Rejecting complex survival systems, “Valheim” uses 1G to embody the golden ratio of survival games | 4Gamers

At first glance, the screen looks like a low-cost work, and the game capacity is even less than 1G. However, the survival game “Valheim” launched by the independent team Iron Gate Studio has bloodbathed the Steam rankings within two weeks. , Has become the most popular game on the PC platform.

Just in the content of this 1G capacity, “Valheim” shows many excellent results that may not be possible with the works of major manufacturers, and it will be broken in less than two weeks. 2 million salesBecome the first batch of dark horses in 2021. If we only talk about the game loop and most of the elements of “Valheim”, it is actually not much different from other survival works, then what is the toxicity of this work? What are the interesting places that fascinate the player community so much? Just let us talk about it for you.

In fact, this game “looks” really good, BUT…

In this work, you must play as a Viking warrior, collect resources to survive in this world called “Walheim”, and try to fight against the five bosses located all over the world. By hunting the head of the boss, you can also unlock a variety of special powers and technologies, and the game is about survival→collecting materials→boss battle→unlocking new technology cycle among the four elements, some aspects may be a bit like “Terraria”.

To be honest, at first this game gave me the feeling of cheapness. Not only the special effects are super rough, the architecture and terrain design are difficult to use, even the novice teaching is rough, and the initial game rhythm is quite slow. Especially when I noticed that the weight limit of the game never seemed to be increased, I even had the urge to refund in an instant. Even the friends who played with me were full of complaints at the beginning, and even told me this It’s an adult version of “Cube World” at all.

But when we were playing and chanting, we only found out in a blink of an eye…

The battle scene

That’s right, it’s okay if you don’t play it, and it’s hard to play. I personally think that the success of this work lies in its precise handling of the needs of survival players and its efforts to change the details.

For example, combat elements that have never been interesting in survival works include not only a variety of weapons and equipment to choose from, but also systems such as perfect defense, attribute resistance, and even sneak crit. Although this game obviously didn’t design much content for PVP, the action is not very strong after all, but because the basic action elements are in place, it is enough to enrich the battle changes.

Among them, the BOSS battle that uproots hills and trees every time they fight is the essence.

In this work, all monster attacks will cause damage to the terrain, whether it is trees, stones, or even buildings, all will be affected. Not only is the battle that often hits half-destroyed terrain, it’s full of fun, when you finally get equipment and materials. When winning the BOSS, the satisfaction of the staged completion of the game is also quite refreshing. It is no wonder that this game dares to take the battle as one of the selling points.

Uncomplicated survival system, ultra-open free construction and exploration

There are also many surprises in the survival and exploration part. In addition to dungeons and boss battles to challenge, there are unexpectedly slender cooking and construction systems in the game.

You can plant and collect various works to make ale or dishes, or try to build a strong Viking longhouse or castle. The variability is even higher than that of recent representative survival games such as “Ark: Survival Evolved”. Considering that this game is only one-hundredth the size of most games, the degree of exquisiteness of this system is really extraordinary.

One of the most worth mentioning, of course, is the highly toxic building system.

In addition to the defense and size of the buildings in the game, they also have the “weight-bearing” that is popular in survival games, and the relatively rare element of “smoke exhaust”.These two parts have achieved great results under the operation of the game’s excellent physics engine. Many players are addicted to the process of constructing large buildings. As for the high-level construction and detailed system structure, you can refer to ourAnother reportDetailed introduction.

In addition, I want to emphasize that this game is a rather inconspicuous, but very important advantage for the game experience, that is, although there are many things that can be studied, the durability of the equipment on the body is very intensive, but it is meant to prevent players The farmer laughs, and there is a Buddha heart design that “does not require any resources at all” for equipment maintenance. The only thing needed is to press the maintenance button before returning to the workbench.

This greatly reduces the most annoying “in order to continue to explore, you must go back and collect low-level resources” in survival games.

You can play if you don’t like to build a house, and it’s fun

For players who don’t like building houses or farming materials, almost all of the technology in this game can be put in place after the first preparation, and there is almost no technology that needs to be bundled except for construction. This also prevents players from being persuaded by the annoying collection process, allowing you to continue to indulge in exploring the next element.

Of course, no matter how much ingenuity you develop, you will inevitably get bored if you only rely on the cycle of collecting and fighting. Therefore, this work is not only about several different invasion events, but also changes in the weather and even the environment itself. Can bring players enough tension.

To be honest, the black dwarves and flame spirits who couldn’t be killed after nightfall for the first time I was really a little frightened…

Speaking of game changes, let me mention another example of my own.

Remind everyone, don’t build your house on the shore when you go to the swamp area or the beach, because this game not only has wind direction, if there is a heavy rain, there will even be changes in rising and falling tides…My first swamp villa was flooded like this。

Yes, there is a high and low tide design in the game. Sometimes the boat will run aground accidentally, and the flooding rate in the swamp area is even exaggerated. Although annoying, it is more of an amazement at the variability of the game.

And this game is just by piling up a lot of these small details that are not clearly stated on the surface, in order to satisfy the player’s heart of exploration. In particular, the author has rarely seen survival games that can still bring me new surprises after 40 hours in recent years. The performance in this area is really excellent.

Conclusion: Overwhelmingly well received, by no means a vain name

“Valheim” has enough elements, fairly smooth technological curve, and a set of ingenuity in details. Although the special effects are a bit rudimentary, the overflowing gameplay is enough to make you abandon the persistence on the screen, coupled with the overwhelming low capacity and the affordable price of 318 yuan, even the author’s 4K basic doctrinal friends Also full of praise.

From “Day Z”, “RUST”, “ARK”, “Conan Exiles” to this “Valheim”, this work may not be the most beautiful work in the survival department, or it may not be the most gimmicky work, but It is definitely the most slender one of these works.

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