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 (Early Access): The World is Your Oyster
Survival sandbox games are often celebrated for their emphasis on free will and creativity, and with good reason. These games allow players to explore their freedom to its fullest extent. Take Minecraft, for example, the best-selling game of all time, which epitomizes this genre.
Enshrouded blends the sandbox survival elements of Minecraft with the immersive experience of a classic RPG, creating a unique and engaging hybrid. It boasts a beautifully detailed voxel-based building system, giving players the freedom to reshape an already burgeoning world in a literal sense. And that's just the beginning—there's so much more to explore and create that even a mid-tier setup might struggle to keep up. Plentiful loot awaits the intrepid, while the beauty and complexity of crafting offer purchase for those who’d rather stay at home. In either case, in Enshrouded, the world is your oyster, and then some.
Enshrouded Story and Overview
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 can 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?
A True Sandbox Turned RPG Classic
Enshrouded entered the scene as an ambitious title with much to show for in a genre saturated by cash grabs and poorly implemented ideas. Fortunately for us, it was anything but, as it featured great implementation of map-wide mechanics, a strong gameplay loop, and an opportunity for you to exercise their freedom to explore and create. It starts strong with its core gameplay, which is a rich blend of survival sandbox mechanics (amazing base-building included), detailed exploration, and classical RPG soulslike combat. You’ll be spending the majority of your time wandering and picking fights, getting stronger along the way, and experimenting with new weapons, movesets, and consumables.
The game’s combat and story draw from the soulslike genre the strongest, with massive boss fights in sprawling arenas, plenty of overworld enemies to encounter while exploring, and an entire arsenal of craftable equipment to face them with. This equipment represents only a portion of the game’s expansive crafting, but we’ll get to that in time. For now, we can discuss the game’s other main allure: survival sandbox.
It’s understandable to expect the game’s survival sandbox aspects to take a backseat to its soulslike combat, but such expectations would be misplaced with Enshrouded. Both features are implemented equally well and account for theyour playtime in equal measure. They also complement each other mechanically, as shown by the relationship between the game’s overworld combat system and your character’s needs.
Scrounging for the right consumables and attending to your needs makes you a more effective fighter, increasing your odds of surviving the next boss fight or emerging from the Shroud unscathed. This scrounging often involves combat, as the best loot is typically guarded by elite enemies or hidden in lengthy, trap-filled dungeons. Fulfilling your needs leads to successful combat, and successful combat, in turn, helps fulfill your needs, thus creating a balanced and engaging gameplay loop.
Speaking of, the last aspect of Enshrouded’s core gameplay is its voxel-based base-building, which also links back to the game’s combat and sandbox pillars by giving passive combat and resource-gathering benefits. You can refine materials into raw components, which can be used to construct prefabricated building parts, much like in most survival sandboxes, or to create unique structures using 3D cubes called voxels. Coupled with the game’s realistic graphics and entirely destructible world, this base-building system allows you to construct absolutely anything.
All Things Change In The Shroud
Despite everything already mentioned, the best aspect of Enshrouded’s gameplay is the inclusion and implementation of its most iconic mechanic: the Umbral Shroud. This dense, magical fog covers portions of the map where enemies move faster and hit harder, and you’ll be instantly killed if you don’t exit before the 5-minute timer runs out. Some consumables can extend your stay in the Shroud, but you’re generally not expected to linger there for long—a difficult expectation to meet given the Shroud's plentiful treasures.
Herein lies the game’s namesake, as optimal play revolves around balancing your time exploring inside and outside the Shroud. This imaginative game design element allows for emergent gameplay, with numerous ways to enter and exit the Shroud, whether in a pinch or during an extended excursion. The Shroud is rich with story pieces, superior building materials, better gear, and even NPCs, making it impossible to ignore for long. I am particularly fond of the Shroud because it presents an all-encompassing, ever-present danger that must be braved to advance. It is unfeeling and unmoving, yet no less intimidating, forcing you to be creative without limiting your possible approaches.
If I could suggest any improvements for the Shroud, I would point out that it isn’t as dangerous as the game portrays it to be. While the 5-minute timer isn’t generous, you can simply teleport back to your base at any time. Additionally, you can hoard all the consumables needed to extend your stay, rendering the time limit inconsequential. This doesn’t mean the Shroud is pointless, as the monsters within can still defeat you in a hit or two. I just think that the option to teleport back to your base from within the Shroud should be removed, or at least made more difficult to raise the stakes.
Adventures In A World Past Its Prime
Many open-world games today share a recurring theme: a world marked by ruin and echoes of a golden age. This is evident in the fragmented architecture of The Lands Between in Elden Ring and the vine-choked walls of ancient Hyrule in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Enshrouded embraces this motif through the tale of Embervale and your role as a Flameborn destined to save it. While the premise might seem typical for an open-world RPG, Enshrouded sets itself apart with the clever use of in-lore phenomena as game mechanics. The Shroud and its effects on your progression are central to this, but even more, the world's design dictates the enemies you face, when and where you encounter them, how they fight, and what their existence means to the narrative.
Everything in Enshrouded embodies a somber grandeur, like the cracked remnants of a once-great cathedral or the shattered base of a massive monolith. This is conveyed aesthetically through the game’s visual design, juxtaposing your character’s rough creations against the broken but more architecturally impressive remains of the old world. This theme is also expressed in the rough-hewn look of your equipment, weaponry, and even that of the enemies. This creates a strangely emotional landscape of memories to uncover during your travels, unlocking new recipes, weaponry, and secrets from the past as you go.
Unfortunately, the same melancholic charm does not extend to the game’s audio. While the music is well-made, it isn't particularly memorable. The transition between exploration and combat music can be extremely jarring. Furthermore, the sound effects for enemies, movements, and overworld assets sound like stock effects, causing the game's overall audio quality to suffer.
Freedom and Quality at The Cost of Stability
While Enshrouded is a great game with mostly great quality across the board, it’s also a lot for most computer setups to handle. My own setup is in the middle of the global average and it still cannot run the game on medium-high settings without dropping frames like a structurally unsound bucket drops water. If you were hoping to play this game on a mid-to-low-tier setup, you might encounter some trouble unless you dial the graphical quality down.
The graphical fidelity and open-world action also affect the game’s stability as a program, as it often bugs out and freezes.
So, What’s The Verdict?
It’s A Great Game With Much To Offer…If Your PC Can Handle It
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.
| Platform | Price |
|---|---|
 Steam |
$29.99 |
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Enshrouded Product Information
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| Title | ENSHROUDED |
|---|---|
| Release Date | January 24, 2024 (Early Access) |
| Developer | Keen Games GmbH |
| Publisher | Keen Games GmbH |
| Supported Platforms | PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S |
| Genre | Action, Adventure, Survival |
| Number of Players | 1-16 |
| ESRB Rating | N/A |
| Official Website | Enshrouded Website |
