Originally posted by Starwing6:

Originally posted by Wolfguarde:

Pretty much, if you discount constantly unfavourable winds, a very basic (and very grindy) progression line, and a largely boring world.

Valheim is a junk food game. It hits a lot of bases people want in a survival game to a functional degree, but lacks the depth to keep them playing for long. In that regard it's good at what it does, but it'll leave you wanting more if you're looking for something satisfying to play.

It's an Early Access game that just began its EA phase four months ago. Many more updates will expand on all aspects of the game, including exploration (so the same biomes on different islands are not all the same).

Perhaps the "junk food" is addictive enough to keep many players in the game over it's development; people who will provide valuable feedback about what they would want to see as future content for the game.

People who aren't getting enough reward from playing this game in its current state might find everything they're looking for when the game is finally finished.

It's possible. But as things are, I predict Valheim will wind up in a similar state to No Man's Sky in its current iteration: Broad coverage will little depth, save perhaps a couple of mechanical niches the devs have clearly favoured to give the game a little bit of replay value.

Don't get me wrong; I am neither saying nor implying Valheim is a bad game. On the contrary, some of the best sellers on the market are the digital equivalent of junk food. But their intended time of play measures in hours or dozens of hours, rather than hundreds. They aren't meant to last for long.