help.

I can safely say that Valheim has quite literally changed my life. I no longer play it just to play a game, but rather as a legitimate way of coping and relieving stress that bogs me down mentally. I had usually complained about the stamina system not being very good, but then, I had never thought of it from an alternative perspective. This game is therapeutic, a valid coping mechanism to help me de-noise after any majorly stressful / traumatic situations, the atmosphere, soundtrack, ambience, visuals, beauty... It calms me.

The stamina system is there to remind you: Video games aren't always about running and gunning down enemies, building and then destroying, always worrying about being attacked. Sandbox games often go for this, and don't usually make the "sandbox" aspect what it's truly meant to be. Sometimes I think a lot of us who play video games after a long day's work or study, forget that they're supposed to be fun, or more importantly, relaxing. And Valheim is both. You can't always sprint, because you're not supposed to. Otherwise, you will rush through the entire game and just drop it after.

This game... is very different. Irongate Studios, if you read this, your game has made quite literally a world of difference in my life. I love Valheim for this reason. It's so unique, it's indescribable. One of my top most favorite games of all time, and I'm a Minecraft / Terraria player, so that's kind of a big thing coming from me with my narrow interests.

<3