I want to like this game, I really tried to like this game - the game does not want to be liked.

The game is inherently flawed from top to bottom in a vast number of ways:
- Valheim gives you solutions to biomes by way of resistance meads, but allows you to make them seemingly when you can obtain the ingredients needed reliably -- in other words: when they're obsolete.

- Valheim suffers incredibly by giving the player a bunch of different items of varying, arbitrary stack limits at certain points of progression, where the purpose (or purposes) of said items are unknown until you get all of the pieces needed to make it. I still have no idea what the point of entrails are, but I have three stacks of them next to my honey chest.

- Valheim has great base building features, all of it absolutely marred by time you kill Bonemass and your base is obliterated by flying drakes that will three shot you in your own home, and then kill your precious bees. Why do they do this? Because you wanted your base to look pretty, and not a grey VIKING DOME of stone that would absolutely keep your three stacks of entrails safe. (Still have no idea what they do)

- About 25 hours in, me and my boys had decided that Unrestricted Portals was probably a smart idea given that Bonemass was in Africa, and we were in Canada. That's a pretty large distance, and to transport 15 stacks of iron (even with carts, and belts) via boats given to us at the time (kurve), it would take multiple trips, and that's just some phone game levels of disrespecting a player's time.

- Dying in the mountains shows a horrible flaw with the game in that even with full food buffs, damage scaling makes no sense. Something is either too damaging, or too weak to make you even feel it, not even worth a screen shake like it does. If a stone golem decides to destroy rocks above you while you try to explore a stone stairwell with a chest in it, well, goodbye gear. Why? Because the stone golem is now in that hole - with your gear - and you are now naked. You will either die trying to get your gear, or die of the cold if the body is too far up the mountain.

- Exploration is inherently flawed. The bones are good, I liked wandering around early game, finding stuff. But the lack of variety in dungeons, their enemies, and their rewards (no super rare gear other than the skeleton shield? That was cool, why not more of that?) After you've seen what the game has to offer in the forest biome, you realise that every biome is basically a different hue of the same thing, but with more needless busywork attached to it.

- Needless busywork. Everything is a chore. The game feels like it's going to ask me to spend Viking Coin to speed up fermenters, or repair my whole base (which should be a thing, mass repair should be a base feature, not a mod), or skip raids.

- Lack of enemy diversity. Early game all you see are Greylings, and different Greydwarfs. They will travel 500km in the rain to come throw a rock at you. That will be your early game for at least eight hours. When you get to the swamp? Drauger archers. When you get to the mountains? Wolves. When you get to the plains? Mosquitos. There's always a really oppressively overtuned, annoying enemy that's everywhere. Because the dev team is made of sadists.

All-in-all, I really wanted to like Valheim. Early game it had me, I enjoyed myself. Then I started progressing, and the game became asking "why is this like this?" The game's difficulty is fine - it's the design and gameplay loop that's masochistic to suffer through.

TL;DR - Terraria is the best survival game there is, full stop.

I want to like this game, I really tried to like this game - the game does not want to be liked. The game is inherently flawed from top to bottom in a vast number of ways: - Valheim gives you solutions to biomes by way of resistance meads, but allows you to make them seemingly when you can obtain the ingredients needed reliably -- in other words: when they're obsolete. - Valheim suffers incredibly by giving the player a bunch of different items of varying, arbitrary stack limits at certain points of progression, where the purpose (or purposes) of said items are unknown until you get all of the pieces needed to make it. I still have no idea what the point of entrails are, but I have three stacks of them next to my honey chest. - Valheim has great base building features, all of it absolutely marred by time you kill Bonemass and your base is obliterated by flying drakes that will three shot you in your own home, and then kill your precious bees. Why do they do this? Because you wanted your base to look pretty, and not a grey VIKING DOME of stone that would absolutely keep your three stacks of entrails safe. (Still have no idea what they do) - About 25 hours in, me and my boys had decided that Unrestricted Portals was probably a smart idea given that Bonemass was in Africa, and we were in Canada. That's a pretty large distance, and to transport 15 stacks of iron (even with carts, and belts) via boats given to us at the time (kurve), it would take multiple trips, and that's just some phone game levels of disrespecting a player's time. - Dying in the mountains shows a horrible flaw with the game in that even with full food buffs, damage scaling makes no sense. Something is either too damaging, or too weak to make you even feel it, not even worth a screen shake like it does. If a stone golem decides to destroy rocks above you while you try to explore a stone stairwell with a chest in it, well, goodbye gear. Why? Because the stone golem is now in that hole - with your gear - and you are now naked. You will either die trying to get your gear, or die of the cold if the body is too far up the mountain. - Exploration is inherently flawed. The bones are good, I liked wandering around early game, finding stuff. But the lack of variety in dungeons, their enemies, and their rewards (no super rare gear other than the skeleton shield? That was cool, why not more of that?) After you've seen what the game has to offer in the forest biome, you realise that every biome is basically a different hue of the same thing, but with more needless busywork attached to it. - Needless busywork. Everything is a chore. The game feels like it's going to ask me to spend Viking Coin to speed up fermenters, or repair my whole base (which should be a thing, mass repair should be a base feature, not a mod), or skip raids. - Lack of enemy diversity. Early game all you see are Greylings, and different Greydwarfs. They will travel 500km in the rain to come throw a rock at you. That will be your early game for at least eight hours. When you get to the swamp? Drauger archers. When you get to the mountains? Wolves. When you get to the plains? Mosquitos. There's always a really oppressively overtuned, annoying enemy that's everywhere. Because the dev team is made of sadists. All-in-all, I really wanted to like Valheim. Early game it had me, I enjoyed myself. Then I started progressing, and the game became asking "why is this like this?" The game's difficulty is fine - it's the design and gameplay loop that's masochistic to suffer through. TL;DR - Terraria is the best survival game there is, full stop.