Enshrouded developed and published by Keen Games GmbH is available now on Steam and PlayStation.
Enshrouded is an open world Survival action RPG set in the kingdom of Embervale. A corrupting fog has devoured the kingdom, and only the true hero, Flame Born (You) can save Embervale from the shroud. The story had me hooked from the start an elixir was discovered which gave more power but also spelt the downfall. Every powerful magic humanity finds always has a cost. The story here isn’t told in the usual way with cutscenes and story moments, it’s told mostly via the environments, the people and their journals. I liked this because each section of the map had its own unique telling of how locations were affected by the shroud. in one part I journeyed across a beautiful cottage in a forest destroyed by the stroud and heard the tale of what happened. Played out this way it adds more emotion to the game.
From the get-go Enshrouded felt like an old-school RPG to me; the combat, while responsive, feels a little tanky, a little slow, but that adds to Enshrouded’s identity. It never felt wrong or off. Whether you’re using swords, axes, maces, wands, bows, and many more of the different weapons of choice, they all feel great to wield; each one has weight. Unfortunately, levelling felt a little slow at times; I played solo, and if I ended up in an area with higher-level enemies, I’d die a lot. I feel this is a blend of me spending far too much time building my town and the game being a little slow, pacing-wise. Fear not, you are able to customise just about everything to make the experience a little easier for you, and I’m not ashamed to admit, I did adjust the drop loot on death option. I’d keep dying in an area that was difficult to get to rage ensued. Overall though, when you do set out on quests, explore dungeons, kill enemies, your XP soon goes up. Upgrading weapons and armour is also a must; otherwise you’ll get wiped out a lot, as I did.
Building is also key to levelling up some aspects in Enshrouded. If building is not for you, you can download other people’s creations, but it is easy to get a small building up. You have a flame in your base, and you must level it up to have more people living with you, extend your area and access new building and crafting recipes. This is important; otherwise, you will be stuck with underpowered gear and basic building parts. In some base-building games, I’m totally useless; it’s usually a strangely placed block, and I stick a bed in and done. However, the game’s building system, once you get used to it is so easy to pick up and engage with. I ended up building quite a big village which I was proud of. I had a house for all my villagers, one for me, a crafting house with an upcoming tavern and a farm with a goat. The builds in this game, however basic, are brought to life with the art style; I couldn’t believe how fun and addictive it was, and I lost a lot of hours, which is why I died a lot. I also died a lot due to the shroud itself; if you stay too long in it, you will perish.
Enshrouded looks beautiful. On PlayStation 5, I worried a little about how it would run because it’s a big game and voxel-based. Voxel-based, for those who might not know, is similar to Minecraft; the environment is fully destructible, which is taxing on hardware. I don’t know what magic Keen Games used to combine the two and make it all look so beautiful, but they managed to do it. PlayStation 5 has two modes, quality and performance. Performance mode cranks the graphics down quite a lot, but it does run butter-smooth at 60fps if that’s your thing. However, in quality mode, 30fps is so worth it; the game looks far more beautiful on this setting. I never ran into any hiccups with it.
The art style is just incredible; I haven’t enjoyed exploration as much as I have in Enshrouded in a long time. Each village, fort, and town is just amazing; the architecture is stunning. Each place tells a story simply by its design. I came across ravaged villages or houses buried deep in forests, some destroyed, some left pretty undisturbed, and it inspired me to create similar places myself. The map in Enshrouded just screams at you to explore, to bury yourself in it and then a 5 pm start turns into a 10 pm finish. The music aids the game perfectly; it has that fantasy feel which adds to the atmosphere created here.
Verdict
Enshrouded is amazing; I will say it right now. While some moments have been frustrating on a skill level, I cannot put the game down. I was supposed to write this review days ago, but I couldn’t peel myself away from the game. The world, the story, the gameplay- it’s all designed into a perfect formula, and it works incredibly well. What Keen Games did here is create an RPG/Survival game that I feel will be remembered for years to come, and I hope to see it expand more as time goes on. There is so much to see and do here that sometimes it feels like I’ve barely cracked the surface. You think you’ve seen it all, and the game gently reminds you, nah, you’ve got tons more to do. If you like survival, RPGs, and fantasy titles, you have to play this.
