Enshrouded [Review]

Enshrouded is a survival RPG developed and published by Keen Games. In Enshrouded you explore the land below a castle that is covered in fog that's called the Shroud which will slowly kill you if you stay there for too long. There are notes and journal entries hidden throughout the world that you can collect and read for a bit more understanding of the mystery and lore hidden in the game. Or you could just spend the game exploring and completing quests if that’s more your speed.

The game’s combat feels something similar to Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, you can lock on and do backflips to avoid enemies. There’s a building system and you can build your weapons and armor along with a base. The building is interesting, it is not complicated but can be a bit annoying as you can’t move while in build mode. You can also terraform, essentially just rip up the ground block by block similar to sandbox games like Minecraft. During my playthrough, I figured building my team's base underground was the best course of action. Underground bases just seem safer. Further enhancing your base is key to survival if you are someone who constantly goes back to it. To flush out your base a bit more you can go rescue people that are stuck in the shroud. When you save them you can take them back to your base and they can help you! One of the first missions in the game is to rescue a blacksmith, doing so will unlock new building recipes like a furnace. Players are also able to find a carpenter, an alchemist, and a lot more survivors throughout their gameplay.

A nice feature that is included with co-op is that when one person unlocks a recipe, everyone unlocks it. This goes for missions too, only one person needs to complete the mission. It’s nice to see that co-op wasn’t an afterthought.

Now for the main feature of the game, the shroud. It’s essentially a fog that takes over the land and forces you into specific areas. Which is a better way to look at the game, it’s not quite an open world it’s more like an open area. You have one area you can explore until you complete the missions that unlock the ability to make an item (like a grappling hook) that allows you to explore further. It’s a clever way to not overwhelm you immediately. The shroud itself is an interesting mechanic. It almost feels like a maze when you get lost in it, which isn’t very good because when enshrouded you only have five minutes before it starts to kill you. It can even be a bit creepy at times. I had walked too far when I was exploring and reached an area where the shroud was way too strong and it instantly killed me! It scared me the first time I saw it as I wasn’t expecting it. Luckily there are small areas within the shroud that reset your timers These are usually placed in areas where you need to go for missions so you can complete the mission without having to leave all the time. And when you have a mission activated it’s a bit easier to not get lost since it tells you the direction to go in, what I like about the waypoints is that when you reach them it tells you if it’s above or below you.

I haven’t even mentioned any of the RPG elements yet, the game has a fantastic skill tree. The tree is nicely organized into a circle with every direction being a different class. On the skill tree, there are six skills on the side that are akin to a TTRPG stat tree that can be upgraded by spending skill points. You aren’t locked into a specific class and I was upgrading all of my stats by a few points before deciding which class I wanted to focus on. I personally will be learning any skills related to magic.

I had a really fun time just exploring the area this game had to offer, that doesn't mean that I recommend exploring too much though, dying and losing all of your stuff is very disheartening and stressful. This game is pretty difficult and I think I died around six times before just deciding to stay near the camp and gather resources for my teammate building the base. The only reason I died so much though is because when you die you lose everything in your backpack and have to go collect it at a tombstone, and I continued to die while trying to get to it. I wish there was a keep inventory setting but there aren’t many server settings you can mess with. I just personally don’t like losing things when I die in games, especially in survival games where you need a bunch of materials. But, that’s just how I like to play games.

That aside I absolutely adored this game! I would have loved to talk more about the story and content further in the game but as my readers know I do not like to spoil games during reviews at all but giving my general impressions and making sure you are all informed of what I like and dislike and whether a game is or is not for me is always the goal. I recommend Enshrouded 100 times over and the fact that I personally haven't encountered any bugs along with how much content the game already has I'm super impressed. I did even think about the fact that it was an early access game during my playthrough. The Steam Store has Enshrouded listed as a game that isn’t combatable on the steam deck but I will confirm this game dose indeed work and has been enjoyed for a few hours using the steam deck and the ROG Ally. This game is already a masterpiece I'm definitely looking forward to more content to come

That aside I absolutely adored this game! I recommend Enshrouded 100 times over and the fact that I personally haven't encountered any bugs and how much content the game already has I'm super impressed I did even think about the fact that it was in early access during my playthrough. This game is already a masterpiece I'm definitely looking forward to more content to come.

#Enshrouded