Palworld’s successful launch overshadowed several other releases earlier this year, including Enshrouded.
That is rather unfortunate because this next representative of the prolific survival genre may be just what you require for a refreshing change.
Survival video games offer an impressive array of fun titles like Valheim, ARK: Survival Evolved, or Don’t Starve: Together, but also worse ones, including Alone in the Dark: Survival or Agony. Available in early access, Enshrouded is learning from its predecessors’ experiences. It doesn’t find itself somewhere in the middle and lacks minor features that could make it a star of the genre, but constant development can improve this state of affairs. How does it look today?
This comprehensive Enshrouded review is already here to answer that burning question!
World Building
What exactly is this new Enshrouded video game? Let’s start with the basics. Drawing inspiration from massive productions like The Elder Scrolls, Dark Souls, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, it delivers a rare combination of survival, role-playing, high fantasy, and post-apocalypse.
Players get to play as the Flameborn – the only human destined to remove the mysterious Shroud from the mythical land of Embervale. Yes, you read that right – this survival game includes an intriguing plot!
Right from the start, players can go wherever they want and do whatever they desire with one exception – entering the fog area triggers a time limit, and poor visibility is one of your last problems in this situation. The place is inhabited by all kinds of mighty monsters and beings just waiting for the player’s mistake, which is amazingly easy to achieve because there is simply so much to do one person can feel overwhelmed by the multitude of activities.
It’s one of those video games where rare moments of wonder in a stunning environment mingle with a sense of constant pressure to survive.
Combat and Equipment
While combat in Enshrouded is definitely fun, it still needs more realism. The weapons do not differ in detail, and the attacks do not provide that satisfying effect, proving you actually did something. Some players say it is merely swinging a sword. Others point out its similarity to Valheim or Dark Souls but in a slightly different style.
The best part of the Enshrouded combat system is the requirement to predict enemy behavior, so there is still hope that battles will be more balanced in the game’s finished version. The skill tree also deserves particular praise, as it allows you to evolve the playable character exactly as you want across 12 different class types, with some builds making the gameplay experience too easy. But still, it’s fun!
Like in most survival video games, collecting equipment goes particularly fast but requires some work to get better items. Fortunately, Embervale is a real paradise for treasure hunters, as various ruins, villages, dungeons, and secrets are scattered everywhere across the map.
Players can also use the help of NPCs woken up from hibernation to complete side quests and build their base more effectively.
Base Building
Praised as the most satisfying gameplay part, base-building requires a lot of resources and work, but it really happens in the blink of an eye. You can shape that safe place in any direction – to the sky, into the ground, it doesn’t matter.
Using voxels and terraforming, Enshrouded makes building easy and intuitive, as impressive screenshots on Reddit eagerly attest. Regarding inventiveness, the game is closer to Minecraft than Valheim’s challenging building mechanics.
Another undoubted advantage of the Enshrouded building system is the unique aesthetics of the construction components. Rough textures and natural colors make any creative project more realistic and pleasing to the eye.
Even the brand-new house seems as if it had always been there, blending perfectly into the background of the picturesque surroundings.
Multiplayer Aspect
After learning all these facts, you probably wonder if playing the game alone is possible. Enshrouded may be the excellent choice for the seasoned solo player, as it is mostly not-so-challenging, with the occasional threat here and there.
However, a massive to-do list may be too much – in such a case, it’s best to invite some friends or join random players’ servers. Lone wolves preferring fast progress may not be thrilled with the tedious exploration of enshrouded areas or the slow resource gathering.
Why else is it the best game for multiplayer fun? Considering each player can choose a different character class, you can create an unbeatable team ready to conquer this hostile world. Any danger like fog, human opponents, or powerful bosses does not pose as much of a challenge as in solo play.
And since this reality bursts with lore and secrets, it’s much easier to detect and unravel them all as a group. For now, the NPCs aren’t enough to make Embervale feel truly alive, and a loyal crew can make the whole experience less lonely.
Technical Performance
Players still encounter some performance issues, considering the game is in early access on Steam. The most common applies to low frames per second (FPS) values regardless of hardware components or graphics settings.
Others occur even at high FPS values, including camera lag, multiplayer server crashes, and occasional stuttering. However, the developers are well aware of all these issues, and upcoming updates should successfully fix them.
Conclusion
As you can see, Enshrouded combines a bit of something. It has a gorgeous open world, a phenomenal building system, fun combat, and multiplayer-oriented progression.
Enthusiasts of more challenging solo adventures will definitely enjoy it, as will co-op fans who prefer exploration in the company of their friends. For such an early development stage, the game looks outstanding.
Sure, there are still some technical issues, but let’s keep in mind that they will all (hopefully!) be gone within one year of new updates. How does this game compare to other shining stars of the genre?
Many like to point out its striking similarity to Valheim, but it truly is its own thing. And if you’re looking for something more than just another plague-, fungus-, zombie-, or end-of-the-world-oriented title, now you know where to find it.