This is hard since Valheim just came out and it’s kind of an indie game but seems to be growing enormously in a short period of time.
Let me start by giving Pros of Wow that I feel still exist.
-
Shadowlands (despite some of it’s flaws) is better than BFA.
-
Torghast (where you can play with a group) or solo it yourself as a single dungeon is pretty cool just with that concept. The fact that it also serves as a special dark tower of sorts in an area that I believe is suppose to represent the portion of shadowlands that would be closest to hell is also cool, considering your fighting living shades.
-
Shadowlands concept this time around is okay. Fighting a war that seems to be going on in a portion of the game world that living beings shouldn’t even have access to is interesting.
-
Different areas of this undead realm that you can quest or just generally explore and are all different is also interesting.
-
The shadowland gear kind of looks better than the BFA gear sets (at least at this time).
-
Building legendary gear with the help of a main prisoner it seems we will eventually free from the Slaver is also interesting.
-
Despite changes that have made wow seem more of a single player game. There are still a bunch of options to team with others and not feel totally alone.
Cons of Present day Wow. Unfortunately, I feel that wow has seriously retconned some material. It seems most players just care about shiny nice gear or how their character looks on a personal level.
Since I played World of Warcraft when it was just an RTS game, I feel that certain changes in Wow now have been done for reasons that are not relevant to the story and have kind of ruined the lore of the game.
Since I was a lover of fantasy first before I ventured into World of Warcraft at all this annoys me. Not even so much of some of the changes but more so that they were just added with no explanations.
That doesn’t just bother me about main general concepts that I felt established this story world for decades, it bothers me that someone’s work could be just radically changed (seemingly overnight) with no new explanations. It feels to me like well dirtying up a single or many original artists work.
Pros of Valheim. So for those that do not have this game yet. Imagine if Minecraft and Runescape had a kid, and then that kid decided to totally become a Viking.
This is Valheim at present.
I will start with Cons of Valheim.
Cons: I have so far only played as a single player. I think the game is set for others to find me but so far it’s just been me in this huge random generated world and sometimes I feel alone because of that.
- Graphics are low resolution at times (especially when your close up to objects).
Pros: So you don’t actually level in Valheim. You level up skill lines. When you die, you lose a little bit of what you already learned. So for example: If you just learned to wield a club a little bit better by raising it to 3 instead of 0 and you die, you will spawn pretty much naked and maybe that club skill is now 2.
With this said, everything feels like you earned things. You need wood to make a nice axe you can cut down trees better with or just for personal protection. It’s not too hard to make one but beware of cutting down trees.
Sometimes a tree as it comes down can hurt you and the noise can attract enemies. This is more concerning if your new and ventured into the black forest with almost no protection or decent weapons yet.
You can kind of build anywhere but you really want to build on even level terrain and sometimes the game doesn’t do a great job defining where that it is.
So make a hoe. You can till the land to make it more palatable for a future hall (base) you will really need.
You are affected by all sorts of things in this game which make it just exciting. Made some decent gear but no campfire yet and it starts to rain. Better have a place to stay or you will become cold and wet (which debuffs you in certain ways).
Also built a campfire already to use to warm you and cook food. Great, your already making progress but the weather starts freaking out again, well unless you put your campfire in your shelter, you will have to wait for the rains and storms to stop before you can cook food and keep warm by the fire again.
So you built a shelter and put a campfire into it. Great, you might not have to worry about bad weather putting out your fire.
Of course, if you haven’t made a proper opening somewhere in this shelter, the smoke from the fire can’t ventilate out and it will start piling inside and you can suffocate slowly and die from smoke inhalation.
Before you can do any of this though you must build a hammer and a workbench and make sure your workbench has a roof and is not exposed (make some walls and roofs over the bench and you can start to build.
So lets say you did all of this and decide you want to gather some food to cook for later before you really start adventuring at all.
Okay, but be careful, because sudden sounds and running up to certain animals (like deer) will just scare them away and you will have to wait for them to come back to try to get them again.
Except or boors. Boors just seem wild and mad if you get close enough to them. You can just smack them (with fists) or a few other types of weapons.
So it took me awhile to hunt deer. I had to learn how to sneak.
Even though this is just attacking one enemy at a time compared say to the mobs one can fight in wow, every single kill I got seemed like I accomplished a feat.
So eventually I made some armor and some better weapons (as well as upgrades).
I start venturing from the Meadows (which you can recognize just from the joyous music playing in the background) until I hit the black forest.
The music all of a sudden changes and these “other creatures” start appearing everywhere.
So I noticed different types of trees at this point and started to cut one down to get some different wood possibly.
Well, it worked in some cases. It was also a mistake this early since all of a sudden "certain creatures hearing the tree fall down appeared. One or two startled me. I got one or two no real problem though.
So I dispatched two and continued cutting this fallen tree that was now just a log. I was making progress and then three more of these creatures showed up.
I got one and started backing towards the meadows to dispatch the other two. They came close to me and then ran away.
They got scared?
Nope. Oh they backed away all right but started coming back towards me. I hit one but since I’m worried about the other one, I keep heading towards the meadows.
I’m still in the black forest though and now 2 more of these “creatures” come out of nowhere.
I dispatch one. But I got a wounded one and another at full strength.
Then another one comes.
Then a shaman version one comes
all of a sudden I got these “creatures” who keep coming towards me and I’m just jetting now. I might kill one or hurt a few but I keep running.
Oh no some deer got spooked. Dammit I lost a meal.
A boar comes out of nowhere. Disturbed I bothered it eating grass. It actually tries to attack me.
These creatures are still after me.
I’m in the meadows now and they are still after me. They keep playing this game with me where they try to attack me and then run away from me.
This means some enemies actually show caution as they try to attack you.
Eventually, I am able to dispatch these creatures. However, it takes longer than I thought since every swing hit or miss costs me stamina and I really can’t do anything with no stamina.
Later I go into the black forest again.
This time I sneak.
I make better progress and find what one could consider a dungeon. Two skeletons are guarding it. Animated ones. I take them out but they are harder than the “creatures”
I go inside and find “burial chambers”. I have a torch, that makes it bearable with light. Then since the torch is burning out I turn it off and the ambience of this chamber becomes very spooky.
I find more skeletons here and there (mostly animated) and I slowly take them out but I notice after not killing some very quickly that as they approach me for a second time, they actually use caution to do so. Scared undead skeletons.
I find some rare things (at least so far in the game). Some rubies. As to what purpose who knows? I found some feathers, who knows and some gold coins.
Then I find some sort of heat cube. I take them all.
Most dangerous and really spooky thing I find by the way (at least at this point) is a ghost.
Not sure if I killed the ghost. Ghost was tough but I destroyed it pretty sure.
I finally make my way out of the burial chamber and it’s morning now.
I feel like I accomplished though something (earned these new precious items (some rare) and start to head back to my home.
I made a chest too so I have storage space to put these items in and a bed, in case I die.
I have to trex through the black forest still. This starts out well enough and I feel I’m getting close enough to the meadows where my home is located in and all of a sudden a blue naked huge troll appears out of nowhere.
He sees me and starts growling and I can hear him trex after me. I run out of stamina though and need to slow down to regain some.
Bad mistake, this troll comes right on to me and smacks me hard. Nearly kills me. At least I had food buffs.
I start running and make it to my home. I go quickly inside and feel safe.
Troll is still after me though.
I feel I’m safe though since I saw other enemies in the past unable to go past my door.
The troll makes a growl sound. “Smash” His arm with his club attacks my home.
I see damage but it still holds. Then another smash. Same situation but I am just frozen inside.
Then another smash and the back part of my nice wooden home is totaled. I run out of this new whole.
Then he turns and smashes my craftstable.
That was my breaking point. I try to attack him with my axe. He growls and smashs me again. I’m dead.
I respawn and decide to do something different. I’ll fix my home later.
I make a new crafting table near the water’s edge. I make a raft.
I get on the raft and start exploring the water. I notice the land I started on getting fainter and fainter.
I’m eventually in the ocean, navigating through it on this little raft with a rudder. I feel like I’m one of those explorers from ages past.
I’m on the open water now and this huge generated world is beautiful.
Eventually, I find new land.
A whole new section of this world for me to explore. Who knows what waits?
However, I turn my little raft in another direction and continue to explore.
Eventually I am pretty north of where I am still on the ocean and start to turn east to see what I might eventually find.
I even practice some of my swimming skill out here. It helps a-lot.
Then as I continue on my way in this large expanse of water. I see it.
A sea serpent. Out of the blue, a giant sea serpent. It attacks my raft.
I feel like I don’t have any type of weapon to really hurt it and I don’t want to go into the water at all. I try to search for a nearby island or land.
It turns around and comes at me again.
Damages my raft. I see visible damage.
I put out the sails to hopefully increase speed. Land where are you?
It turns around again and attacks me. This time smashes my raft.
I’m in the water.
I try to swim anywhere.
It eats me.
So even though these might all seem like small errands and tasks. They all feel much more challenging when I complete them and even when I fail I feel alive.