Alt+F40: Valheim is the better V Rising – and Diplomacy is not an Option the better Stronghold
Here we are again! The column skipped three episodes and to say it hurt me every time is an understatement. But between the coordination and implementation of our move, the normal day-to-day work and the kids who were totally out of shape from the new environment, I had such tunnel vision that nothing interesting would have come out of it. Unless you wished that this corner of Eurogamer would mutate into the survival horror version of Tine Wittler’s use of four walls. With crumbling plaster, from which cable monsters from forgotten times are peeling off, and electricians who are white as chalk and shocked.
Okay, now that I’m writing this, I have to say: crap! What a wasted opportunity. Otherwise, a cold is going around again, which I don’t like at all. As is so often the case when the weather can’t make up its mind whether we’d rather be freezing or sweating. Apart from that, we are slowly arriving at our new abode. Although my fully paneled office now looks more like “still living with my parents” than a full-time editor’s workshop. Viewers of our newscast will have noticed it already. Regardless, the main thing is still what’s happening on the screen. And there was a lot going on that day. So, shall we?
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V may be “Rising”. But Valheim still towers impassively over him
V Rising has been out for a little over two weeks now and it’s fair to say that the title is one of the more exciting ones this year. The substance was convincing right from the start, the concept was implemented attractively and competently. And yet I have to say, for me the honeymoon is a bit over. And that mostly has to do with Valheim, which upon my return after a long absence just proves to be the better game again, and not just by a little bit.
So that there are no misunderstandings: I don’t want to compare Valheim, which is much more advanced in its development, with the recently released Early Access version of V Rising. That would be the opposite of fair. And of course that’s a feeling that comes from my own personal bias towards games that bring me closer to the action. My conclusion after two and a half weeks would be: Valheim is the better game for me because it is more atmospheric, despite all the closeness to the game.
The similarities cannot initially be dismissed out of hand. Over here and over there you steel your skills, build a home to become more and more powerful self-sufficient. Valheim chooses the language of an immersive role-playing game, while V Rising takes a more action-RPG route and shows the action from above. Both games remain quite involved, despite Moba-like cooldowns, Valheim looks action-packed and direct. But it’s a bit undercooled in a direct comparison, almost mechanical.
I even like the world the vampire game throws me into. And I’m pretty sure she’s a reason for the success of this game. After all, vampire scenarios are, despite all the obvious stimuli, a field that has been plowed more than badly. But every few meters I wish the camera would look up and show me from the front and not from above. It’s just less amazement than in Valheim. The world doesn’t make its size perceptible, and in my opinion the imposing player constructions never do justice to the amount of work and time that the users put into it. And sooner rather than later, I perceive the opponents only as walking life bars, instead of as the monsters towering over me, which they actually are.
Valheim, on the other hand, is a game in which you rarely fail to be amazed – mostly only when you are standing in your smoky booth and are thinking about an exhaust air solution. But as soon as you set foot in front of the door, your jaw drops again and again in short intervals. Be it because of the fog that caresses your knees in the morning, the waves that slosh wildly over the beach in front of your house or the thunderstorm that looms threateningly over the dark forest. Valheim’s algorithm designs – much like Minecraft – worlds of amazing random beauty that V Rising’s handcrafted map somehow never matches.
The result is that in Valheim I wander deeper and deeper into the forest like a curious child in search of the next discovery, while in V Rising it’s more logistical thoughts and the search for a previously unoccupied building lot that let me go out into the world . V Rising is simply not interested in adventure, more focused on its core gameplay spiral. If you like that, you won’t hear any objections from me. But I found this classification helpful – also as a reminder of a game that can do almost everything that V Rising can do, only is decidedly more mature and “ready” than the vampire adventure, which should perhaps be allowed to mature a few more months.
In the end, I have to admit to myself: As nice as I found my opening with V Rising, it just wasn’t quite made for me, because a lot of its effect just fizzles out for me from this perspective. Maybe I should just wait for a good vampire mod for Valheim…
The most important thing of the week, week 22/22, Alex Edition
In the rotation: I stupidly have Outer Range still haven’t finished watching. This is also because a series starring one of my favorite actors has appeared on Amazon Prime: night sky with JK Simmons, which follows a similar approach, but tonally appeals to me a bit more. Spacek and Simmons are playing fantastic, I can’t wait to see where this goes. In terms of gameplay, I’m still interested in Souldiers, for which I now make the easy explorer mode mandatory in order to be able to really enjoy the game. Otherwise, I get stuck almost every day on the Youtube videos of short stories, but they should be new to most people here. Recently, this video really shook me about what dinosaurs really looked like. Why had I just missed this discourse? (because I’m a gambling father of two toddlers is the answer). Also coming in was the demo of Wadjet Eyes (The Blackwell Conspiracy, Unavowed) new adventure Old Skies, but more on that next week.
Music tip of the week: I have already recommended the lady many times, why not again? Closes on her new album We’ve been going about this all wrong Sharon van Etten with a hauntingly beautiful, albeit very melancholic far away an album I don’t know what to think of yet. In my opinion, she sings too often in her deep tones on the new disc, which don’t really sound like anything to me. But this track is fantastic songwriter art, beautifully arranged. Somehow Sharon is always to be expected. Same here.
Highlight of the week: I’ve let this sit far too long. The day before yesterday I only wanted to play in briefly, but then I was so hooked that it turned into three and a half hours, which after 8:00 p.m. is not necessarily a matter of course for me. We’re talking about Diplomacy is not an option. This game is pretty much what happens when you tell a six-year-old about Stronghold and then hand him a toy box full of knights and building blocks. A nice, fast-paced mix of medieval city building and castle defense that always challenges you in manageable missions and doesn’t ignore the spectacle.
With an estimated eight polygons per soldier, this game makes it easy for the large numbers of pitiful males to fly through the air like ants with every catapult hit or every hit of my sky laser by the grace of God. That also suits the six-year-old, I guess. In any case, it didn’t fail to have an effect even after hours. And I really liked the fact that at the beginning of the second mission you get the opportunity to rebel against the king whose campaign you are actually playing – and thus unlock a second, harder insurgent campaign. So does the excellent meta-joke that diplomacy is an option after all. Just stop in the menus, where you can select “No” and “Off” in addition to “is not an option”. I see we understand each other, game!
Oh, and that telecom only had to exchange one socket so that my Internet actually delivers a smooth 100Mbit instead of a shaky 25, was also a small highlight this week that should not be despised.
Center (!?) of the week: Clear, Resident Evil 4 is the better game. Still, I didn’t give up hope until the end that Capcom might give us a version of Code: Veronica would give. Of course, the Resi 4 remake will likely get all the love and funding it needs to mature into what it could be for today’s audience. But CV needed them more. I’m excited to see if we’ll ever return to Antarctica with this series.
Low point of the week: That would probably be the final realization that after four years in a completely renovated, state-of-the-art apartment, we now have to do a lot of renovation work on the new house. Some of this is unlikely to happen for years to come. After our move inventory in the middle of the week, that was probably the hardest blow to the office. In any case, harder than the fact that Final Fantasy 16 looks significantly better than when it was first introduced two years ago, but overall it doesn’t have that opulent glossy feeling between epic and kitsch that the series is known for. The Square Enix Creative Business Unit 3 actually did a good job on Final Fantasy 14 and the Dragon Quest Builders series. I’m still looking forward to it, but remain skeptical in view of the (relatively for this series) release. It’s rare that a Final Fantasy doesn’t appeal to me at least through the visuals. But now it just happened.
Reference-www.eurogamer.de
