Enshrouded is an interesting game that has been on my radar since its announcement. This is a survival RPG from Keen Games and this game aims to take its rightful place among other MMOs in the survival genre, taking cues from games like Minecraft, Valheim and others. However, there’s enough going on here to shake up the formula and make Enshrouded feel quite special, and at times even better than some of its predecessors. This is our Enshrouded PC review.
First of all, Enshrouded is a survival game. And it comes out just six days after the release of Palworld, news about which is now filled with all gaming sites. When reviewing games of the same genre, I really don’t like comparing products to each other. I have always tried and will continue to try to treat each release uniquely, without the banal “but there it was done better.” But this time, it looks like I’ll make an exception.
Enshrouded is another surprise hit for early 2024. It was released on January 24, just five days after the wildly successful Palworld, and also achieved its first successes quite quickly: just four days after its release more than 1 million people. And peak online for the same period of time exceeded 160 thousand players.And the creators of this game themselves compare it with Valheim and Zelda. The core concept of Enshrouded is that you are a so-called Flameborn, a survivor exploring the destroyed continent of Embervale.
Enshrouded also allows sixteen players to brave the dangers of the continent together, whether on a private server or a rented dedicated server. However, if you wish, you can complete the game alone, although, in my experience, it is much more enjoyable and fun in the company of friends.
If Valheim and Zelda had a love child…
This comparison was used by the Keen Games studio itself, which created Enshrouded. And you will very quickly see that this is as far from the truth as the already mentioned Palworld is far from Pokemon. That is, this comparison is based only on some superficial features, like the glider and movement from “Zelda” or the very fact of the survival game about construction from “Valheim.”
At the same time, in Enshrouded, there is neither the depth of that same “Zelda” nor its freedom, nor puzzles based on physics, nor freedom in crafting, nor… I can go on and on. In the same way, there is nothing unique from “Valheim”; even a cut down tree won’t kill you if it falls on your character! In general, if this is the fruit of love between these two games, then the child turned out to be not very beloved in the family. But beautiful!
I won’t put the graphics in a separate subheading, but I can’t help but note that Enshrouded looks great on the outside. It’s not amazing, I don’t think so, but very beautiful! But this notorious mystical fog spoils a lot, preventing you from enjoying the game’s landscapes to the fullest.
Another thing I really want to highlight as a definite advantage is the sound and music. The responsible people have done a great job here. And even if you don’t have an orchestra playing in your ears, the melodies pleasantly set off what is happening, be it a peaceful mode or an action scene of a battle with monsters.
Plot
The developers decided to place a strong emphasis on the narrative part. Your hero is some kind of artificially created creation, more similar in body structure to a dwarf than a human. Therefore, you constantly get the impression that you are running around like some kind of dwarf or half-gnome, so the desire to bury yourself in the ground and build a mini underground Moria will often appear in you.
The first thing we should touch on before discussing anything else is character creation. Even though the game is still in early access, it has a pretty impressive amount of character creation options, and while you won’t be able to make an abomination like in Elden Ring, you can still create a decent character. This is, of course, if you want things to be more realistic.
The game takes place in the fantasy world of Embervale. You are the so-called flameborn, the last representative of a mysterious race. At the beginning of the game, your character emerges from some kind of steel incubator mechanism inside the ancient ruins, and fire begins to speak to you (an ordinary morning in the world of Embervale). And we learn that the world was captured by a mystical fog that covered most of the earth.
You have to go towards the unknown, reveal all the secrets, and solve all the riddles. As you explore the world, you will find a lot of notes, diary pages, and stuff like that. If you’re a history buff, they’re fun to read, so I recommend spending time on them. But they point to secrets and unexplored places in the world, so don’t miss them.
The first thing you’ll notice about Enshrouded is that it is similar to Valheim. This doesn’t mean it is a direct clone of another game, but there are quite a few similarities in gameplay and mechanics. In the game, you will have to manage several indicators: rest, health, stamina, and even mana.
These stats are important in your journey, especially the Rest buff. This buff will play a surprisingly important role in gameplay because when you rest, you get a boost to your stamina. The more stamina you have, the more you can do, and the more you can do, the more you can keep going without stopping.
The main way to maintain stats is by building a shelter, several types of food, and the all-too-familiar comforts of home. Speaking of comfort, to get the “high rest” buff, you need to increase your comfort level. To do this, you will need a heat source, a roof over your head, and many other amenities, such as tables, chairs, etc., to increase your comfort level. However, all of this must be within the boundaries of your Altar of Flame.
The Altar of Flame is perhaps one of the most important things in Enshrouded: it allows you to build a house, protects you from the Mist, and serves as a fast travel point. Enshrouded’s goal is to make your dreams come true by building a cozy cabin in the forest, and the biggest threat you’ll face is the Mist itself.
Enshrouded follows the typical route of awakening in an empty land, ready to be rebuilt by new inhabitants. You’ll discover the perfect site and start building tools and a small shelter while trying to keep enemies and wild animals at bay.
In addition to resources for construction, Enshrouded will offer you a lot of delicious food. At first, you will have to collect basic food items such as berries, fruits, mushrooms, and honey. You can only eat three items at a time, and these items will give you a temporary buff.
Gathering is one option, but things get better once you unlock your farming spirit. Farmers will allow you to grow food without worrying about being torn apart by a scary bear. Of course, you will have to search for new natural resources, but at least you can grow them at home.
As mentioned, Enshrouded and Valheim are incredibly similar but still different, especially in terms of visual design. If Valheim relies on a low-poly atmosphere, then Enshrouded relies on magnificent realism- and by God, it is magnificent! Enshrouded is a tough game, but that’s clear when you look closely.
From the fog, the grass and leaves moving in the wind, to the beautiful rays of the sun breaking through the trees. Enshrouded makes you feel like you’re in a living, breathing world; while the game still had unique fantasy elements, it captured the serene beauty of walking in the wild.
Early on, you’ll scavenge wood branches and stones to build a modest pickaxe and stone ax for felling trees. You will be given a lot of help in these early tasks. You will also need to build several interesting items for movement: a hook for grabbing special points and a glider, just like in Zelda or Genshin.
Flying through ruins using a grappling hook is not as free – using a grappling hook requires specialized surface tiles. However, the grappling hook seems to be a necessary item, as some bosses or objectives are only achievable with the grappling hook, much like in the Legend of Zelda.
The Legend of Zelda clearly had a big influence on Keen Games, which is very much felt in its endurance and combat system. The game features the now iconic stamina wheel that we saw in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.
Enshrouded’s combat also resembles that of the franchise, but more so if you decide to lean towards melee combat – but more on that later.
Gameplay
If you’ve followed the development progress even a little and read the team’s diaries, you’ve heard the word “voxels” more than once. The world is built based on a voxel model. Or something like that. What does this mean? Everything is very simple. This modification of objects allows much of the environment to be terraformed. Need to go through a wall? You can make a passage with a fairly strong pick. Need to climb a cliff? Cut the ladder and go up. The mountain is blocking the climb – you take a pickaxe and make a pass.
The world captures its fantasy charm well, and I like the idea of a world that you slowly discover and explore while dealing with the consequences of what led to its destruction. This is most acutely felt during The Shroud, a dangerous fog that shrouds much of Embervale’s landscape.
Flying through ruins using a grappling hook is not as free – using a grappling hook requires specialized surface tiles. However, the grappling hook seems necessary, as some bosses or objectives are only achievable with the grappling hook, much like in the Legend of Zelda.
The Legend of Zelda greatly influenced Keen Games, which is very much felt in its endurance and combat system. The game features the now-iconic stamina wheel we saw in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, and Enshrouded’s combat is also a bit reminiscent of the franchise, but more so if you decide to lean towards melee combat (more on that later).
The world captures its fantasy charm well. I like the idea of a world where you slowly discover locations and structures while dealing with the consequences of what led to their destruction and understanding the world. This is most acutely felt during The Shroud, a dangerous fog that shrouds much of Embervale’s landscape.
When you get used to what is happening to the construction system, it will take time to study and get used to, and you will begin to explore all the game’s intricacies. You will gradually discover that the crafting system allows you… Well, it doesn’t allow you anything special.
This whole much-vaunted terraforming system isn’t worth a damn. It’s just a feature for the sake of a feature. You’ve laid the foundation for a house, but there’s something you don’t like. Once, you removed this foundation, but at the same time, you created a huge and deep hole. What? But I didn’t ask for this. I just wanted to remove an unnecessary element. But no, since you removed the physical object, there is now emptiness. That is a hole. Excuse me, but where did the land go that I should have dug up to build the foundation? I could fill it back up, compact it, and get a flat piece of land again. But no, you can’t. Open the terrible menu again and look for how to remove this pit.
Yes, of course, all this opens up opportunities for an underground settlement or a small hobbit house under a hill… But this is all if you had to somehow interact with the settlement you are building, and not just build for the sake of building, because in the game, there are no attacks on villages or wandering monsters that could harm him. So you just build, relax there, and create equipment for exploration.
At the beginning of the game, you need to move resources to your inventory to create something. That is, to build something, you need to find and move resources from the boxes in the house and only then build or create what you want. Only after several hours of play will you be able to create special boxes that will consider the resources in them for construction.
The game does not have a weight parameter, and all created items immediately go to your quick access slots, which are two rows, and then to your inventory. So you can easily carry a hundred stone walls, a hundred other arrows, and whatever your heart desires in your pocket, without worrying that it will be difficult for your character.
In general, the developers decided not to bother the player once again with the routine with the hero’s parameters, and this, in my opinion, is the right decision. You don’t have to watch your hunger and thirst, and eating and drinking only increases your life bar and stamina, adding buffs to your stats.
By the way, about them. Yes, Enshrouded has an RPG twist. You won’t be offered any choice that influences the plot, but developing your character by creating a build for him is always welcome. If you want, make a classic warrior with a sword and shield, or if you want, upgrade a mage or healer or become an assassin or control animal.
The combat mechanics in the game also cannot boast any depth and variety. If we are talking about close combat, then you swing your weapon like a fly swatter, from side to side, sometimes pressing your skills, and the strangest thing is that when running, flying, and all other activities, you spend stamina, but when fighting you can easily deal 1000 blows, and not even break a sweat, you can also go towards developing a magician or an archer and believe me, this will save you a lot of health and nerves.
Also, one interesting point is that the character cannot hit while standing still. He constantly moves forward with every blow, even if you don’t ask him to. At the same time, he can chop wood or mine ore without moving anywhere without a command. So if you play and fall several times from the huge ledge you’ve been climbing on for the last 10 minutes, don’t be surprised.
Having gotten used to it a little and having spent an inordinate amount of time on it, you realize that it’s your turn to explore the world around you, which is not small. The very first quest after creating the base will send you in search of another poor fellow like you, a blacksmith. Here, I recommend that you be more or less prepared since the combat itself was clearly inspired by games of the “souls” genre. That is, you hit hard, but an ordinary rat chews off a good third of your health bar per bite.
After finding an NPC blacksmith in the world, I built him a room in the base and equipped him with a forge and a furnace, and now he can help create things. That is, he is the most ordinary machine, not only in the form of a workbench and anvil but in the form of a character. In the future, you will have to find and save more than one unit, which will settle at your base and help according to their skills.
Fortunately, the developers decided to simplify the exploration of the world. In the sense that all significant objects are marked on the game map, and you can teleport to them rather than run on foot. At least, thanks for that.
In Shroud
This is perhaps one of the most unique aspects of Enshrouded and truly sets it apart from other survival MMOs. While the others have dangers, from the abundance of enemies at night in Minecraft to the various invasions of Valheim, Enshrouded has a somewhat eponymous shroud. This fog hangs over much of the landscape, bringing an eerie sense of foreboding every time I step within its confines.
This also cannot be avoided. Many places, especially early in the game, are only accessible by entering the Shroud. It’s a rite of passage for every Fireborn on the server, and you’ll find yourself performing repeatedly, especially since high-end resources are sometimes only available in her mists.
Part of the danger of the Shroud comes from the fact that each player has a time limit that allows them to remain safely within its confines. By default, it is set to five minutes, which turns each trip not only into a race against enemies and the goal but also against time itself. It adds a sense of dread and foreboding every time I venture into the darkness.
There is a feeling that you are being pulled under the waves and trying to get to the surface, knowing that one unsuccessful stroke could be your last. Luckily, Shroud has bastions that can restart your timer for being in the area and respawn flames that can be tagged by getting close to them, which will return you there when you die instead of having to run back from base, which is very nice.
The game also includes items and potions that will increase your time in the fog if you and your friends want to go on an excursion to collect the amber deposits that are so valuable later on.
You can also clear part of the Shroud by cutting the Shroud Roots if you come across them. Usually, they are located at the bottom of the well of elixirs and are guarded by some kind of boss, so you must prepare for the meeting with him in advance.
More fun with friends
One of the things that makes Enshrouded so easy to play with friends is that while it’s a survival game, there’s no constant need to level up stats or monitor your hunger, thirst, and fatigue levels. The game’s DNA is more similar to Valheim than ARK: Survival Ascended, and that’s good news.
While I was playing Enshrouded, servers with up to 16 players shared limited in-game space, meaning players had to share bases with the server owner. The game is certainly more suited to a cooperative PVE experience than a basic raid-type game, but other players can also complete your quests while you’re offline, tying progress directly to the server owner. Anyone who wants to experience the game is better off running a private game alone or with a few friends to have some control over the process.
In the end…
While Enshrouded isn’t perfect, it has a solid foundation, and early access means it has plenty of time to grow. I hope that the developers will listen to the players’ feedback and its wishes to improve the game.
