Enshrouded is an open-world survival RPG by Keen Games where you and your friends venture out into the Shroud-ridden lands of Embervale. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn’t do well, and if it’s worth your time and money.
Enshrouded Review Overview
Enshrouded Premise
Enshrouded’s story covers the journey of a Flameborn. Forged in a joint effort by the Ancients and Humanity, you were designed to reverse the emergence of The Shroud and restore Embervale to its former glory. How you go about doing that is entirely up to you.
You can explore every nook and cranny, expelling The Shroud wherever it may be, or you build a massive base and hone your skill so you may one day face the horrors in the fog. At the end of the day, this is your story to tell. How shall it end?
Enshrouded Overall
Enshrouded is a profoundly exciting game that blends the satisfying challenge of hardcore survival with the liberating creativity of an open-world sandbox. Not only are you encouraged to run about and explore ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING, but you are also rewarded for it. Plentiful loot, new recipes, and breathtaking landscapes await those daring enough to brave the Shroud. And for those who’d prefer to stay home and build a base, a fleshed-out voxel-based building system awaits you, complete with full customization and base-design mechanics. Although the game requires major hardware to run and could do with a few difficulty tweaks, I can confidently say that this is the perfect game for the discerning hardcore survivalist.
Enshrouded Story
Enshrouded’s story isn’t hard to follow nor is it anything particularly special. It’s a run-of-the-mill fantasy story where you, the Flameborn – a so-called last resort – must brave the Shroud and return Embervale to its former glory. The intro cinematic pretty much spoils the entire premise, leaving next to no intrigue whatsoever for the rest of the game’s run time. And with the game being a survival sandbox, it ruins any proper pacing a story could have. Still, it’s at least decent, and the story elements play into the game mechanics naturally.
Enshrouded Gameplay
Enshrouded’s gameplay focuses on exploration and creativity in equal measure, creating an experience that – as advertised – is yours to decide. Whether you wish to go out and see the world or stay home and tend to your burgeoning base, this game has fully fleshed-out mechanics for you to enjoy. Neither focus takes away from the other, and both, together, still manage to leave room for an expansive skill tree without bloating the game too much. Combat is smooth, crafting is developed, and the building system is to die for. This game, in the most literal sense, has it all.
Enshrouded Visuals
This game is absolutely stunning if your system can handle the strain. There’s much to be said about the vaguely prehistoric, early-medieval design that most of the gear and building materials adopt, but all of that is forgivable when you get a glimpse of what Embervale has to offer. Rolling hills and jagged cliffs give way to ruined megastructures and blighted forests. Every detail on every leaf, grass blade, and stone looks impeccable. The enemies aren’t standard-fair fantasy templates and have unique designs to suit the setting. Weapons and armor look unique, but not too fantastical. Everything about this game looks and feels right, enhancing its already amazing experience.
Enshrouded Audio
Enshrouded’s audio isn’t anything to write home about. The background music calming and well-composed, especially for when you’re out exploring the hills of Embervale. The combat music is also pretty good, though the transition from exploration to combat music is rather jarring and enemies could be around every corner. There aren’t any fully-voiced dialogues either and the grunts you make while attacking sound like stock voices. All in all, decent, but certainly has plenty of room to grow.
Enshrouded Value for Money
Enshrouded provides a lot of content for a middling price of $30. The single-player experience alone already promises tens of hours of base-building fun, what more when you manage to find a few friends to run amok with? If you’re aware of the replayability and cost-efficiency of other sandbox games like Minecraft, then you already know the nigh-infinite tide of fun that’s headed your way when you buy Enshrouded.
Enshrouded Review | The World is Your Oyster
Enshrouded Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Voxel-based Building is a Blast Shroud Mechanics Executed Masterfully There’s Always Something to Do Multiplayer Works Great! |
This Game Will Mulch Your Graphics Card Difficulty Isn’t That Balanced |
I went into this game expecting a lot and…well…that’s exactly what I got. I don’t know what I expected from a game marketing itself as a world where you can do anything a la Albion Online, but it certainly wasn’t this level of quality and polish. I’d say I’m getting ahead of myself, but calling this a game where you can do anything is still an understatement. No, a better way to frame it would be "a game where you can do everything all of the time". That title will make more sense as I continue with the review. Speaking of, let’s get to that, shall we?
Enshrouded is an action-adventure game by Keen Games that displays elements of survival crafting and base building. It’s also something of a true sandbox game because most – if not all – of its sprawling terrain is destructible. We’ll focus more on the utter ridiculousness of what you can destroy later in the review, for now, I want to run through everything that makes this game tick. And there’s a lot of it too, so hold on to your fur hats.
Let’s focus on the open-world action-adventure RPG aspect of the game. Similar to Nintendo’s Breath of the Wild, you’ll be running around a ruined continent past its prime. I won’t go too far into the lore, but the gist of it is that former residents of this continent screwed around with powers beyond their control and irredeemably destroyed their homeland with a toxic fog called The Shroud. That’s where you come in. You’re here to solve that little issue with any approach you see fit. This is where the RPG aspect plays in. The game hosts a massive skill tree that branches off into 10+ classes with their respective specialties. Skill points are awarded every time you earn enough EXP to level up. You get EXP for killing enemies and mining ores, so exploring Embervale is a must. All of this so far is standard-fair, but well executed nonetheless.
Speaking of exploring Embervale, this is how you run into this game’s namesake. Parts of the massive map are "Enshrouded", meaning that they are covered by The Shroud. In these areas, you have 5 minutes total to go in and out, otherwise, you die instantly. You must be wondering why you’d ever try to go in there, but the truth is, the best gear and materials are in The Shroud. Moving forward in this game is a matter of braving the fog and emerging from it victoriously. But in a world where the very air tries to kill you, what option do you have for shelter? The answer: whatever you can imagine.
Leaning more to the game’s sandbox and base building now, Enshrouded features a voxel-based building system that lets you build your base with the precision of a single 1x1 cube called a voxel. Think of it like pixel art but with cubes instead of 2D squares. You get premade building pieces at the start, but if you’re feeling particularly artisanal, you can make absolutely anything you can imagine as long as you have the materials. These materials aren’t hard to come by either because, as I mentioned previously, everything is destructible and can be harvested for parts. That chair? That’s just wood waiting to be processed. A coal mining outpost? That’s just a huge pile of coal, wood, and scrap metal for you to collect. The dirt? Just dig into it, you’re gonna need it for later.
That’s why I call this the game where you can do anything all of the time. There’s always a way forward, figuratively and literally, because the game’s exploration and building mechanics work hand in hand. The former lets you unlock more recipes and materials for the latter. Meanwhile, building a base makes sure you survive your expeditions unscathed by giving you lasting buffs. It’s synergistic gameplay and – at least so far – there’s no gap in its implementation. I applaud Keen Games for managing to make me want to stay home and go outside at the same time because that’s no easy feat.
Take everything I’ve mentioned so far and recontextualize it for the game’s multiplayer, which can host up to 16 players at a time. It’s not the largest a survival server can get, but for a cooperative game, this is more than enough for you to set up an empire made of rocks and twigs. Gameplay is smooth for multiplayer and plenty of quality-of-life improvements were implemented to make sure it was just as fun as going solo – more on those later. If walking around and wreaking havoc on nature is fun by yourself, imagine what it’s like with your best bro.
As for this game’s negatives, the first one isn’t connected to the game’s mechanics and features themselves. The biggest hurdle that many might encounter with this game is booting it up in the first place. This game can be very taxing on the ol’ setup, even if it isn’t on the low end. My rig is on par with the global average and I still can’t run it on max settings without dropping frames like a structurally unsound bucket drops water. Still, there are ways to assuage that problem through the game’s settings, so you should be fine as long as you’re running a rig that can meet the game’s minimum settings.
Another hit against Enshrouded is its balancing. As it stands – and I want you to recognize this as a preference – it is way too easy. The Shroud, while daunting at first, can be easily escaped by teleporting back home through the game’s world map. Granted, you can’t be near any hostile while doing so, but the clock hardly poses a threat anymore when you can just…you know…leave. The enemies themselves, while plentiful, aren’t that hard to deal with, especially if you have a shield or bow equipped. You’d really only find trouble against the bosses, who are equally cheesable. Good thing this game is in early access, meaning there’s more to come in the way of balance changes. As it is now, however, you’re better off playing Elden Ring if you’re looking to be crushed by trolls while surveying the countryside.
So, there you have it for Enshrouded. It’s a great game as it is now. A bit rough around the edges, but what can you expect from early access? I’ll take this as an upside because it’s only uphill from here. I expect great things from Enshrouded when it fully releases. Until then, I’ll catch you in The Shroud, Flameborn.
Pros of Enshrouded
| Things Enshrouded Got Right |
|---|
|
Voxel-based Building is a Blast Shroud Mechanics Executed Masterfully There’s Always Something to Do Multiplayer Works Great! |
Voxel-based Building is a Blast
As any Minecraft enjoyer would attest, voxel-based building mechanics are the best. There’s nothing more satisfying than designing the perfect home base, artisanally crafted down to the last cube. Now, combine a robust building mechanic with AAA graphics, and you’ve got Enshrouded – or as I like to call it sometimes, Minecraft with an RTX filter.
The game offers you a bunch of prefabs – premade building pieces – right out of the gate to help those who don’t really want to bother with building anything too complex. A boxy house here and a comically pyramidal roof there, and you’re set. If you’re looking to be more…delicate, however, you can switch to a specific toolbar and build your house one voxel at a time.
The best part about all this is you have complete access to all the prefabs right away – no need to unlock new ones. Your house or base can be as complex as you can imagine right from the get-go, with the only limiting factors being your build area and building material, which can be upgraded by enhancing your Flame altar or exploring Embervale, respectively.
Apart from making your structures look better, new materials also increase their durability, so you’re going to want to find new materials now and then. It’s as easy as finding something new and having at it with a pickaxe. If you think that’s impressive already, wait until you hear the kicker: all this building and construction isn’t just for aesthetics.
That’s right, unlike in Minecraft, building a house isn’t strictly an aesthetic choice. You can get by in that game with an inventory, some chests, and a crafting table, but not in Enshrouded. In this game, Shelter, Warmth, and Comfort are all needs that must be fulfilled for your character to maintain peak performance. While each of the three can be fulfilled without a house through caves, campfires, and ruined structures, respectively, a proper house is the easiest and most stylish way to do so. So, style away, Flameborn. You’re gonna be going home a lot, might as well make it worth your stay.
Shroud Mechanics Executed Masterfully
An open-world sandbox focused on crafting and exploration would naturally be difficult to keep interesting. With unknown lands and new enemies always abound, there’s always somewhere to go and something to fight. Unfortunately, even that can get boring if you’re left undisturbed. Enter The Shroud, a portion of the map appropriately covered in thick fog and roiling miasma. You can’t take your sweet time in The Shroud, not unless you fancy dying instantly the moment the clock runs down.
All the best loot – and not to mention a few story elements – can be found here, so you’re going to have to take the plunge at some point. My favorite part about The Shroud, though, is its implementation. Dangerous as it is, it isn’t an instant death sentence. True, visibility is low and enemies are plenty in the fog, but you have 5 minutes to spend in there before you die and there are more ways than one to either extend or rewind that clock. Patches of unshrouded land could also be found in the thick of it, so there’s always a reason to push forward in the hope of finding a way to survive.
It isn’t so simple too, with varying concentrations of Shroud locking off areas until you upgrade your Flame Altar. This forces you to look elsewhere for the time being, kicking off a series of events that would prepare you for the increasingly dangerous monsters lurking in the fog. This is what makes this game a blast. Exploration isn’t as simple as walking around anymore. You gotta think on your feet, lest The Shroud claim you. To top it all off, as long as you aren’t in immediate danger, you can always call it quits and teleport back home.
There’s Always Something to Do
You’d think that this would be a given for a survival sandbox like this, but I find myself playing the waiting game even in Minecraft. In Enshrouded, though, there really is always something to do and a way for you to do it. Exploration and base-building make up much of the gameplay, but resource gathering, crafting, and mindless destruction all fill out the gaps between major projects. Let’s say your house is looking a little drab from all that rough wood and stone and you want to upgrade its look a little bit. Venture down into The Shroud and get yourself some Shrouded Wood so your walls and floors look a lot less…bad.
Bored with your latest construction project already? You can always pack your gear and head out for a stroll or a streak of wanton destruction, whichever you’re up to do right now. Before you do, set up a few craft stations to build your materials so you can get right back to construction when you get home. Don’t wanna do either? That’s fine, you can always just muck about with your glider and have fun. There’s no reason to wait in Enshrouded, not that it was ever in question.
Multiplayer Works Great!
As fun as survival games could be by yourself, they are exponentially more fun when you’ve got friends toughing it out in the wilderness beside you. Enshrouded offers a fun multiplayer experience that can hold up to 16 players per server at a time. Although the game’s developers have gone on record to say that the game won’t have PvP for the foreseeable future, they may be open to the idea if the game’s development goes in a different direction, putting forward the prospect of base-griefing, duels, and territorial disputes. That won’t be for a while, however, as they are wholly developing the game as a cooperative experience.
The potential of PvP multiplayer aside, the multiplayer experience as it is now is already quite good. It was well thought out and not a slipshod attempt at garnering more attention. Mechanics are in place to improve the quality of life for multiplayer specifically, including building blueprint ghosts for other players so you don’t overlap your structures unintentionally. There is a gifting system so players can help one another, so the infrastructure for a good multiplayer experience is already there. Here’s hoping it gets way better when the game leaves early access.
Cons of Enshrouded
| Things That Enshrouded Can Improve |
|---|
|
This Game Will Mulch Your Graphics Card Difficulty Isn’t That Balanced |
This Game Will Mulch Your Graphics Card
Yeah, it’s exactly as it sounds. This game is extremely demanding for even mid-range PCs, so watch out. Check the minimum and recommended specs from the game’s Steam page before you buy, otherwise, you’d be dropping frames like an adventurer drops monsters. That being said, you should be fine as long as you meet the minimum requirements, as the game does offer plenty of options for customizing your game's graphics to what your setup can handle.
Above all, I recommend that you either lower your resolution, or set the shadows, tessellation, and distant objects sliders to "performance" if your PC continues to chug whenever you load in. Setting the foliage lower will also increase performance, should you need it, although it does make the game look like Raid: Shadow Legends. I can see this being an accessibility issue for players with lower-end setups, but there is a possibility that this is remedied as development progresses.
Difficulty Isn’t That Balanced
It’s a bit hard to understand what makes a game "balanced" but the rule of thumb is that things shouldn’t be too easy or too hard – across the board, if the developers can swing it. Enshrouded could use some tweaking with its game balance because, as it is now, it is a tad too easy. As stated before, escaping The Shroud could be as easy as teleporting home while not being targeted by hostile creatures. This reduces the suspense and thrill of exploring The Shroud a bit by giving you a readily accessible get-out-of-jail-for-free card.
For another thing, while smooth and fairly complex, the game’s combat favors the player in every respect. Endless buffs, perfect blocks, and easily cheesable enemies make for a combat that could be better.
Is Enshrouded Worth It?
Absolutely, Though Make Sure Your PC Can Handle It First
Enshrouded offers a lot of content for $30. I’ve been running around Embervale for tens of hours by now and I can tell that I’ve only barely scratched the surface of what this game can give me. Additional costs might be abound for dedicated servers and such, but you don’t really need that to enjoy the game as it is. Just grab a couple of bros and embark on your quest through Embervale on your own private server.
An important thing to note, however, are the game's requirements. $30 is enough for it to be regretable purchase should your setup prove to be insufficient for Enshrouded. Keep an eye out and ask around before you head out into the Shroud.
| Platform | Price |
|---|---|
 Steam |
$29.99 |
