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Play Overview
Valheim (2021) is a Viking inspired strategy game for up to 10 players. You build, survive, conquer, and explore the world. It's popular because it combines strategy of building your town stronghold with tough adventures and encounters with the enemies of the world.
Your goal is to slay Odin's ancient rivals in order to free your soul and ascend to Valhalla. In the massive procedurally generated world you can build settlements, castles, and ships using the game's extensive crafting system, where survival is in your hands.
The games rapid rise to success and popularity is from its large open world to explore: mysterious forests, snow-capped mountains and lazy meadows. Each area has its own creatures and legends to discover. You can summon vengeful primordial creatures of the world's myth that can be defeated to collect trophies and craft new items.
Fighting draws on the exacting mechanics of Dark Souls style games. You need to learn to dodge, block and attack with a wide range of weapons. You travel to these battles in the ships you build and sail through the world. Back home you are able to build a complex and customised homestead. The flexible house and base building allows you to raise mead halls, farms, settlements outposts, castles and more.
While many of these elements have existed in other games, Valheim uses them in concert to impressive effect. As you take on missions and explore, unexpected encounters, weather and monsters can appear. This, along with the day-night cycle, living world and simulated physics gives the game a feel that anything can happen -- and usually does.
Valheim is out in beta on PC via Steam. A Mac version is expected, but currently Valheim Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 are not planned. Although the developer has said it "won’t rule out console versions in the future".
Our examiner, Jonah Monaghan, first checked Valheim 4 years ago. It was re-examined by Thom Robertson and updated 4 months ago.
Your goal is to slay Odin's ancient rivals in order to free your soul and ascend to Valhalla. In the massive procedurally generated world you can build settlements, castles, and ships using the game's extensive crafting system, where survival is in your hands.
The games rapid rise to success and popularity is from its large open world to explore: mysterious forests, snow-capped mountains and lazy meadows. Each area has its own creatures and legends to discover. You can summon vengeful primordial creatures of the world's myth that can be defeated to collect trophies and craft new items.
Fighting draws on the exacting mechanics of Dark Souls style games. You need to learn to dodge, block and attack with a wide range of weapons. You travel to these battles in the ships you build and sail through the world. Back home you are able to build a complex and customised homestead. The flexible house and base building allows you to raise mead halls, farms, settlements outposts, castles and more.
While many of these elements have existed in other games, Valheim uses them in concert to impressive effect. As you take on missions and explore, unexpected encounters, weather and monsters can appear. This, along with the day-night cycle, living world and simulated physics gives the game a feel that anything can happen -- and usually does.
Valheim is out in beta on PC via Steam. A Mac version is expected, but currently Valheim Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 are not planned. Although the developer has said it "won’t rule out console versions in the future".
Our examiner, Jonah Monaghan, first checked Valheim 4 years ago. It was re-examined by Thom Robertson and updated 4 months ago.
Kids not old enough for this yet? There are lots of games similar to Valheim. Here are some similar younger-rated games:
Play Style
This is an Adventure game with Action, Collecting, Communication, Fighting, Role-Play and Strategy elements. You can play this by yourself or as a 10-player online game. You can play with up to 10 players. This is supported in player-hosted servers and unlimited world creation. Playing with 3-5 players offers the optimum experience.
You can play this game in the following styles:
This has been enjoyed by families in the following styles:
Duration
Play Time: This game will take between 40 hours and 60 hours to complete. Duration depends on how you play the game, but the worlds and mythology invite players to spend many hours.
Benefits
This game is good if you want to:
- Mess about in boats
- Experience D&D stories
- Play Eggplant Podcast's top games
- Speak freely to other players
- Play something like GTA
- Muck about on the water
This game has helped players develop their Relationships as part of the following pathways:
Age Ratings
Not yet rated by PEGI or ESRB. Likely to be PEGI 16 and ESRB TEEN. As the developer states this is "a brutal exploration and survival game". When you die you a tomb stone appears and your body disappears with large splashes of blood on the ground.
Although you can talk to other players you don't know in the game, you can set up your own server to be able to control who you play with.
Skill Level
12+ year-olds usually have the required skill to enjoy this game. Still, it's important for parents and guardians to consider the maturity required to process the game content. Because of the teamwork and online world to navigate this requires considerable skill. You also need to persevere to make progress and not be put off by the sometime harsh world you play in.
Our Game Pathways reveal how 40-year-olds play this game:
- 40-year-old: The Next Generation
Account Rating
You don’t need a platform subscription to play this game online.
Costs
Valheim usually costs £15.49.
Valheim is available via early access release. This enables the developers to refine the game for releasing it more widely. "We want to make the best game we can, and even in beta we’ve learnt that working directly with our community is the best way to do that. Valheim is a huge world and we have lots that we want to add, and Early Access is a way for us to receive constant valuable feedback, collaborate with our players on what they want to see, and keep our players in mind at every step of the development cycle.”
The final version will have additional content, such as "new biomes, new enemies, new bosses and new materials to find. We want to expand the crafting system with new crafting stations, and of course more recipes. We also want to add more types of weapons and build-pieces so you can further customize your viking stronghold, and make it withstand new threats.”
Valheim
There are no additional in-game purchases, loot boxes, adverts or subscription costs.
Valheim is available via early access release. This enables the developers to refine the game for releasing it more widely. "We want to make the best game we can, and even in beta we’ve learnt that working directly with our community is the best way to do that. Valheim is a huge world and we have lots that we want to add, and Early Access is a way for us to receive constant valuable feedback, collaborate with our players on what they want to see, and keep our players in mind at every step of the development cycle.”
The final version will have additional content, such as "new biomes, new enemies, new bosses and new materials to find. We want to expand the crafting system with new crafting stations, and of course more recipes. We also want to add more types of weapons and build-pieces so you can further customize your viking stronghold, and make it withstand new threats.”
Game Details
Release Date: 02/02/2021
Out Now: PC
Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds
Players: 1 (10 online)
Genres: Adventure (Action, Collecting, Communication, Fighting, Role-Play and Strategy)
Accessibility: 17 features
Components: 3D Third-Person, Day and Night, Open World, Persistant World and Weather
Developer: Valheim Game (@ValheimGame)
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Written by parents for parents, the database complements the in-depth discussion about video game addiction, violence, spending and online safety in the Taming Gaming book. We are an editorially independent, free resource without adverts that is supported by partnerships. |
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