EDIT: This review was made 31 hours into a fresh Valheim. It was originally much built for Core gamers. Now 377 hours into the game, they have made great updates to where I have only 1 Con for this game: I don't believe they lock their frame rates on the title screen. This is something fairly common-ish amongst game companies, as you don't sit long on them.

I did leave my laptop up there, because I have ADHD and 4 kids. I came back to the smell of burnt silicone and a date with an RMA.

So, please enjoy this game it is FANTASTIC! But maybe, also, lock your frame rate too lol.

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This game is great...if you're not playing solo and you don't expect a very in-depth tutorial. It's also great if you like some things being hard for the sake of just being hard. I'll try to make this a short, descriptive review:

Pros:
-Diverse biomes to explore.
-The environment actually affects you.
-Crafting and Gathering!
-Some lore if you know where to look for it.
-Some tips if you know where to look for them.
-Accessibility for folks who get motion sickness.
-Smart mob AI

Cons
- Game ramps difficulty /extremely/ poorly. The area it directs you to from the starting area after you've beaten the first boss is littered with a mob that will deal such high damage that it'll one shot you if it hits you. It'll also destroy any building you're in. IMO, they either need tuned down or better things given to help prepare for it. It makes defeating the first boss feel kind of moot because nothing you can make from it helps against them. This is also true for another mob that comes from another biome after which literally two shot me in a different neighboring biome just because mining makes noise.
-You drop your gear on death. ALL your gear. Not just stuff you have in your pack. You drop your armor, your weapons, your tools, et all and you will have to corpse run and hope whatever killed you isn't around. It makes playing multiplayer pretty much integral.
-Level deficit on death. This would be less of a problem if you just had levels and you got stronger. But this game over-complicates with MANY skills (even for running, jumping, swimming, unarmed...anything you can use as a weapon, mining, ect). This can be a really, really cool facet to a game...if dying didn't make you lose progress across those levels. Especially when you, say, knock down a tree in one biome, and it causes a Jenga effect that alerts a big thing in a separate biome that sneaks up and one shots you. Then you have a corpse run, the thing is still there, and you have several days worth of skill rebuilding to do.
-Stoneworking is gated behind a biome that you're not even directed to second. You will find stone structures in the second biome, but you can't fix them or really reinforce them against the giant mobs there. You'll have to wait til you find a different biome and get an ore there before you can.
-How to upgrade crafting stations isn't totally straightforward. This is a nitpicky thing, but I think they cut out a lot of 'how to do this complicated thing' for the sake of brevity. So you may have to research online for how to do a lot of things.

All in all though, here I am 31 hours in, haven't even been able to do the 2nd boss. Is that good or bad? I don't know. I am enjoying to together time with my husband playing, but I do think there's some definite tuning issues they could poke at to make gameplay progression ramp a little more realistically.

EDIT: This review was made 31 hours into a fresh Valheim. It was originally much built for Core gamers. Now 377 hours into the game, they have made great updates to where I have only 1 Con for this game: I don't believe they lock their frame rates on the title screen. This is something fairly common-ish amongst game companies, as you don't sit long on them. I did leave my laptop up there, because I have ADHD and 4 kids. I came back to the smell of burnt silicone and a date with an RMA. So, please enjoy this game it is FANTASTIC! But maybe, also, lock your frame rate too lol. ---- This game is great...if you're not playing solo and you don't expect a very in-depth tutorial. It's also great if you like some things being hard for the sake of just being hard. I'll try to make this a short, descriptive review: Pros: -Diverse biomes to explore. -The environment actually affects you. -Crafting and Gathering! -Some lore if you know where to look for it. -Some tips if you know where to look for them. -Accessibility for folks who get motion sickness. -Smart mob AI Cons - Game ramps difficulty /extremely/ poorly. The area it directs you to from the starting area after you've beaten the first boss is littered with a mob that will deal such high damage that it'll one shot you if it hits you. It'll also destroy any building you're in. IMO, they either need tuned down or better things given to help prepare for it. It makes defeating the first boss feel kind of moot because nothing you can make from it helps against them. This is also true for another mob that comes from another biome after which literally two shot me in a different neighboring biome just because mining makes noise. -You drop your gear on death. ALL your gear. Not just stuff you have in your pack. You drop your armor, your weapons, your tools, et all and you will have to corpse run and hope whatever killed you isn't around. It makes playing multiplayer pretty much integral. -Level deficit on death. This would be less of a problem if you just had levels and you got stronger. But this game over-complicates with MANY skills (even for running, jumping, swimming, unarmed...anything you can use as a weapon, mining, ect). This can be a really, really cool facet to a game...if dying didn't make you lose progress across those levels. Especially when you, say, knock down a tree in one biome, and it causes a Jenga effect that alerts a big thing in a separate biome that sneaks up and one shots you. Then you have a corpse run, the thing is still there, and you have several days worth of skill rebuilding to do. -Stoneworking is gated behind a biome that you're not even directed to second. You will find stone structures in the second biome, but you can't fix them or really reinforce them against the giant mobs there. You'll have to wait til you find a different biome and get an ore there before you can. -How to upgrade crafting stations isn't totally straightforward. This is a nitpicky thing, but I think they cut out a lot of 'how to do this complicated thing' for the sake of brevity. So you may have to research online for how to do a lot of things. All in all though, here I am 31 hours in, haven't even been able to do the 2nd boss. Is that good or bad? I don't know. I am enjoying to together time with my husband playing, but I do think there's some definite tuning issues they could poke at to make gameplay progression ramp a little more realistically.