Enshrouded follows the tail of a world engulfed by a deadly, magical mushroom-growing fog called the Shroud, which corrupts and destroys everything it touches. As a Flameborn, you’re summoned to defeat the Shroud and return the world to its former glory. To complete this quest, you’ll need to fight, craft, and gather allies in a fantastic base-building fantasy adventure.
I was excited to get my hands on Enshrouded and quickly found myself sucked into the game once I did. The game could be better, but that should be expected in its early access state. It certainly does some things better than other survival craft games, but it also sorely lacks some things other games in the genre have. That said, it quickly ate up my weekend and will continue to do so once I’m done writing this review.
The first thing you’ll notice about Enshrouded is that the game looks amazing. Not everyone loves the bloom effect, but I thought it looked great. I was easily transported into the fantastical world the game had to offer as I looked over vast grassy plains and foggy canyons, quickly building myself a small castle overlooking a great ravine with some scenic ruins in the distance.
Building in the game is very interesting. A Voxel-based building system allows you to morph the terrain and your builds freely, adding pieces onto pieces, digging deep into the earth, and warping your structures as you see fit. Create a slightly longer wall by putting another wall piece halfway into an existing one, carve a window into a standing stone pillar, or dig an expansive cave home as you freely transform the terrain beneath your teeth. The only thing I found wanting in the building was a disappointing lack of corner pieces, forcing my structures to be utterly square.
The game’s UI is also the best I’ve ever seen in the genre. While it could seem like a lot at first, quickly navigating the menus of my journal, crafting spots, and inventory was a breeze, with a sleek and modern yet fantastical design.
One feature I feel Enshrouded could certainly improve on is character customization. While perhaps not as detailed as some other RPGs, big titles in the same genre as Enshrouded, such as Conan Exiles and V Rising, give players more than enough tools to bring their own characters to life. For the exciting scope of Enshrouded, this is an area that feels surprisingly barren.
At the time of writing, the only options players have for character customization are a series of present faces/bodies, a set of options for hair and beards, and the ability to select the color of your hair and the sound of your voice. This hardly lives up to the depth offered by the aforementioned titles and others in the genre and is an area I really hope to see the devs expand on.
On the subject of the game’s character models, players have a look that I would describe as… A bit jarring. Player characters have proportions that make them feel short, stunted, and awkward, with arms and legs that feel just a bit too short for their frame and heads that feel a little big on your shoulders. While the devs may have bigger and better plans for the game, I feel like completely redoing these models would do the game a lot of justice, as they are just odd enough to be distracting character models that often take me out of the game.
Sometimes, I wonder if the developers intentionally made the Flameborn shorter than everyone else. Plenty of NPCs in the game, both enemy and friendly, don’t suffer from these issues and have completely natural-looking proportions. Character sculpts that seem to have more thought put into them. If the Flameborn are actually supposed to be shorter, there’s nothing wrong with that. I would just like the clarification beforehand so it could be less distracting.
Some animations from the player character aren’t the best, either. Running without a tool and chopping wood are prime examples of this, which feel a bit choppy and rushed. This is especially true when you compare them to the combat animations, which, wow. I can’t express how fast, fluid, and flashy combat feels in this game. I never get tired of watching my character execute his three-hit combo, and enemy attacks are exciting to observe while still being readable enough to land your parries reliably.
On the whole, Combat is fun—if not complicated. But how complex does it really need to be? You can block, dodge, roll, and execute a string of three hits with your melee weapon, which varies in speed and damage based on your weapon type. You can also freely switch to your bow or other ranged weapon at any time by tapping Q, allowing you to switch things up without navigating your toolbar.
If you are one to carry a lot of combat tools on your toolbar, however, you have a plethora of options, as the game gives you a generous two bars to use, with the ability to swap between the two in the middle of combat quickly.
Often, I would use this feature to carry a ton of potions and bombs and use the game’s intuitive magic system. Wands serve as basic magical ranged weapons, while staves carry more potent, powerful spells and must be charged with spell “ammunition.” This makes finding a so-called eternal spell, which can be used on a staff infinitely, an incredibly rewarding experience.
While blasting my foes with an Ice Staff at range was fun, I am more of a melee guy in any fantasy game I play, so I used the game’s extensive skill tree to opt into more of a strength build. While each perk in the tree isn’t incredibly unique, mostly offering statistical increases, I welcomed the RPG-like progression system and its benefits.
You’ll be traveling around Enshrouded’s map a lot, so I especially appreciated the game’s fantastic movement system. Running and jumping are incredibly fast, giving even some movement shooters a run for their money, and it hardly drains your stamina bars at all. Still, though, walking is for suckers, especially when you can use your grappling hook to ascend structures and your glider to freely base jump and fly across huge swathes of terrain. Additionally, you can fast-travel back home almost at any time, so exploring doesn’t depend on how much backtracking you’re comfortable with.
If I could criticize anything about the stamina system, which is otherwise pretty balanced if not a little generous, it would be the massive drain climbing has on it. I can’t tell you how many times I failed to scale a climbable wall because my stamina gave out at the end. In the game, only certain objects are climbable, and they are usually placed as routes out of the shroud or as platforms for platforming puzzles. I don’t think reducing the stamina drain to do so would lead to any abuse on the player’s behalf.
Something that absolutely needs to be added is the ability to edit server settings when making a new world, something many titles in the genre have. Day length, crafting time, loot drop rates, and more are all features you should be able to change to fully personalize your experience with the game.
My final criticism of Enshrouded would have to be the developer’s choice of multiplayer implementation. While I played Enshrouded, servers of up to 16 players shared the game’s limited amount of placable building areas, meaning players had to share bases with the server owner. The game certainly seems to lend itself more to a co-op PVE experience than a base raiding type game, but other players could also finish your quests while you were offline, tying progression directly to the server owner. Anyone looking to experience the game would be better off running a private game solo or with a few friends.
While not perfect, Enshrouded has a strong foundation, and its early access state means it has plenty of time to grow. I hope to see the developers take some of my feedback to heart, but as it stands, the game’s pros far outweigh the cons.
Pros:
- Beautiful, stunning graphics
- Fun and exciting but simple combat that uses melee weapons, bows, and magic
- The voxel-based building that allows you to dig into the terrain freely
- Fast, fluid movement mechanics with quick running and grappling, gliding, and climbing
- A strong emphasis on PVE, with quests, NPCs, and a vast living world with an interesting story
Cons:
- Poor character customization
- Lackluster multiplayer features, encouraging offline play over online servers
- A lack of server customization restricting player freedom