Recent reviews by Drewey09

Honestly I don't even know what to say after this update.

Dauntless has always been an incredible game that has suffered from a clear lack of direction. It feels like this game went from having cool new updates planned with actual game value (like new behemoths, weapons, etc..) to something akin to a beach ball being passed around from one entire game-rework to the next. This "major update" is by far some of the worst content Dauntless has actually released.

Prior to this update, you spent time killing behemoths and getting materials to make new weapons and armor. The fights were fun, the game play was varied, and while I didn't love all of the systems, the game had an interesting variety, tons of different weapon variety for each of the weapons, and generally was just fun. Why they felt the need to change this? I will never know. With this newest update they completely gutted that system and instead replaced all of that weapon diversity with like 12 TOTAL weapons. I used to play repeaters (the ranged weapon) and there was 10+ different repeaters with a good amount of customization. There is now TWO. Not only are these new weapons not tied to game play AT ALL, they are instead locked behind a battle pass or real world money in order to obtain.

They removed an incredible amount of player progress with this update as well. Key features like weapons (as mentioned above), cells, lanterns, are all things player spent time and effort grinding for, in some cases over multiple years. And in this new "major update" they removed all of it. I've been playing on and off since 2019, and they removed roughly 5 years of my progress when it comes to weapons, cells, builds, etc.. As compensation for the last FIVE years, they gave me 300 of their new paid weapon currency. To put it in perspective, this gets me THREE weapons. 150+ hours reduced to three weapons after they removed the 20+ weapons I already had maxed.

And for what? The game-play is essentially the same with the exception of being able to wield two weapons (which i think is a great change). They added a single new behemoth, and fighting those is literally the entire point of the game. Why did they spend the last two+ years cooking this awful update that changed things that didn't need to be changed? I don't understand how it is hard to just add new content, add new behemoths, add new weapons (the bow was teased FIVE years ago and has never been added) and build upon the existing game. Why they would overlook this and think "You know what our players would love? ANOTHER rework and very heavy monetization" is beyond me.

Save yourself the trouble of having 5+ years of progress being randomly reset, save yourself the trouble of the entire game change every two years, save yourself the trouble of burning through the game's limited content and waiting indefinitely for SOMETHING new, and just avoid this game all together. Dauntless had great potential and was really fun but the developers have absolutely fumbled the ball and killed any momentum it had years ago, it really is sad.

Edit: Forgot to mention that the game runs HORRIBLY now. I am getting at max 30 FPS with a 2080 Super (which isn't the newest card by any stretch of the word but still works well) on high. Prior to this I got above 60 FPS on epic with zero issues. No idea how you mess something up this horribly.

This game has more bugs then an infested planet

This game cost me everything.

I play, well played, most games with a GTX 1060 ti. Not exactly the most powerful piece of machinery but she was a fighter and got me through many a modern game. I had absolutely no problems playing through ASE and figured I would give this game a try, I mean how bad could it possibly be?

Well I would soon find out. I started the download at 7 am today and after a nice 8 hour stint, I was finally able to open up the game at 3:07 pm. Almost immediately my computers fans kicked on which was not abnormal given the tech I was working with. I turned all of the graphics down to the lowest they could possibly go, I had to give my computer a fighting chance, and then clicked through the main menu. Bit by bit my fans picked up speed, getting louder and louder as I made my way through the character creation screen. The frames weren't great, I was getting about 20-30 FPS, but all things considered it could have been a LOT worse. With my horrendously disfigured character, so bad that even the Habsburg family would have been disgusted, complete, it was finally time to take the leap of faith into ASA.

As the game world slowly loaded, my PC fans begun to even faster, it felt like any moment my PC would simply take flight. And the sound my fans were making was horrendous, it was almost as if they were.. screaming? My computer began to radiate heat, I was a little worried, so I gave it a quick tap to check its temperature and immediately burned my finger. In pain, but relatively still unfazed, I decided to continue on. That's when I saw it, LIGHT! The game was finally done loading, I was about to play ASA. I heard the signature starting music as my computer screamed in the background. My room was starting to get hot, I began to sweat slightly. With everything loaded, I took my first step forward in game. I only had a single FPS and a dream but I was determined to play this masterpiece. After pressing W again, I took my next step in game 15 seconds later. I was overcome with excitement, it was finally happening, I WAS PLAYING ASA! It took me another two minutes but I walked around the rock I first spawned by and that is when I saw it, the beautiful ocean. I was truly awe struck, that moment alone made the whole 9 hours it took to get there totally worth it. But then it dawned on me, the screaming had stopped, and in its place I smelled something... smoke.

I quickly looked down at my PC and saw that, like the caveman I was playing in game, I too had managed to start a fire. At first, the blaze was relatively small and probably would have been pretty manageable for someone with a level head, but I began to panic. I got up from my desk and grabbed my limited edition full-size Hatsune Miku pillow from nearby off of my bed and began to frantically beat my flaming PC with it. This only made things worse, and soon my beloved Hatsune was also on fire. I dropped her onto my carpet floor, after all when I whispered in her ear every night that I wanted our love to be full of fire and passion that is NOT what I meant, and ran out of my apartment door. The blaze quickly spread and when I eventually made it outside, I realized that I had done nothing to alert the other residents in my building, I didn't even pull the fire alarm. I also realized I forgot to put on pants. I sat outside, once again awe struck, and I watched the building slowly become engulfed in flames.

I would later find out that not everyone would make it out of the fire. In total six people died that evening, including my beloved Hatsune. All of my possessions were destroyed in the fire, and I don't have any sort of insurance. So now here I am, sitting at a bus stop cold and half naked with nothing left to my name except for my shirt and my phone, writing this review.

Don't make the same mistake I did. PLAY AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Personally I loved playing through Valheim. It was a blast and something I would gladly do again in the FUTURE (keyword). It is arguably one of the best open world survival games to release in a long time, but it is not without its flaws.

• Graphics: Valheim has beautiful yet simple graphics, they are by no means high quality but that just adds to the charm of the game. This also means that the game doesn't need a super computer to run on, making it friendly for all platforms.
  
• Space: This massive game takes up a whopping 1 GB of space, this speaks for itself.
  
• Price: At a price of $20, you get a ton of content for relatively cheap. On top of the current large amount of content, the game is still in early access, meaning you get access to all future content as well. This game is well worth the price.
  
• Gameplay: Valheim's gameplay is unique and fun. It offers a new take on the classic health and stamina system, one that largely revolves around different food items. The game has several biomes which are fun to explore the first time around, each of which has new creatures to discover as you progress through the game. It also supports a variety of playstyles and weapons, giving the player choice on how they want to play the game.
  
• Building: Valheim has an amazing building system. It is simple to use with a set amount of pieces. Despite that, you can build virtually anything, from a small starter shack to a castle, the simple system allows for every type of build.
  
• Co-op: Co-op in Valheim is about as easy as it gets, you can join a dedicated server or play with friends on their world. Joining friends is as simple as clicking on a box and setting a password, making it even better. In game, co-op works wonderfully. Every feature, from dungeons to boats, supports co-op play without any problems.

Now that I have touched on some of the things that make the game amazing, I want to address the "bad" if you will. Of course this is all subjective, and your personal experience may differ from mine. Please also note that all of these things are subject to, and likely will, change in the future, and that this only relates to what the game is like in its current state.

SPOILERS BELOW

• Replayability: In my opinion, the game lacks any replay value. When you get right down to it, the gameplay from your first and second playthrough is going to be largely the same. You will face the same enemies, grind the same ores, fight the same bosses, see the same biomes, you get the point. You could swap to a different weapon, but this would change how you fought enemies, nothing more. This is perfectly acceptable (it is early access and more features are going to come), but I wouldn't recommend going into it expecting a unique experience every time.
  
• The Grind: This game has a LARGE grind that gets fairly taxing towards the end of the game. For every biome there is a unique ore and you need gear made from the current biome's ore to survive to the next biome. You can spend several hours gathering ore (especially if you are in a group), only to have it be rendered nearly useless as the enemies in the next biome scale up so much that you are back to being killed relatively easily, and thus the cycle continues.
  
• Lack of diversity: This game lacks diversity, it is early access after all. Each biome has roughly 4 - 5 creatures. Once you see everything in a biome, which does not take long at all, there isn't much else to it. The same thing applies to dungeons. Dungeons are procedurally generated but each one is essentially the same as the last (assuming they are the same type, granted there are very few types). Each dungeon has the same enemies and loot. Essentially, if a dungeon looks the same as a different dungeon (which they all do), then it is the same and you won't get a unique experience from it.
  
• The world/exploration: Like what I said above, the world really isn't diverse. It is made up of the same biomes, which house the same creatures and ore. You won't find a unique biomes spread throughout the world (not currently at least) it is made up of the same six biomes (including the ocean). The only real incentives for exploration in my opinion (once you have seen all of the biomes) is to find a nice place to build or to search for more ores. It doesn't help that all of the biomes are largely clustered in the same general areas, meaning that an endgame biome can be found next to an early game one.
  
• Dodging: The dodging mechanic in my opinion is just really clunky. It just feels bad to use, and with animation locks, it was something I just didn't enjoy doing. It is especially necessary for boss fights which, combined with their difficulty in general, makes the experience fairly unpleasant.

If you are hesitant to play/get Valheim, I would say go for it. This game is honestly worth every penny, and while it certainly is not perfect, a lot of the flaws it currently has will be fixed overtime. The game is only in early access and there are many new biomes, features, and creatures that will be added in the future.

One word, fear.