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I’ve recently had the pleasure of hands-on experience with Keen Games’ latest survival game, Enshrouded. After having spent the past week exploring the dangers, excitement, and magic that Enshrouded‘s world, Embervale, has to offer, I’ve walked away thoroughly impressed. In fact, it’s so good I’m confident Enshrouded is about to light up the Steam charts and give the genre’ heavy hitters a real run for their money.
I’ve always been a fan of survival games. Ark, Valheim, 7 Days to Die, you name it. Each of these titles has distinct attributes, typically one of which stands apart as its defining feature: ARK‘s dino breeding, for example, or Valheim‘s superb building mechanics. Enshrouded strikes me as unique for how it rolls so many brilliant survival elements into one experience.
Elixir, Flameborn, and Epic Lore
Overall, Enshrouded has some impressive features, to say the least. The combat is phenomenal, giving a good challenge to players who enjoy the real “survival” feeling in a game, rather than being handed everything and carried to full completion. The building is pretty great considering the unique Minecraft-like mining and building aspects. You can mine into any area you want to, and build unique bases. Some players have even built hobbit hole-inspired bases on the side of mountains that are hard to compete with in terms of beauty and originality. And let’s not forget the wild Shroud mechanic that brings something entirely new to the table with Enshrouded.
Let’s start with the lore of Embervale. From the very beginning, I was immediately hooked on the interesting lore that surrounds Enshrouded. The game starts with a chilling cutscene that illustrates the creation of the creature who is meant to save the world from the Shroud. After a stranger brought the knowledge of the Elixir to Embervale, everyone went mad, demanding more and bleeding Elixir Wells dry.
However, from the empty Wells emerged the Shroud, Enshrouded‘s all-powerful and encompassing antagonist. From the downfall of Embervale, the Ancients and humans allied to create you, the Flameborn, to save Embervale. Though this story is just a small taste of the lore that’s scattered throughout Embervale in the form of letters that can be found and read, and let me tell you, it gets deep.
You’ll get to read everything from ancient drinking songs that bring forth a chuckle, to chilling journal entries from those who have seen things so horrific, that words could hardly describe them. They’re both interesting and useful. Through some journal entries, you’ll learn about the mechanics that might seem confusing in your early hours of Enshrouded, and others might even describe the location of buried chests.
Combat & Survival Mechanics
Aside from the rich lore and beautiful stories, Embervale doesn’t fall short of brilliance when taking into account its structure and mechanics. My absolute favorite part of the game is the combat. Keen Games created a combat experience that can truly be tailored to whatever you want it to be. Unlike most survival games, there isn’t any one set path you must take. You gain access to a skill tree from which you can create the path of your choosing.
Though, you’d be wise to choose the branches of the skill tree carefully. The combat in Enshrouded is difficult, to say the least at times, and other times it’s relatively easy. It all depends on how far you stray off the beaten path. More often than not, I get over-ambitious with my exploration and find myself facing enemies quite a bit stronger than myself. I won’t get too deep into it, but there’s nothing more thrilling than trying to take on a level 13 Boar with a wicked knockback move as a level 4 hunter who doesn’t carry melee weapons. I’m a sucker for a good challenge, and Enshrouded provides exactly that.
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Enshrouded: Starter GuideI don’t think I’ve played a game that had such a great combination of awesome mechanics before. There are some things I’ve seen before, like gliders for transportation and grappling hooks, but this is something else entirely. The cooking is pretty realistic. If you hold your wild game meat over the campfire for too long or not long enough, you could easily end up with inedible food or straight-up food poisoning, which I don’t recommend. However, the most interesting mechanic is the Shroud.
The Shroud is a cloud of thick fog that has taken over most of Embervale. Though, that’s not too big of a deal. What’s tough about it is the terrifying and if I might add, extremely aggressive enemies that hang out in it. You can venture inside the Shroud, but only for a short amount of time. Anytime you enter the Shroud, you start with a time of 5 minutes. By the time that timer goes out, you drop dead where you stand. Believe me, I’ve had a few too many trips deep into the Shroud to try to pick up items that dropped from my backpack when I forgot to keep track of the timer. Honestly, it’s wild to try to take out entire bosses and clear Shroud Roots when you have a time limit, and I can’t get enough of it.
While all these features are quite amazing, some set it even farther above the others. When it comes to mining, building, and anything that you can dream of in terms of altering the terrain in-game, there’s a good chance it’s possible. Enshrouded features a voxel design, similar to that of Minecraft where you can dig anywhere, alter the areas around the world, and build wild base designs that wouldn’t be possible in most games. Unless you’re playing something with the most basic of graphics and concepts, a more advanced game with full terraforming ability hasn’t been accomplished until now with Enshrouded.
After spending 30+ hours in Enshrouded, I can confidently say I’ll be pouring many more hours into the game beyond this preview. Between the amazing lore, the fascinating mechanics, and the difficulty of the game, I’m more than pleased with my Early Access experience. I can’t wait to see what Keen Games brings to the table with upcoming updates and the eventual full release of Enshrouded.
Enshrouded is now available in Early Access on PC.
