Inside the Game: Immersion in Survival Games

If you had told me two years ago that one of my favorite games would be a survival game, I would have asked you where you got your drugs. After all, the survival games I’d heard about the most were things like Rust and DayZ, with their heavy emphasis on PvP. On the flipside, there were games like Minecraft, Terraria, and CardLife which were fun but never kept my attention for long.

Then in 2022, for my 51^st birthday, my friend Gus bought me a copy of Valheim. He played the game and insisted that I would love it. I installed it and played a bit. ‘Hmm, not bad,’ I thought after a couple of hours. And so I kept playing.

600 hours later and I can say with all certainty that he was right. I do love the game. But what is it about Valheim? What are the core features that make it, or any survival game, good? Over the next few posts we’ll look into what I think makes for a good survival game.

The first on the list, one that I think is the foundation that every survival game requires, is immersion. This one has a lot of moving parts on its own. It involves the game world, sound effects, music, consistency of theme, and realistic physics and interactions. So let’s break it down.

Game World

Valheim’s world is meticulously crafted. It’s filled with diverse biomes from the dense Black Forest, the open Plains, the eerie Swamps, and the frigid Mountains. The attention to detail in everything from landscape to realistic weather effects draws the player in and allows them to lose themselves for a while.

Sound Effects and Music

Valheim’s use of ambient sounds and music adds depth and anchors the player to the world. The music changes with the time of day and in-game events. The sound effects for each zone bring them to life: from the splashing of water in the swamps to the roar of waves during a storm, from birds chirping in the meadows, to the distant howls of wolves in the mountains, the player is drawn in.

Thematic Consistency

The Viking theme is a significant part of Valheim, and the game maintains that theme well. The broken-down structures that dot the meadows are reminiscent of old Viking houses, complete with steeply slanted sod roofs. The various armors, weapons, and shields you craft are similar to the gear warriors would have worn and used. The ships you build resemble Viking longships. The lore stones are engraved with runes, possibly mimicking Younger Futhark, the Runic script used to write Old Norse. Even the creatures known as ‘dvergr’ are taken from Old Norse, the word describing a species of fairy that lived in the mountains and lower mines. This consistency helps players feel like they’re part of a coherent and authentic Viking world.

Realistic Physics and Interactions

Anyone that’s played Valheim has probably had the misfortune of being on the receiving end of a felled tree early on. I know I have and, while annoying and hilarious in equal measure, the fact that a tree can kill you is only one small part of the physics and interactions within the world. The game allows you to chop down trees, mine rocks, build and destroy structures. This ability for the player to interact with the whole environment and shape it to suit their needs adds to the sense of being part of the world.

That’s the brief overview of how the immersion in Valheim creates a world worthy of playing in and exploring. And next time, we’ll delve into the topic of exploring and what Valheim offers.

Until next time, bye for now!