TL;DR : Iron Gate AB isn't transparent with their community/customers + incredibly slow development time despite having the means to hire more staff.

Let me preface my review by saying this: Valheim is a solid early access game with a ton of potential, and I am most certainly no game developer. However, I cannot recommend this game in it's current state, especially after the supremely lackluster 'Hearth and Home' update and the baffling lack of transparency that Iron Gate AB has shown.

Initially, Iron Gate showed us a roadmap which they then proceeded to immediately abandon after their first major update was delayed. It has been over 4 months (EDIT : OMG THEY POSTED 3 BLURRY CONCEPT ART IMAGES AND A PUMPKIN) since they have posted any sort of substantial devblog which is laughable considering the amount of money that they have made from Valheim's initial success (5 million+ sales in the first two months).

I am not really going to get into the specifics of Hearth and Home but the amount of time spent on that update is utterly insane considering the minuscule amount of content added and utterly destroying the stamina system. On one hand, I can sympathize with the struggle of being an indie developer but Iron Gate has made so much money from initial sales they absolutely have the ability to hire more staff (artists, coders, maybe some QA *cough* *cough*) and possibly improve workflow.

What makes this all the more painful is that I actually like the game a lot and had a great time playing with my friends. I love the art style, gameplay, music, etc. It really is top notch and absolutely deserved it's initial success but I cannot recommend that you purchase the game in it's current state. Hopefully things will improve for Valheim as more content is added but I do not have my fingers crossed.

TL;DR : Iron Gate AB isn't transparent with their community/customers + incredibly slow development time despite having the means to hire more staff. Let me preface my review by saying this: Valheim is a solid early access game with a ton of potential, and I am most certainly no game developer. However, I cannot recommend this game in it's current state, especially after the supremely lackluster 'Hearth and Home' update and the baffling lack of transparency that Iron Gate AB has shown. Initially, Iron Gate showed us a roadmap which they then proceeded to immediately abandon after their first major update was delayed. It has been over 4 months (EDIT : OMG THEY POSTED 3 BLURRY CONCEPT ART IMAGES AND A PUMPKIN) since they have posted any sort of substantial devblog which is laughable considering the amount of money that they have made from Valheim's initial success (5 million+ sales in the first two months). I am not really going to get into the specifics of Hearth and Home but the amount of time spent on that update is utterly insane considering the minuscule amount of content added and utterly destroying the stamina system. On one hand, I can sympathize with the struggle of being an indie developer but Iron Gate has made so much money from initial sales they absolutely have the ability to hire more staff (artists, coders, maybe some QA *cough* *cough*) and possibly improve workflow. What makes this all the more painful is that I actually like the game a lot and had a great time playing with my friends. I love the art style, gameplay, music, etc. It really is top notch and absolutely deserved it's initial success but I cannot recommend that you purchase the game in it's current state. Hopefully things will improve for Valheim as more content is added but I do not have my fingers crossed.