Recent reviews by JTUSi

While not necessarily creating any new groundbreaking mechanics, the developers have done an outstanding job integrating aspects of many great ideas from other games/genres into an amazing open-world crafting/survival game with a unique story/setting.

Valheim's deep crafting mechanics are similar to Rust, its combat mechanics are certainly souls inspired, and it has some aesthetics that remind me of WoW.

As an EA game priced at $20, Valheim brings more value than some AAA games which probably cost much to develop!

Areas that need work as the game matures:
* Combat mechanics - The game would benefit greatly from additional depth, improved timing/animation, and deeper mechanics. It's almost at the depth of a souls-like game, and investing more resources here would increase the game's longevity and novelty.

* Enemy AI - Pathing decisions, attack timing, animation, etc. could be improved. I'm sure lots of work already underway here :p

* It'd be really cool to have friendly AI characters/systems that the player can manage and protect in exchange for resource generation/transportation/logistics and city defense (miners, loggers, cart-runners, shipping routes, archers, guards, etc)