Valheim (No longer on Game Pass)

This week we played the listener requested Valheim by: Iron Gate. Valheim is a 3rd person survival builder RPG where you play a character created norse hero who was on their way to Valhalla but Odin recruits you to Valheim to help him stop a growing evil. Explore the land and build your fortress solo or with 9 friends. This game is currently in preview and we are playing on patch 0.216.10 the mistlands.

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
Hello again everyone, Welcome toanother set of Game Pass.
Grab back your podcast Reviewinggames, the Game Pass collection
for you through unique perspectives from varying skill
range. I am the Odin of this episode.
With me are at a Tasker Keith. Hello.
And our beautiful Freya, Liz. Hey, guys.
And this week we played a listenrequest.
We did Valheim by Iron Gate Studios for Iron Gate.

(00:27):
I don't even think they call them SO Studio.
But Valheim is a third person action survival RPG which you
know we've we've covered many ofthese types of styles of games.
And also just a disclosure, thisis get this game is in game
preview, so it is not a finishedwork.
It is still obviously a work in progress.
We are playing on patch .26 I believe it's called, but

(00:51):
specifically it's the Missed Lands update.
So. Just to give you an update of to
where we are playing this game. But yeah, this may be a game we
end up visiting again later. But our listener, Pete's dude
who also recommended that we play ARC, recommended that we
play this game and you know, suggested that maybe we pick
this game up later when it gets out of game Preview.
So thank you so much for the game suggestion because getting

(01:15):
right into it, Valheim is a definite game for me.
I had so much fun with Valheim. Like I said, we've already
covered a lot of these survival.Builder Type F games, you know,
we've done ARC, we've done grounded, but there's so much
that Valheim does right? And you know, I'm gonna get into

(01:36):
it as to what makes this game different.
But I had so much fun with Valheim.
Yeah, this is a definite game for me.
Well, I guess if you want me to.Go either one of you.
Well, I mean, I guess we'll do it as we'll do.
We'll do the sandwich like we usually do.
So this one's kind of unique forme in that aspect and that.
It's it is a pass in its currentstate, but I actually do want to

(02:00):
revisit it when it comes out of preview because I see the
framework of an actual survival game that I might enjoy, but I'm
just I'm struggling with certainaspects of it.
I guess that that make it tough for me to call it a true game
for me right now. I'm very surprised because I
have some questions for you, Keith.
Go ahead, Liz. It's definitely a game for me

(02:22):
this because like last week we did Mass Effect too and I
thought that I was going to finish it, but this is actually
been keeping my attention so I haven't gone back and finished
Mass Effect Two because of this game.
So it's definitely, definitely agame for me.
All right. I feel like this could be a
juicy episode because Keith Keith was the the.

(02:46):
The lone person standing last week with Mass Effect Two, and
now I can see us with Valheim. So yeah, I guess I'm going to be
a bad take guy from now on. I don't know.
I'm just glad that I'm not the one giving all the passes
because I had quite a streak going.
But getting to the story of Valheim, you are a unnamed N

(03:08):
warrior who has recently perished and you're being
carried by the Valkyries. Unfortunately, not to Valhalla.
But into essentially, what is the Norse mythology of
Purgatory, which is Valheim, which is this 10th world where
Odin has banished these great evils into this realm and he
thought they were asleep, but they just recently started to

(03:30):
star. So Odin has needed some some of
the best warriors from Middle Earth or Mid Guard.
Not Middle Earth. That's that's that's Lord of the
Rings. But here you are.
You've reached the deceased, you're carried in by a Valkyrie
into Valheim, and you are tryingto build a fortress, get geared,
and fight the bosses that have grown and woken up.

(03:55):
But going around, did any of youguys catch the story?
I mean the game. I feel like you guys can't say
no because the game literally kind of gives you a text at the
beginning. But I forgot about it though, to
be honest. Because you're you're revisiting
like and I was like, Oh yeah, that is the story.
I do remember that. So guys, you you put so many
hours into it and you're not really getting trickled.

(04:19):
More story. I feel like you're fighting the
stones. Yeah, you find these stones that
kind of give you. Honestly, I I was founded to be
nonsensical of like these story elements.
And you have the bird helping you, but there's no real like
characters and stuff, so. Yeah, so they're they're weird
little like poems almost as you go through Bird.

(04:41):
But like, and I can't say I've ever read what is it like The
Odyssey or whatever, but it's like that's.
The Odyssey is Greek. Well either way it's like, but
it's all like poems though and it's like mythology and all
that. So it's I I making the
comparison in that aspect. If they're just these short
little like stories but they don't really.

(05:01):
He said. They don't tell a full message
story but they're supposed to betelling a bigger one.
I don't know. It's they're a neat aspect but
nothing, nothing. That said, boy here's a ton of
lore and and all of that. But yeah, I thought that was
like kind of a cool setup to thegame and in a.
Again, I go back to a really cool framework for what this

(05:23):
world is and why you're what you're doing here.
But as you know, I'm generally afan of like these these
mythology type of games and things like that.
And well, it's there on the surface and it's a Game preview.
So that's why I I stand by. Sure it's a pass for me right
now, but I do want, I look forward to it coming out of Game

(05:43):
Preview and seeing where it goesto.
Because yeah, it just, it kind of stops right then and there.
And yeah, you, other than some characters or I don't know,
yeah, the enemies you fight I guess are from mythology, but
that's about the extent of it, so.
There are later on there are some interactable Npc's.
I will say that I know, I know. With the Miss Lane's update they

(06:07):
added more of. I can't remember the person, but
they actually added an NPC that can like populate your town or
your house or whatever and like kind of give you a quest line
did. You find them.
No we haven't got to them. But there there is I will say
more interactable NP C's in thisgame that you then probably
honestly of the other arcade builders we've been with because

(06:27):
Grounded had very little NP C's you can interact with and ARC I
don't remember interacting with any of them.
Oh no you did if you played the DLC.
But but I I I enjoyed like you don't need too much of the story
as you guys kind of said like you know I thought the beginning
was a good enough context of. This is a Viking mythology.
You are essentially in Viking purgatory and here you go, like

(06:52):
that's kind of set you off in the path.
Like that to me was enough of a story to be like, alright, let's
keep going. I don't need this constant like
oh you defeated this enemy and Odin is happy with you and blah
blah blah like it was a nice means to an end of hey some bad
guys are, you know, getting too strong in purgatory.
You need to stop them. Alright, cool.

(07:12):
For the amount of times that I, we play a rogue like and I'm
like, oh, it doesn't really. Matter the stories up.
There, it's got a means to an end and it's all it is.
And Oh no, it it should have more of this and it should have
more And here you are. Well, it just needs means to an
end. No, I I think you're right that
it sets it up Fine as it stands but we're talking about a deep

(07:34):
mythology and there's none of itand and most.
And you're upset that there's not more.
This is. Did you not listen to what I
said earlier? I did not.
I said that I love mythology andgames and I and the fact that it
scrapes the surface and then just leaves it all out,

(07:55):
Especially because in video games and movies and and all of
these things, like people tell their own stories with it.
So there's not even any twist onit.
Like why is Odin want you to kill these guys?
Why are they bad? What have they done to get
themselves exiled there? And I'm.
I feel like that will all come out outside of Game Preview.
But not having any of that, it was just here's a little Riddle

(08:17):
to try to figure out what you need to do.
And then I think you just get there and then it tells you what
you need to do and you fight them.
And that's fine. But it's.
I want more of the mythology. I want more of all of that cool
storylines that that exists. This is so weird that you.
I mean, it's like we switched, Keith.

(08:39):
Because I'm I'm given games. I am like, I don't really care
if it has a story and you want astory and you're given things
passes and you're getting sassy with Andrew and I love it you.
Can look back at any game that involves any bit of mythology
and if I if there was a lot of it.
I was probably into it if it didn't do it.
Oh, I agree. I agree.

(08:59):
I'm just saying like, I don't care about you.
Were the one who figured out it was like Turkish or Hungarian.
Hungarian. Yeah.
And. And I ended up diving deep into
that and because it was fascinating and I loved the tie
ins around the gameplay and the story and all of those things.
So that's not having that in a game built on Norse mythology is
a huge myth to me. I understand what you're saying.

(09:22):
Like I agree with your perspective.
I just for some reason this style of game, I don't care if
there is a story. So yeah, I do.
I didn't really care. And in fact, I kind of like that
there isn't. That being said, I mean, I might
change my mind if they put storyin the Erica.
I might find it really interesting, but.
As it is like this style of game, I mean, I just love the

(09:45):
building and the collecting of resources.
And so for me it's like wheneverthat bird comes along and you
have to talk to him, just like, listen, I I get it, you have to
help me, but you're not much of A help anyway.
It's not really a tutorial. Which I want to ask you, Keith,
how did you pronounce the bird'sname?
Hugging. I with a.

(10:06):
Deep southern accent, of course.Dude, hugging.
I'm sorry to everyone from the South, and I mean.
I knew that it was wrong when I said it, but it just like.
I mean, it's HUGGINI was H. UGIN.
Maybe I pronounced it Hugen. Yeah, I mean, it probably is.
Or yeah, cuz I think it's 1G. I think it that's why you're

(10:26):
like, yeah, cuz you corrected meand I was just like, I like it.
It's. Like human.
But yeah, I like Liz. But I was playing with Liz.
She's like, oh, it's hugging. Yeah, because I wanted to give
him a hug and every time I saw him.
But that's a good question though of transition of how do
you think this game works for newcomers.
So as Keith kind of obviously mentioned here, whenever you as

(10:50):
soon as you start the game, there's this bird that is
essentially is the tutorial or the guide whose name is either
Huggin or Huggin because you can't quite figure it out.
But he essentially tells you like, hey, you need to do this
thing, you need to do this thing.
So it's like 8. It's not super hand holding, but
it gives you a good direction. How did you guys feel this game
was for newcomers? I think if I didn't play with

(11:11):
you I would have been frustratedwith figuring out how to upgrade
like the workbench and stuff. I think I would have had a
Google a lot more and also the building like I I went into it
like not really thinking. Andrew like gave me some tips
and trip tips and tricks. Tips and tricks?

(11:32):
But, but I did actually strugglea little bit with that, which I
was surprised, like there's justsome things that just are a
little finicky. And yeah, so I I definitely
think playing multiplayer was a big help for me.
So I wouldn't say it's the most new friendly game in this genre,
but I mean, I don't think it waslike crazy difficult to to piece

(11:55):
together. Well, so I I I went completely
solo for this. And I don't know.
I think like most of this style of game I probably would have
preferred to have gotten some multiplayer time and probably
playing with you Andrew, becauseI that's how I tend to get
better I I kind of figure out what you're doing and.

(12:17):
You feel these things better? These style of games, at least
most of the other ones, I don't really care what you're doing,
but I know that you're good at these and and so I try to like
keep up and do what you're doing.
But so from that standpoint of trying to do it solely by
myself, I found it to be not as much as I wanted.
Like I, as you know, I don't want something to be here's how

(12:40):
you walk, here's how you look upand down, and some games do
that. I hate that level of it.
But I mean, it can be fine, but I don't care for that.
But I also was sitting there going, wait, what am I missing
it? I I think it was like 2 hours
into the game before I finally figured out I can start picking
dandelions and I don't even knowif I've ever figured out how to
build anything with them or I just little things like that

(13:03):
that I just. I didn't pick up on and I didn't
think it gave me a good attention to is where I
struggled the most with with thegameplay and and sort of the I
guess tutorial or or really moreor less lack thereof because I'd
be hugging over there he he gives you.
I don't know, little little tidbits, but it doesn't really

(13:26):
tell you a lot. You you sort of just have to dig
around. Well, I also think too that it's
kind of new friendly in that like for instance, the food
doesn't expire, at least like with the way that it is now.
So you can put cooked food in your chest, raw food.
So there are little things like that.
We really don't have to worry too much about survival.

(13:48):
I mean, there's always berries around if I can.
You know, kill the animals like anybody can, so it's pretty easy
in that respect. And also like the enemies,
especially around your base at first, aren't too crazy.
I think it's interesting playingmultiplayer, though.
We did the first what's it called?

(14:10):
The Yeah, the first boss. Yeah, the first boss together.
And then I went back to my game and I got a trophy too, so I
could put it on the stone, but Ididn't have to redo the event.
And I feel like Andrews game, when the enemies attack your
base, it was way harder and I don't know if it's because like
I didn't do that in my game. I noticed that there was like a

(14:31):
difference with that. So I think it's interesting
going back and forth between playing single and multiplayer.
Yeah, I think this is going. To be an interesting episode.
How far did you guys get? We are on the second boss, but
we never fought him. The elder is who we're supposed
to be fighting. We're ready.
But like, we're so distracted that we really haven't gone.

(14:53):
Yeah, like upgrading things. And like, I needed a bigger
house. We want to.
Take We're ready to fight. We wanted to make a bow and go
sailing. And you know so here here's
here's part of why I'm asking you and we'll we'll start to I
think I'm cover a little bit more so this might just be a
little preview question so I'm probably I don't say right
behind you but I've beaten the first boss.

(15:14):
Oh, nice. Good job by yourself.
Good job. And.
I haven't gotten anywhere close to fighting the second boss.
That's why I would say I'm not really right behind you.
But how many hours would you sayyou guys have played the game?
Man at least 20. Hours.
How many? So that's so you're probably
what, like 30 some odd days in. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

(15:35):
In my personal game, I'm at day 36.
I thought I was half that. Yeah, Liz's personal game, I
think. Is that 20?
I played at least half of what Andrew is.
Why are you laughing? Yeah.
What are you at, Keith? Oh my gosh, why are you
laughing? Because I think I'm at like 5
1/2 hours and I maybe hit day 13.
OK, wow, actually that's very impressive.

(15:57):
Well, but so there's so much more to get to.
But I I just, I just want to start with that and then we will
carry on from there. All right, so I want to say, as
far as like the other builder games we've gone through, I
personally feel like this game is the most noob friendly.
Because I I did have a Wikipediaup and I was looking some stuff

(16:18):
up. But I did feel like this game
for the most part was really drip feeding you on like what
you're supposed to be doing and how you're collecting things.
Like there's a good amount of resources you're collecting in
this game, but as soon as you pick up something and like you.
Know all the ingredients of a specific recipe.
Your character instantly learns it.
So there's like your your crafting will get better and

(16:40):
your get better weapons if you can discover all the resources
for a particular item. So to me, I felt like this game
had a nice stripe feed. I felt like the very beginning
could maybe be improved. I was going to say that because
you were frustrated with not being able to upgrade and then
you figured it out. So I think that because you are
so good at gaming and I the factthat you even struggle a little

(17:02):
bit at the beginning, I definitely think that's like a
little. Particularly the item Flint.
So when you start the game you're in an area called the
Meadows. And Flint is a Little Rock that
is only along the water in the meadows.
And I wish the game directed youtowards that because both me and
Liz fought the first boss literally in rags and with clubs

(17:22):
like, we were, like, we literally had like, starting
equipment. We were fighting the boss
because we never discovered Flint and we didn't know
anything about it. And so, like me and Liz hit this
wall, we were like, well, the bird tells you like, oh, bring
your best gear, you're about to fight a boss.
And so. Me and Liz were like, well, this
is our best gear because we never just found Flint.
So we fought that deer and we each died like 10 times.

(17:45):
We literally brought the deer close to our base so we could
keep spawning. And literally we just threw
bodies at the deer. We literally just kept going and
dying and repeating and just kept going in.
So that's why I'm impressed you did it, Keith.
So this is where we don't diverge very far.
What's interesting though in in kind of funny.
I actually, when I think it was probably more of a sheer luck.
This isn't like a oh, boy, I'm smarter than you, Andrew.

(18:07):
I actually got you. I happened to find Flint at one
point. And so because I found it, it
was like, hey, you can build a Flint axe.
All right, well, I'm going to dothat because that sounds like
it's going to be better than what I have.
So I had a Flint. Axe.
Honestly though, like the club is really strong, so I used the
club actually quite a bit. On oh, I barely used the club.
I always used the axe. Yeah, my my club was almost I

(18:30):
think the same level as my axe and so I was, I don't know, I
did, I dealt quite a bit of the club and damage but.
You went straight clubbing. Yeah, I was, I was clubbing all
the time. But I I will say yeah, I I kind
of did the same thing and so this is where I going back.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna reference my my state of pass right now.

(18:51):
Where I think it's more a state of the game issue than it is
what the overall gameplay is intended to be and will be
because that drove me nuts. I I didn't accidentally start
the boss. I absolutely was like, okay, I'm
going to try this. I think this is the best I can
do. I went into it and I did what
you did as I just threw my body at it constantly.

(19:12):
Well, I was after I ran around for about 35 minutes like Dark
Souls style, trying to like dip,dodge, duck and dive away from
this thing, take a couple hits. Like 40 minutes into it, I just
said screw it, I'm done. And then I realized I could just
keep dying. And so that was like, OK, well,
this is easy now, so there's that.
But what really drove me nuts isin a game like this, if you're

(19:34):
going to be fighting bosses thatepic, then it needs to be you
fight it and if you die, that's it.
Or and not like forever, but youhave to restart it every time
because otherwise. Especially in this survival
style of game, there's no running away from this thing.
I couldn't just be like, okay, I'm clearly not strong enough.
Now I'm going to run away because it chases you

(19:56):
infinitely, which I think is a issue of the current coding on
the enemies because every enemy does it and it was one of my
biggest gripes is I would accidentally like take a wrong
turn into some corner of a forest and find some troll that
just followed me until I died. And so and then he'd be too
close to where I needed him to be and it was just a whole

(20:17):
thing. And so that was one of my
biggest overall gameplay issues that I'm like, I don't.
I didn't have fun a lot of timesbecause I was just constantly
running from annoying things I felt like.
I agree and it's where we are now, even with like.
So everything that you do you accrue more points to it.
So like you're running gets better and but even with that

(20:39):
like you can't really outrun enemies like you said, even
where we are now. They just keep following.
I mean, you can't, but like not really like I I I would follow
for a very long time. Like me, you don't.
Get faster, be of more stamina. Yeah, but they never stop
chasing you. That's what I'm saying is you
can. You they will.
You have to break their line of sight.

(21:00):
Which is difficult, real hard inthe Meadows.
Yes, I do agree it is hard to get on the meadows.
It's like a flat plate, so obviously it's hard to break
line of sight, but you can outran enemies and break their
line of sight and they'll. Lose agro and go back home.
But yeah, maybe. But then.
They're like by your body and then cuz they don't go they
don't roam back to their to where they started either.

(21:21):
Like in most games, even if they're gonna follow you they're
gonna kite back home. Once they kill you, these
enemies don't. So you go back for your body and
Oh well I'm right back in this fight again.
So you either leave your stuff there or you you hope you can
get out after you get it. Yeah, that's one thing that
happened to me like at the beginning when I still had.
Basic everything. I was harvesting some copper,

(21:46):
but I did it in the middle so I immediately fell down and a
skeleton jumped down with me andthen so there was no way for me
to. I'd love to let this happen to
you. You started your game by
yourself, so low and you you cracked a rock directly to the
center. So it literally was a pit that
you're stuck in and you're like Angel, I can't get my body.
And you literally had enemies stuck in this hole where your

(22:08):
body was. So I couldn't get it and I
couldn't I I wasn't close enoughto it that I could get the
stuff, yeah. And then I I need you to join my
game to help me. Yeah, sorry to interrupt.
It was a very funny story. I thought when we defeated the
first boss that you were disappointed with the rewards.
Am I remembering correctly? No, because like, that's that's

(22:30):
kind of what I'm saying of like,I thought the transition was
really good. With this game, once you defeat
the first boss is when the game's like, oh, now you can
mine and now you can alter the terrain, which is a really cool
field feature. Like this is one thing, like,
like I said, Valheim does a lot of things correct in this game,
lets you alter terrain in a really cool, unique way.
Like you can use a pickaxe to literally just strike the ground

(22:53):
that you're standing on and formthe land, but then eventually
you get a hoe. And the hoe you can either raise
dirt or you can level out the plane to make it more even.
I love to the kind of like form manipulation.
Well, because the building is like it's a it's a little janky
if it's if there's a hail. Get first once you kind of
figure out what the. Game.
What I mean is if like if, because I started my house on a

(23:15):
hill, yeah. And that's like a good location.
But but I mean I was just I was excited to get started but when
you do that like they sometimes the wood will not line up if
it's too far of a divot so you need that if you are doing it on
a hill your. Location is great.
It's actually like positioning is awful.
Yes, yeah. The building was another thing

(23:38):
that I again currently don't think is in a really good state
personally and the biggest reason I.
Just don't think it has a good like snap to it as far as like
builder games go. You know how you know this
Andrew I guess and I and if I'm using the wrong terminology I
guess please, please correct me.But when you're trying to build

(23:59):
walls just I don't know the ability to build them in a
straight line so they connect and line up.
It just it was very tricky and there's like an alternate
placement thing that you can turn on and off and I.
Yeah, magnetism. Magnetism.
You can turn on and off. Well, it's they call it
alternate placement I believe. But yeah, it was.
I had that on and I still was just really struggling.

(24:19):
And then where it's. It's kind of a cool gameplay
aspect. But when I'm already struggling
to build, the fact that I had tohave the workshop covered to be
able to use it just annoyed me because I couldn't just build it
and use it. I'm like, OK, now I have to
build a whole structure around it and do all these things.
But what I did like and. Instead of building my own

(24:39):
structures, I took advantage of one of the cool features that
the game has and it has these half built, half broken
structures. Yeah, and structures.
Yeah, So I just built bases out of those.
So I would kind of set those up as my starting terrain and then
just start to build off of them.Yeah, I did that once, yeah.
I one thing that I want to piggyback off what you said,

(25:00):
Keith, is that like when you're first starting out and you make
a bed and that has to be covered, but it also has to be
close enough to the fire. And it just like just like at
the very beginning I'm just likejust let me sleep, you know and
I. Mean my first base basically for
free. I also think too with the
building, I feel like I'm reallyenjoying it now.

(25:21):
Like I've I really thought it was frustrating at the beginning
and I. Have definitely like adapted a
little bit and I'm I'm figuring out like the best way to go
about it but seeing some of the YouTube videos of people
building houses so it's like I said earlier yeah I I'm like oh
it's a little finicky and it is it's it's not the the smoothest

(25:43):
but. Well, the scheme originally was
PC, so I think it's more. Faced for peace.
That makes sense, yeah. But I definitely see that, like,
you really can do a lot and it gets me excited.
It's like cuz I'm playing Minecraft right now and I'm
looking at like videos online oflike things people do in
Minecraft, and just like, I can't wait to do that for
Valheim. Well, yeah, as far as I could
tell, I don't think there's a creative mode of Valheim now, if

(26:04):
you guys see that, I don't thinkthere is.
I think it's just, it's just this game right now.
Yeah, well, I was actually, you know what it needs to do.
Liz and I was thinking of this is like we were talking about
the tutorial. This is where I think the
tutorial would be great, is a lot and especially in survival
type of games, it's going to go like it's going to drop you off
and it's going to meet like, hey, you're tired, here's what

(26:26):
you need to do. You need to build a house, then
you need to build a bed and it'sgoing to basically give you
that. Like where a lot of times it
actually like snaps, locks, where you're building it if you
will, or at the very least walksyou through the steps of all of
what you need to do and set you up.
This instead just let you go. Hey like you like you said, Liz,
you build a house like crate HowI can just put my character to

(26:48):
sleep. No you can't.
You need it. You need the structure.
You need this. You need that.
And so I don't know that's that could be part of the tutorial I
think. So I I want to stop you for a
second quick because this is something that I think Valheim
does so incredibly well. I I I see where you're coming
from, Keith, but this is what I love about with Valheim.

(27:08):
It's not necessary. Like any other survival game,
we've played Minecraft Grounded Arc when it comes to nighttime.
And if you do not have a structure built, you're just
screwed. Like enemies are swarming at
you. Like your character isn't like
properly, like doesn't have sleep.
Your character's hungry, your character's thirsty, like all
these different things. In Valheim, it doesn't matter

(27:30):
because all these things that you're doing are just buffs.
They're not something that's like, oh, your character's going
to die because you didn't sleep,your character's going to die
because he's hungry or he's thirsty.
Everything is just a buff or a debuff.
So when it came to Night Time, this is the first survival game
I felt like I could play during night time grounded.
It was way too dark. Arc was way too dark.

(27:52):
And like, it is just like in Minecraft.
There's so many enemies that I'mconstantly attacked by zombies
or creepers or skeletons in Valheim, it just felt like.
No, you can just keep playing. It's just, you know, it's a
little harder to see and you're not getting the buff of rested.
So that's what I think I loved about Valheim.
Well, no, I'm not complaining about the night time as a whole

(28:12):
that like you needed to sleep because yeah, you're right, it
was just a buff and it wasn't a full on survival mechanic.
I'm just saying as far as like the the ability to like kind of
just teach you how the building structure works in this game
that it has. Like the idea that it has these
not weird mechanics, but mechanics like that, like, hey,
they have rules. Yeah, there you go Rules.

(28:35):
Like it has rules about where things need to be placed in
there, where their proximity is to other things.
And so a better job of walking you through that process I think
would be helpful. Yeah, and I do agree with that,
because there is a lot of like little mechanics that are
playing in this game but that aren't quite explained to you.
Like smoke. Smoke is a significant feature.

(28:56):
You have a fireplace. And yeah, you could put it
outside your house, which most people do, like I did, of like I
have a cooking pot. Like, why would I want that in
my house, a wooden house. I don't want fire in my house,
so I put it outside. But it's like, oh, you need a
roof Because, you know, if it's raining, it puts out your fire,
obviously. So then you got to put a roof on
it, But then that roof is generating smoke.

(29:16):
And if you have an opening in your house, you're generating
smoke within your house which can choke out your character.
So there's like these really cool, interesting elemental
mechanics to this game that isn't explained, and I do agree
with you keys. I think it would have been nice
to have some explanation of someof the rules that are going on.
I also think too though, that some of the very basic rules

(29:37):
that they gave me, I forgot. Like I remember when we beat the
first boss, there's like that that deer mode.
Yeah, click that you say. Super powers.
Yeah, and I forgot and never used it until like just
recently, but it's. Just funny.
Every time I was playing with you I kept saying activate deer
power. Did you just think?

(29:57):
Yes, our thought like you had a special food that was giving you
like like a special deer meat orsomething because the different
foods give you different buffs. Like, yeah, so.
I literally kept saying this phrase and this just thought
nothing of it. So to explain, the very first
boss you fight is. A huge deer that shoots
lightning, and when you kill it,you get what's called a forsaken

(30:18):
power. And so every time you defeat a
boss, you get some sort of you can equip one of these powers,
and so the first one significantly reduces stamina
consumption when you run and jump.
So when I knew we were travelingfire, I would go activate deer
power. Listen fairly.
Fast. Yeah.
I mean, at first I thought you were just being silly, but.

(30:41):
I also think too, like when you said earlier that this game does
a lot of things great and I agree with you.
There's some things though that I think could fix.
So one of the things that I agree the game does really great
is I love when I am use my pickaxe and I can look around me

(31:02):
without stopping using my pickaxe because obviously
enemies are sneaking up on you all the time and I thought that
was a really cool. Thing that they did, but there's
a couple little nitpicky things that I do not like.
I don't like that when you're building and crafting things
like furniture that you can't just move it, you have to like
disassemble it and rebuild it. And I something that Andrew that

(31:27):
you brought up. The chest need like an auto sort
and also like the chest need to be bigger.
If you have. Survival RPG Auto sort needs to
be priority #1. Yeah we haven't been able to
like upgrade our chests and withcarrying you always like carry
the same amount so far too. But like the chest specifically,
it's like let me fit more in like I it just like frustrates

(31:49):
me like I I need to also same with like the pickaxe.
Like we're stuck at their level of pickaxe and we really need to
upgrade because we're constantlylike running out of we have to
repair it and then go back. But those are just a couple of
like nitpicky things that I justfeel like it would make the game
so much more fun. They because like for me, like
I'm like separating different chests and I just think we would

(32:12):
make it a smoother game. Yes.
How do you know? That's the phrase I'm looking
for. That's the way you're saying
things. Quality of life is the phrase
that Andrew's interpreting your words as.
I'm mansplaining. I'm.
Sorry, yes. Thank you, Andrew.
That's OK, that is what I said. But in different words, a

(32:34):
smoother gameplay experience isn't a bad phrase.
Well, so. I don't know.
And it's funny. And I only used one chess.
So it wasn't like this was the survival game that I turned it
around and I was super organizedand I had a bunch of things
going on. But I don't know, I feel like
having a bunch of chess is something you do in any of

(32:55):
these. The lack of auto sort on any on
the chess and or your. Own.
No, a lot of them. You upgrade the chess so you
have bigger ones. Most.
I feel like most games that havechess, you eventually get.
Like a bigger but I'm just thinking, even when you have
those upgraded chess, like everytime I jump in with Andrew, he's
like, alright, this is one's armor, this one's weapons, this
one's this, and even if it has 50 slots, it's still all

(33:18):
organized into different things.So it's just so it's just a lot
of chests anyways. I don't.
So that part doesn't bother me. I just I I need good inventory
management is is the biggest thing that I need and and like
like things you equip, like having armor that needs to leave
my my inventory when I equip it.I don't like that staying in my

(33:39):
inventory. That was a gripe.
Yeah. I have to say something about
you saying that Andrew has had these all these chests and like
this one's for this because whenyou're playing grounded.
I'm the one that made all those chests.
I'm the one that organized everything.
And Andrew, no, hold on. Andrew's always the one that
puts things wherever he wants. So I would go back and he's

(34:01):
like, well, I, I, we don't have any of this.
And I'm like, yeah, we do. You put it in the wrong chest
and I put it back in the right one.
There's like a symbol on it, like a spider symbol or
whatever. So when you saying like, oh,
Andrew has these like chests sorted, I'm just like.
I just don't believe it. No, that's 100 said.
Let's who organize. And I believe it.
I'm just saying in general then it I guess it it makes it makes

(34:22):
less sense to me why you would have an issue with having to
have all these different chests in Belheim.
But I I don't know. I that's all I'm saying is that
there's a lot of chests in all these other survival games.
A lot of chests here is fine with me too.
Yeah, this is definitely the organized person of this
relationship. Both of your correct whatever,
Whatever. I'm playing these games, I just
throw stuff in. But yeah, like I do think it's

(34:45):
surprising that the scheme doesn't have an ordered auto
sort button because if you're doing a survival game like I
said, that should be priority number one.
I just need to click left stick or something and just all my
rock go in here, all my stone goin there, all my my wood goes in
there. Like it just makes it so much
easier. Like come on Aaron Gate, that

(35:05):
needs to be your number one priority to please add an auto
sort button because the scheme too like there's numerous times
where. In my inventory, I'll have like
a sack of wood that's like not at Max capacity, but then it'll
auto generate another stack of wood right next to it.
And this is like just combine them for me please.
Yeah, but sometimes it would combine.

(35:25):
And also why does all the wood look like the same kind of color
and stuff? Yeah, and it's like you you
actually have to hover over it. It's just like, cuz there's a
lot of times I'm like I have wood on me, like why can't I
build? This.
Oh no, this is fine wood. But then there's core wood.
But they're all like the same color.
Ish, yeah. It's just like the wood is
literally at a different angle every time.

(35:46):
I think what that is, is if you if you die and then you collect
say 10 wood along the way to pick up your body which had 20
wood on it, it's going to just pick up that 20 stack and not
automatically compat it. Yeah.
So it's that's when that like divergence is happening in your

(36:06):
your inventory and it's super easy but that should also be.
Part of the auto sort, I actually don't care if it wants
to do it that way when I pick upmy body, whatever.
But if you have an auto sort button, it can auto combine
things to you know there's no. Reason to have more games doing.
It stacks other than full ones. Why don't more games do auto

(36:28):
sort? I feel like it's actually pretty
rare. Like, is it really that hard?
The only thing I can really think of.
Is the difficulty in programmingit?
Cuz it's just. Like it could be that hard.
I mean, obviously I have. We're not programmers.

(36:49):
Yeah, but I I have seen enough coding in language things like
that to. Kind of like I you'd almost have
to like basically like pull every item in the database and
like sort it in the. It's like a whole big thing that
they'd have to do that. I'm sure I know it's doable,
obviously, it's just I actually would bet that it's harder than

(37:11):
it seems like is is all I'm trying to get at.
Yeah, obviously it's not something you just like push a
button. There you go.
But, but, but I wanted to ask you guys though, where does
Valheim sit for difficulty for you guys?
So Keith, you played completely solo.
I played solo and Coop in Liz majority the Time played Coop.

(37:31):
Where do you think Valheim sticks with difficulty?
I don't know. I feel like I'm kind of just
getting into the swing of thingsand I feel like I'd really have
to see what the second boss was like, because the first one,
like you said, we were completely unprepared.
So I really, I really don't know.
I feel like I'd like. I said I'm getting into swing of
things. I'm starting to understand it,

(37:52):
the building, I'm having fun. But I'm a little bit nervous
about kind of how it's going to go after.
So like from a completely solo standpoint, I I kind of feel
like it's a weird spot of difficulty is that largely the

(38:12):
combat felt like it wasn't that difficult except for the obvious
major spike when you get to the boss there and.
I don't think the game gives youenough runway to to jump into a
boss that big. So it that's a sort of a pacing
issue to the difficulty. But so I think that puts, I

(38:34):
guess like a weird spin on how Ifeel about it, cuz mostly
fighting the the boars and the, I don't know, the little fish
frog things and gobble the knackers, yeah.
That's the call which is weird name.
The what? Knackers.
I think it's just necks. No, I think they're the Neckers.
Necker, I'm pretty sure the Neckers.

(38:57):
I thought it was just necks, I Icould be very.
Ruggle in it. You should cuz anywho, yeah,
like I was like fighting those individual enemies.
I didn't think it was overly difficult.
Crap. You're right.
The necks, Yeah. So like.
The the only things that were difficult were, hey, I like I

(39:19):
said, I wandered into the Black Forest.
I wandered into an area that wastoo difficult for me to be in
and I shouldn't have been in. So I that's when I found it was
too difficult, I guess. For me, I think this game's
difficulty is absolutely great. I think it fits.
I this is a kind of game. I absolutely have no problem

(39:40):
playing solo and coop. So you can play up to 10 player
coop so you can actually create a community server so people can
just anyone can just randomly jump into your game.
Or you can just do it for just friends so friends can jump in.
But I had no issues playing soloso this is one thing I forgot.
I feel like we didn't really delve too much on what makes

(40:00):
Valheim so different from other survival builder games is this
game focuses way more heavy on the RPG aspect and I.
Love it so much. So at the beginning of the game,
you're creating a character. This character that you're
creating is who you are bringingto different servers.
So you are leveling up this character.

(40:21):
So anything you're doing, jumping, running, swinging an
axe, chopping down trees, you'respecifically leveling up that
thing as you are doing it. Which I am a huge sucker for in
RPG's because I always love whenRPG's are like, oh, play as you
want, do what you want, but. It it's still pigeonholes you in
kind of a build that you need todo.

(40:42):
Like yeah, here's some skill points.
Put them where you want. I love a game that if you're
sneaking while you're sneaking is getting better.
Are you jumping a lot? Your jumping is getting better,
and that's what Valheim does. And that's what I loved because
you can play solo, get this character up for a level 30 wood
chopping. Your friend just started.
Cool, let me bring my 30 wood chopping character over to your

(41:02):
realm. I can chop down these trees
super quick for you and we can build up your fortres quicker.
So any equipment that is on yourcharacter, anything that's in
your inventory, is what is carrying around.
So the game gives you a warning.Hey, be careful going to a
community game because there could be griefers.
They could turn on friendly, fire, kill you and try to like,
just harass you. But like, that's what's nice.

(41:23):
I love that you're leveling up your character, and it's not so
much focused on the world that you're in.
I did. Like that a lot, Yeah, it was
great. No, I didn't.
I didn't. Well, I didn't play like cross
servers. I just played my own solo one.
So I didn't realize that, well, you had told me that it carries
over, I guess. And I and I do think that's
cool, but I'm, I'm in the same boat.
I was just like, OK, oh, even ifI'm not really knowing what I'm

(41:45):
doing, I'm, I'm leveling up my running by just running around
or I just start jumping for no reason.
I actually took a clip of it andI think I'll post it to our
Twitter. I it was after like one of my
spawn ends. I'm at my house.
I come out and I come sprinting out of the house and I'm just
like hey, it's a good day to be alive.
And I jumped as I'm running downa hill.

(42:06):
So I flew further than I thoughtI would square on a rock that
was hidden behind a bunch of trees.
So I thought I was just jumping into the into the bushes to have
a great day and dead just dead right then and there for mitting
a rock. It was, yeah.
I had a good laugh at it, cuz whatever.
Cuz actually too, one of the things that I liked is sometimes

(42:28):
with this type of game, if you die and your body drops and you
don't have a chance to pick it up or whatever, you die again
and your body's gone. Like you just lost all of your
stuff for good time. Really.
No, this one doesn't. Valheim doesn't.
I'm saying is that some games dothat, whereas Valheim.
If you don't get a chance to getback to your body, it just marks
it and you can. Well, if you're like me and you

(42:51):
have like 30 different, you know, death markers around the
game and it's going. To be way too many on my map.
But I do like that it tells you like what day it is.
So at least you can determine like, OK, it's certainly not a
day one, but you know which day 17 death is it.
Now I have to figure that out. I'd like to that you can use the

(43:12):
environment to help you with enemies.
I killed a bad guy with a tree because a lot of times when I
chopped down the trees I'll knock others down.
Sometimes they might hit you, but there was one time there was
like, I see if I can hit him andit worked and it was lovely.
I also think too with this game,Andrew just made a teleporter
and I think that's going to be agame changer because the map is

(43:35):
actually pretty big. And I feel like there's just a
lot of back and forth, especially if you're like I need
copper, I need tin, whatever. And so I think that having
multiple Tele, you got multiple I assume yes you can.
So I think that's going to really make the game more fun
too. Yeah, what's cool about the
teleporters? You give the teleporter name and
so that's how you link teleporters.

(43:57):
So I named a teleporter Copper and I have to create a second
teleporter and name it Copper and there you go.
Now I have a teleporter to that location.
Yeah, but you said that it can'tbring copper, though it can
bring. Anything but.
For some reason it will bring anything but copper first, so
I'm wondering if that's actuallylike a bug that all portals
can't bring copper. Did you make up 1 Keith?

(44:18):
I didn't get to portals yet, so that's that's part of where I
can't really offer. Much input on that but I do like
that teleporters are thing and Iit goes back to where I don't
know that I keep saying this about Valheim is.
I just don't want to really playit in the state of it because
there's too much bare bones to it.

(44:40):
And I think the framework is so good.
I just I wanted I want to see what it's really going to get to
because of. Like the point that Andrew was
saying too earlier about how it's really so much more on the
RPG focus rather than the builder aspect of it.
And then like on top of that, I I think it's also very combat
focused. So I think that, I don't know,

(45:01):
it could turn into something really fun.
But as it stands right now, I'm just, I'm kind of tired of, of
running back and forth and just feeling like I'm doing the same
thing over and over again. Yeah, I was feeling that way a
little bit. And then with the teleporter,
now I'm getting excited again. But I also think too with, you

(45:25):
know, because obviously this is in I'll preview, that's the
word, obviously this is in preview.
So at first I was like, well, that's kind of a bummer because
I'm going to want to replay it for achievements and then I have
to like probably start over withmy base and everything.
But then I was thinking and should I did that with Grounded?
A ton. We we went back to that game a

(45:46):
bunch, so it's kind of like daunting thinking about that
now. But I think I'll actually enjoy
going back to it and starting mybase over, especially because
Andrew pointed out it's going tobe a lot quicker to build and
everything now, now that we kindof know what we're doing.
And the fact that you can bring your character over that's
leveled up makes it. Yeah, well that makes sense.
And that's what I was gonna say too, is that the fact that you

(46:07):
guys already really had it all fleshed out on, OK, this is what
we need to focus on. Where you might have spent two
hours trying to do something your first time around that was
just kind of a an empty Rd. for you.
Now you don't need to do that. One of the things I wanted to
ask you though, Andrew, about the the teleporter then is like,
can you rename them multiple times or is it once it's named
it's named that way. I think what's the same, just

(46:29):
named. And that makes sense, because I
was wondering. I didn't try.
Because you could like almost create like a central location
like your base basically and then just rename it every time
to the tell it like the teleporter like rename it to
copper and then have one that's tin and rename it to tin so that
you can go to. Well, you should be able to
rename it if you disassemble it and then rebuild rebuild it.
Oh, I guess. Because whenever you disassemble

(46:49):
something, you get 100% refund. That's a good point.
So I guess you could do that. It feels like a little bit of a
janky way to do it, but yeah, I guess that kind of works.
But otherwise, yeah, I was, let's see, you just have your
central one that you just keep renaming.
But you just need to keep creating just new portals, which
it wasn't too expensive to make.But like you could come up with

(47:10):
goofy names like when me and Lizplayed Grounded, we literally
had you. You just could create like
pings, like actual like symbols.And me and Liz would always say,
oh, it's diamond base because weput a diamond on it.
But like in Valheim, we could create a portal and call it
Diamond me. Both me and Liz would instantly
know like, oh, it brings me to that base, even though that's no

(47:31):
correlation as to what that baseactually purpose is.
And that's what I loved. Yeah.
And like the game, just these simple mechanics that they that
Valheim introduces, it's just somuch fun like the just naming
the portals and we didn't get tosailing like.
Me and let's only scratch the surface on sailing, but the
sailing in this game was really fun.

(47:53):
Except when there's no wind. Yeah, except when there's, yeah,
no wind or you're going against the wind, then you're kind of
screwed. But I think you get bigger boats
that you can actually kind of counter that, I think I.
Got a blueprint for a boat? Yeah, the carve.
Maybe. I don't know.
That's the one we had. So I'm curious how how the
graphics were then out on the water.

(48:15):
Just yes, if you don't mind, I guess I was going to change, no.
Sea of Thieves, I'm going to saythat.
Well well so there's that. But because one of the things
that while it wasn't like wow, this is mind blowing graphics, I
thought one of the coolest visual experiences in the game
and I'm guessing you guys probably had at least one of
them happen, is when there was alightning storm or like a

(48:36):
rainstorm, it like the way that the lightning would light up the
forest and like kind of. Not echo, because obviously
light doesn't echo, but I think you know what?
I'm like kind of what I'm sayingof like kind of reverberate
around the The Force. It just was, it was a really
cool experience and it almost had like it wasn't scary, but it
had like a horror type of feel to it and I thought that was

(48:57):
really cool. The graphics of Alheim I dug a
lot because it's kind of low Poly, but also isn't.
The textures are kind of more low Poly, but.
I I love the art style of Valheim because that's the
thing, too. I completely forgot about until
I was playing Coop with Liz and I looked at her screen and she

(49:17):
was looking up at the sky. But you see the world tree above
your character in like extendingout throughout the world.
And it's like and that's like little details like that, where
it's like, Oh yeah, like I, you know, we're in Valheim, we're in
kind of a purgatory of the Northmythology.
And I I really like the graphicsof that line.
I see. I agree.

(49:38):
But I felt like sometimes like my character looked a little
there's they make it so that youknow if you're encumbered, if
you're wet and things like that.But there's sometimes where,
like my character was hunched over and it just looked really
awkward. And I also sometimes couldn't
tell if I was wearing pants. I didn't realize you had to

(49:59):
equip them, but I I. If I don't, I don't look
different enough that I noticed it.
I think it's because everything is kind of like dark when you're
looking at your character. And I just, I never know if I'm
clothed. I know it's like I now I do, but
if I'm not paying attention, like if I die or something, I

(50:20):
probably won't notice for 15 minutes.
Well, because you kind of. Observe it I was.
Going to see you kind of yeah. You naturally kind of think it's
going to auto equip it when you pick it back up because that's
sort of the natural flow of a lot of games and again you know
hopefully a quality of life thing that will happen in future
versions of the game. But it overall, I yeah, I

(50:41):
thought I know what you're saying as far as the the kind of
little graphic look to your character and when you got up
close to things but that's where.
I think kind of like what you were saying with the World Tree
is like the bigger world around you and you just look around it
cuz it actually has a pretty good what's like not pop in,
what's what's the right word? Like when you can see things off

(51:02):
in a distance and they're actually like there.
The field of view. Yeah, like, I don't know, I
thought. There's but Poppins also a good
explanation. But yeah, like it, but it gives
you like a far distance. It's not just like, oh, this
thing's 10 feet in front of you.And then you start seeing the
rocks. It's like you can.
I feel like you can see. A big distance, and yeah, it has

(51:22):
a good aspect to that. So overall, I thought the
graphics were pretty good. There was nothing I would really
change about them because I don't think it needs to be 4K,
you know, top tier graphics. But it also doesn't need to be
another Minecraft. No, I I, I absolutely love the
art style and graphics of what Valheim's doing because as Liz

(51:43):
was saying earlier, the building, like things you can
build are crazy intricate. Like that was my issue with like
Minecraft, everything is box andsquares and unless you have a
very creative mind like Liz is like learning how to create like
furniture by using stairs and like some other different like
pieces that you can use and it looks like a couch.

(52:04):
Like I never would think of thatthing.
But in Valheim everything has a very distinct shape and image of
it that you know what you're building, but you can create
some crazy intricate. Like Norse structures and it
looks awesome. I agree.
I really like the graphics and Ithink like when you're running
around and stuff, I mean like you can get nitpicky.

(52:25):
Like you said earlier, the waterisn't fantastic, but overall I I
did like it. But getting into the music,
though, a little. Repetitive.
I'm very mixed about the music. I like it.
So music constantly changes to where you are.
So the meadows, the Black Forest, whether you're sailing,
whether you're in the swamp area, like every sort of area

(52:46):
has unique music, but it's one soundtrack and it got very
repetitive because obviously spend a lot of time in the
meadows, the starting area, and it's a nice jazzy kind of calm
music. But hearing that soundtrack over
and over and over and over again, and the intro music, when
you boot up, the game is crazy loud and it's can be very

(53:10):
awkward. I know, like, I definitely just
took more points off of the intro music because it just kind
of came up at an inopportune time and it was just like, what
is the soundtrack like? This is so loud, this is so
blaring. So I like the soundtrack.
They just need to maybe bake some more tracks.
Please tell me we're sitting in a meeting at work like I'm.
Just gonna pull. No, no, no.

(53:31):
We just like booted it up and like we were in the kitchen
talking and the soundtracks likeand it's like, what is this?
I think I largely wrote off the music.
I think, yeah. Because I think there was times
I was no, I wasn't playing it without headphones but or
without audio. But I yeah, I don't know if I

(53:51):
was paying. A ton of attention to it,
because I think the overall sounds otherwise are actually
mostly pretty good. And that's what I was listening
for, because I was like, I have to hunt deer, so I'm listening
for deer, I'm listening for monsters coming after me and
things like that. So I I kind of didn't pay
attention to the music, which also isn't a huge shock, I know.

(54:12):
I if you're grumpy, like. I'm just going to say, do you
know what? I'm not going to murder like
that. I'm just going to be straight
and honest. I was grumpy at one point and I
that music was going and I was not having it and it was, it was
turned down very quickly. But I thought of like two other

(54:32):
like little tiny things, like inanother thing, but there's no
achievements. I figured I'd do it now.
Yes, thank you. That is.
That is one reason I didn't wantto cover this.
Game because I know because you're going to have to go back.
But one of the things was you. I really wish that you could
destroy outdated items that you no longer want.
I was leaving them around and then accidentally picking up me

(54:55):
and Andrews like just throw themin the river because like I was
just like I would leave them be.Like just I just remember not to
walk in that area but I feel like there should be a way to
like to fully disassemble them. So I thought that was kind of
silly. And then I think like that with
it comes the deer. It's not calibrated right?
Maybe that's not the right word.Sometimes a deer will hear or

(55:18):
see me a mile away, and other times I will just run full at it
face to face and it it it won't see me and I'll literally bump
into it and I won't have any stamina.
And it doesn't run away. And I wait for my stamina to go
up and I and I hit it. Yeah, it's like a weird.
Animation thing like if I think if you like catch them at the

(55:38):
right part of their animation oflike eating, basically they'll
just commit to that. But I I found the same way and
and to that point that's where Iended up just taking the second
approach for deer. I was like well, if if I'm just
going to have no luck sneaking up on them no matter what I do,
I'm just going to Sprint at themfull force every time run by and
maybe like club them as they tryto run past me.

(55:59):
Got a couple that way. So yeah.
One of the things that we didn'ttalk about with the graphics and
I I don't know that all of the bosses are like this, but the
bosses I was wicked cool. Yeah, all of like the kind of
Sammy type of enemies that I wasfighting, at least in the one
main area I was in. I I can't say it's that way the
whole way through the game, but that boss again, it was, it was

(56:23):
like an epic battle out of norm.Like this is a cool big looking
boss, so. I'm assuming they all kind of
followed out and because I half expected this one to be like,
oh, it's the deer, It's just going to be like a normal deer,
but it attacks you instead of running away.
Yeah, it's bigger and it doesn'trun away from you.
But no, this thing was like, oh geez, I'm screwed.
Yeah, it had like, yeah, crazy decorations and an antler.

(56:45):
It's shooting lightning at you. I fully agree.
But I mean, like, go back a little bit in the gameplay.
This is one thing I think Valheim does so incredibly well.
At the beginning, right at the beginning, it brings you to this
area and it says hey, you need to put trophies on each of these
statues. Each of these statues represent
a boss. Kill a boss, bring its statue

(57:06):
here, bring its trophy here. Like this is another thing that
I feel like was is so lacking insurvival builder games.
Like even in Grounded me. And let's play Grounded at least
so many times during preview that at least we had an idea of
what to do. And when the game finally came
out, like it gave you a bit moreof a guidance arc gave you 0
guidance. Well, not zero, but I felt like

(57:27):
ARC was very hard to figure out what I was doing in Valheim.
It's very much front and center.Your goal.
Kill the bosses, bring their trophies here.
That's what you're trying to do.And I loved that.
But yeah, so this is, yeah, like, let's say with over the
achievements. There's currently no
achievements, which is very unfortunate because this is in
preview. Hopefully they'll come out with
them soon. That's usually, it's sad, but

(57:49):
that's usually kind of my grounds of.
I figured we should do a game isbecause it has achievements.
That means usually the developers like, yeah, we're
pretty close to being done. Here's the achievements.
But I've at least heard from notonly from our listener to do
this game, but I've I've at least seen online of people
saying, like, how complete this game kind of felt.
So that's why we decided to do this.

(58:09):
But you know let's get to our final thoughts here.
I'll start like I said so we've covered a lot of survivability
games. Minecraft Grounded Arc.
And to me, this is the first survival builder game where I
truly, actually felt like I did not care playing solo.
Playing multiplayer obviously helps having more hands and more

(58:31):
inventory people like to carry stuff obviously is a huge help,
but I did not hate playing solo.I'd like a lot of other survival
builders we do when I'm solo andI'm going to a boss or big
fight. To me, it felt like such a wall,
like you need to have friends, you need to bring them with you
or you're just going to get stomped.

(58:53):
But in Valheim, I did not care the fact that everything is
leveling up, as I'm just walking, running, chopping wood,
using a sword, everything's leveling up.
And so that's what I felt is if I felt like this was too hard,
cool, I'm going to level up my sword skill.
Maybe I'll get stronger and I can fight these guys by myself.
And that's generally what I would do.
In Valheim, if you told me this game is a game preview, I would

(59:15):
not believe you. To me, we didn't cover a section
of bugs because I encountered none.
And I know the development of this game like this game.
I think it's been on scene for over a year now and I know the
developers have been a little bit slow with updates because
they're morely mostly focusing on bugs and stability.
But I don't know about you guys.Did you guys find any bugs?

(59:37):
Any anything issues? I didn't have anything major I I
like, I know you said the whole line of sight thing with the
enemies but I still contest thatthere's they're not fully
programmed correctly. Whether or not I'd call it a
bug. They are not in a good state I
don't think I I just the the level of following that they do

(01:00:00):
in the way that they operate doesn't seem natural to to this
style of game but. Outside of that, no, I don't
think I ran into any real bugs. Like, no.
Weird like, oh, I just ran into something and I died that I
shouldn't have died from. So nothing comes to mind.
There was one time I thought it was, but then I found out that

(01:00:21):
there was a giant troll who chucked a rock in my head.
But I found that when I came back.
That's unrelated. I didn't find any bugs.
I did get stuck behind some stairs in like an old abandoned
tower. And I was beating those stairs
for the longest time, like, I don't know what they were made
of, but it wasn't anything that we'd encountered.

(01:00:44):
I eventually got out, but it was, it was rough, it was it was
a long time and so. That's what I mean.
Like, I feel like this game is so very stable to where it is,
so I cannot wait. I I pray the developer has
please pick up the pace. I know this game has been
selling like hotcakes on Steam. And so they've been able to hire
a lot more staff, so I'm hoping they'll be able to get this game

(01:01:06):
out of preview and get a finished product, because I
cannot wait to revisit Valheim. I had so much fun.
I thought the combat was a lot of fun.
I I felt like they could have done a little bit better with
direction at the beginning of the game.
I think the soundtrack could maybe be turned down a little
bit, and I wish they'd add a little more soundtracks, But
overall, Valheim is a ton of fun.

(01:01:29):
And we didn't mention that for multiplayer you can have up to
10 players. You did.
So if you're you want to mentionthat, OK.
So if you're one of the few people unlike us that actually
have a lot of friends, this is fantastic to play with friends
because it's pop in and pop out.I could not find anything online
as to whether or not the game scales to whether there's more
players. So I don't think like enemies

(01:01:51):
get more health if there's more players, things like that.
But yeah, Valheim to me was a relaxing and fun time.
I'm giving it a 90 and this is just in preview.
I can't wait for the scheme to be out of preview.
Do do you have the ability to run a dedicated server on it?
I think it have. To be like kind of huge host.
Yeah, you have. Yeah, I think it's.
Keep it open type of thing. I think so, yeah.

(01:02:12):
That makes sense. I think that's how most things
are anyways. I mean we didn't mention it turn
our ARC episode, but there is a company I think.
I think their name was Nostrado.There's an app you can download
on the Xbox and you can pay money and they can host
dedicated servers, at least on ARC.
I wanna be surprised if they do Valheim as well.
Yeah, it's so weird, cuz I don'tknow.

(01:02:38):
I think I kind of just settled mostly a lot of really good
things about. Of Alheim and.
And yet you gave it a pass. But I I go back to and I and I
still stand behind it. It's really just in the current
state. And I, and I don't even largely
disagree with you, Andrew, when you say that this feels like
it's mostly a complete game. I think all of the elements of a

(01:02:59):
complete game are there. But personally I think that the
quality of life in the game and all of the things that a
survival game should have, the item sorting the, the.
The tutorial to kind of give youthe rules of building to just
like all of those little things like that that we talked about

(01:03:20):
of like I don't know the pacing in how you you're kind of thrown
at this big boss without knowingthat you can do other things.
And I just I don't think it's ina good overall state for.
Where it needs to be. I think it needs to build more
and take advantage of the Norse mythology.
I think they need to really givethese these creatures

(01:03:41):
personality. Like give me a like a I can't
even think of the board now likea like a journal that you know,
I can find out about who. Yeah.
Obesity. Thank you.
Give me a beast theory Or where I can learn about the Gray
dwarfs and the graylings and allof these little things that are

(01:04:02):
populating the world. But so for that to say, like I I
would like to think that all that's going to be there and I'm
and I'm actually with you, I want to revisit this game and I
do look forward to it coming out.
It's not like it's a pass. And I I I wish this was final so
we didn't have to do it. I want to.
I just don't really want to keepplaying it.

(01:04:24):
In a sense, it's almost like when I was playing the Diablo
beta, except I I had a ton of fun with that.
But I just got to a certain point where I'm like this is
great and I and I think the product is fine, but I just want
the full thing in my hands with all of the features and
everything that it's going to bring to me.
That's when I want to sit and maybe put in 30-40 hours into
it. So it is a pass as a game

(01:04:47):
preview, but just really becauseit's a preview and I and I want
it to be a a fullfledged game, but I I would still say that I
for a game preview. In the state that it's in and
it's the ability and all of those things, I I would still
give it a solid 80. I think that I'm gonna give it.

(01:05:09):
See, when Andrew said 90, I was like, oh, my score seems low.
I think I'm gonna do 86. It's gonna do 85.
Yeah, I. Raised it.
It was just to. Be honest, I don't care.
No, cuz I got the more I think about it.
I mean, I don't know. Do you know why I'm gonna stick
with my original? 8585 I'm right in between you

(01:05:33):
guys, which is weird because I II feel like with you guys like
Andrew, you loved it. And Keith, I mean like that's
only a 10 point difference. That's wild to me.
But yeah, I definitely liked it.I'm excited to play more I when
it comes to like the Beastiary. That you're talking about, I

(01:05:54):
feel like I never read those to be honest, so don't care if they
have that. But yeah, overall, I'm really
looking forward to it. I feel like the beginning is
honestly what needs the most improvement and I'm not in the
beginning anymore, so but yeah. So definitely check out

(01:06:15):
Bellheim, at least in my opinion.
I think it's ton of fun. But yeah, thank you so much for
joining us. If you have any game suggestions
or you want to check us out, go to gamepassgrabback.com.
You'll find the links to all of our things.
We love to hear from our listeners.
So you know, if you want to shoot us, an e-mail at
[e-mail]. Love to hear other listener
requests, Tell us what you thinkof Alheim or whatever.

(01:06:38):
If you just want to talk to us, we just love to hear from you
guys. I've been your hardcore gamer
host, Andrew. You can find me on Xbox Live at
Firebird 0152. I have been Keith and let's see
pizza dude. I think I've largely like if I
don't have enough, you get a 7/7this week.
I'm Liz Noob Gamertag. Come on.

(01:07:00):
I'm Dean and I'm on Twitter and Instagram At Liz Noob Noob is EW
and we have a Game Pass, Instagram, Game Pass grab bag.
I forgot about that. That I need to put more stuff on
obviously. I probably need to add that to
our list of links because I heard about that.
Our link tree. I mean, I just said it last

(01:07:21):
week, so you know all. Right.
But thank you all so much for joining us.
We love you all. We'll see you again next week.
Bye guys.