Attention survival fans: "Enshrouded" is launching in full release and is sure to thrill you
Great base building, beautiful biomes, and an upgrade for mages: Enshrouded delivers a solid amount of new content for its release. Despite some annoying weaknesses, the game has kept me hooked for almost 250 hours. I've finished the story now, but I'm far from done.
I am standing on a rocky ledge. A few meters below me, a handful of hostile, mechanical beings are milling about. Excellent conditions for the following scenario: I draw my mage staff and place four fire totems, magical automated turrets, around the enemies. While the stupid little things down there are bashing away at my totems, I fire powerful fireballs and pillars of fire into the middle of the chaos, turning the area into a sea of flames. A few seconds later, the mechanical constructs are scrap metal.
Only one didn't. It approached me unnoticed from behind. Now it is bashing its steel fist against my skull, draining three-quarters of my health bar. As a mage, I may lay everything to waste from a distance, but I topple over as soon as an enemy even nudges me. I am not taking any risks and throw myself off the cliff, open my glider, and sail away while the beautiful world of «Enshrouded» passes by beneath me.
And the view is even better now. The open-world survival game «Enshrouded» is launching in full release on October 15th after almost three years of Early Access. For this, developer studio Keen Games is giving the game not only a significantly improved draw distance but also a proper content update. That was the occasion for me to add even more to my already nearly 200 hours of playtime and give the game a final review.
You can probably guess that it doesn't turn out too badly after so many hours. However, you shouldn't expect a pure hymn of praise here, because a few aspects of the game regularly drive me crazy.
«Enshrouded» was already in great shape during Early Access
The story doesn't feel groundbreakingly new. I wake up as one of the last survivors after the fall of civilization. Someone sent me into a kind of deep sleep shortly before the collapse, and now I am supposed to fix the mess. One of my first tasks is to look for other survivors (NPCs). They provide me with their crafting skills, which I use to do my actual intended job: fighting the spread of a poisonous fog, the so-called Miasma (English: Shroud).
As in many survival games, improving the game character, building a base, and exploring the world are in the foreground. And that is exactly where the game's great strengths lie. By the way, all of this is also possible in co-op mode with up to 16 players.
There are hardly any limits to how I play my character: I don't have to choose a class, but can freely put together a build and reassign talent points at any time later. Whether plate armor or cloth robes, two-handed sword or magic wand: I could play my character differently every day if I wanted to. But I don't want to; I am and remain a notorious mage.
When it comes to base building, «Enshrouded» also easily leaves a large part of the competition behind. The possibilities for constructing my virtual home are virtually endless. This is not only due to the absurd number of unlockable building styles and the gigantic number of furniture pieces and decorative items, but also due to the malleable world.
I can hack an impressive supervillain base into a mountain. Or a cozy hobbit hole. Or I can build underwater – the game has also allowed me to manipulate water for almost a year now. Or I can simply build an entire village – after all, the NPCs want somewhere to stay. And they want space for all their crafting stations. Anyone who likes base building simply has to love «Enshrouded».
The open world also has a lot to offer. It is virtually infinitely large and, with its various biomes, also very varied. From the hilly, idyllic Shire-like region of the starting area to forests with gigantic, ancient trees as well as deserts, mountains, and a tropical-tinged area, there is something for every taste. Hidden treasures, quests, or lore items can be found again and again, making detours worthwhile. I find the biomes up to the mid-level range to be outstandingly good in terms of variety and discovery opportunities. This is open-world feeling par excellence.
In the later biomes, the Kindlewastes and partly also the Nomad Highlands, this feeling is somewhat lost. The areas are more difficult to access due to many cliffs and steep slopes, so cross-country exploration falls by the wayside. But they are still a feast for the eyes.
The new biome: Get me out of here
With the full release, a new biome is added with the Hollow Halls, which serves as an endgame area and is intended to bring the story to a close. For me, the backstory was never relevant: it is told mainly through diaries, letters, and notes that I find scattered randomly in the world. That only gave me fragmented insights, which I also usually forgot quickly.
But now I am really curious, because everything in the new area revolves around the mysterious Ancients. This is a powerful race that was active in Embervale long before humans and, among other things, placed the huge teleport towers in the landscape. Who exactly the Ancients are and what became of them was never clear – but in the Hollow Halls, I get many clues and want to learn more about them.
To even enter the Hollow Halls, I must have already spent a lot of time in the other areas. Only with the Flame Altar at level 10 is the entrance through the deadly Miasma at the entrance clear. And yet, the Hollow Halls are only the prelude: my actual goal is the cloud-covered floating islands, to which the Ancients have allegedly retreated.
And oh boy, do I want to go there. The Hollow Halls is not an area I like to spend time in. Despite its undeniable rugged beauty, it is best compared to Mordor: hardly a plant sprouts in this barren mountain region. Instead, a distant rumbling and the eternally rushing wind can be heard constantly. I mainly encounter the aforementioned construct enemies. There are no wild animals. I also search in vain for flame altars and a fast-travel tower.
In contrast to earlier areas, there is almost nothing to discover off the beaten path. Instead of wandering curiously through the landscape, I mostly move on predetermined paths between cliffs and lava fields.
It is a pity that the Hollow Halls is an area that I want to leave behind as quickly as possible. That is why all my hopes lie with the floating islands.
The journey is explicitly not the destination in «Enshrouded»
But when I finally reach the teleporter that is supposed to take me to the islands, the game laughs at me. I am supposed to complete six dungeons first – only then can I activate the teleporter. Their approximate position in the Hollow Halls is shown to me on the map. Cursing, I set off.
Cursing not because of the dungeons themselves, but because searching for them confronts me once again with the biggest long-term problem of «Enshrouded»: the inadequate map. Or rather, the paths not marked on it in areas I have already explored. That is not a problem as long as I can simply run cross-country. But in rugged, inaccessible areas like the Hollow Halls, I am dependent on paths. Uncovering the map usually has the purpose of making it easier for future visits to the area. But if I still don't know where I can move, that is annoying.
Already in the Kindlewastes, I therefore started to map paths on the way with my own markers. That is tedious and clutters the map, but it helps later to revisit places or get to new quest areas. Why the game doesn't show paths itself is incomprehensible to me. It is zero fun to keep groping in the dark despite an uncovered map because I don't know where it is possible to get through and where not. I also miss out on potential treasures because I don't see later where I haven't yet followed a branching path.
Dungeons instead of open world
Nevertheless, grumbling, I find the marked dungeons sooner or later. They are old masonry of the Ancients and they partly reflect the style of the six Embervale biomes more or less. The first dungeon, for example, is a museum where animal species and plants from the Springlands region are exhibited. There is also a research laboratory, a planetarium, and a kind of factory where the hostile constructs are manufactured.
All dungeons play completely differently. Sometimes I have to find and activate switches, then again kill a certain amount of enemies. In two of them, a quite strong boss awaits me. However, after observing its mechanics, having enough healing bandages, and using the pickaxe to dig protective caves, it can be defeated well.
After that, I am finally allowed to ascend to the floating islands. To my disappointment, no open area for exploration awaits me there, but a very extensive linear level, called the Spark Spire. The quest says I should reach the Citadel of the Ancients, and only one path leads there. At least the pathfinding annoyance is gone and there is a fantastic view over the land lying below me.
The Spark Spire also plays like a dungeon where I have to activate switches and kill various enemies. In addition, I find story snippets here again and again, and the linear design of the Spark Spire builds up further tension. The musical accompaniment also differs from the rest of the game. It is clear: this is the way to the showdown.
I find it a pity that the new biome is not suitable for open exploration and is also rather sparsely populated with interesting enemies and places. But I recognize the advantage: this allows the player to better tune into the story, which finally comes to an end here.
The closer I get to the Citadel of the Ancients, the clearer it becomes to me who these beings actually are. That ties together many previously loose story threads for me. The showdown at the end, however, takes place without much palaver. The fight is nerve-wracking, but fair. I still have questions about the story afterward. However, I cannot rule out that I have not yet found the missing puzzle pieces in the world or have simply forgotten them again.
In any case: Embervale is saved – but the Shroud remains. I also find that bitter. So I am now standing in front of the fallen last boss with max level 50, but the world has not improved one bit. I would find it nicer if I could actually bring peace and healing to the world. After all, that is exactly the job I am supposed to do.
Other points that bother me in «Enshrouded»
Other points also strike me as more or less annoying. For example, having to scroll through a list when selecting spells makes hectic fights unnecessarily frustrating. Again and again, I choose the wrong spell while running and dodging.
I also don't like that there are only the Ancient towers as official fast-travel stations. For further fast-travel points, I misuse base building: the game allows me to fast travel between my bases. By reserving a building plot, I unlock a travel point. Currently, I only have two real bases, but 14 other building plots serve me as travel points. I don't find that well solved.
Sometimes the game is also a bit too grind-heavy for me. For certain tasks or recipes, I have to search for very rare materials. If I only find them by chance, that doesn't turn into meditative mining, but into a frustrating search.
With an increasing number of NPCs in my base, the crafting system also becomes increasingly confusing. I craft items at umpteen NPCs or the various production facilities. Again and again, I have to google where I craft a certain item. For example, several NPCs can craft different decorative plants. Here I would wish for a single menu, not 20, it feels like.
Returnees are offered a lot of new things
Of course, I don't just want to complain. If you haven't looked into the game for a while, a return can be worthwhile. The team has optimized a lot and, for example, significantly simplified chest management in the base.
A dumping station automatically sorts your stuff from the inventory into the correct stacks of your magic chests. If these become too small, you can enlarge them directly from the chest inventory and do not have to laboriously move the entire content to a new chest. When building a base, you also no longer have to have the required building blocks in your inventory, but access the content of the magic chests. All of this means much less fiddling.
You can see some points that the team has improved for the full release in this video.
A huge new aspect of «Enshrouded» is the Sparkworks system. With it, you can make objects within your base area interactive with logic links: you define conditions that trigger certain actions. For example, I set it so that the front door of my base opens when I approach it.
The possibilities are quite extensive and require some familiarization. You can now also build dungeons and equip them with enemies, traps, and switches. With the Sparkworks system, you program how these elements behave. The dungeon should also be shareable so that others can try out your work.
Also new to the full release is the talent "Architect of the Air". With it, you can switch to a flight mode when building a base and place objects more easily from a bird's-eye view. Furthermore, additional bonuses and talent enhancements can be unlocked for armor and the "eternal spells". For this, you should collect all the runes you can get, because you need literally thousands of them, especially in the late game.
To come back to my start as a mage: for us cloth wearers, there are also many innovations with the full release update. In short: mages have become even stronger. I already found my fireball overpowered before because it does so much damage. With the new ice, fire, and lightning totems, small helpers are now added that not only do damage but, above all, bind enemies to themselves and thus distract them from me.
With "Rooting", there is a spell in whose area of effect all enemies are immobilized. This makes the also new spell "Pillar of Fire" – nasty fire damage in a defined area – even meaner. Counterparts exist for ice and lightning. And as if that weren't enough, I can now unleash a special attack with magic wands. As a mage, I therefore feel more powerful than ever before.
«Enshrouded» is released on October 15th in full release for PC and PS5.
In a nutshell
"Enshrouded" offers survival fans hundreds of hours of gameplay
Pro
- huge game world
- free choice of talents, skills, and equipment
- extremely comprehensive base-building options
- good crate management in the base
- many hidden treasures, collectibles, and decorative items
- super beautiful graphics
- Full release update brings many quality-of-life improvements
Contra
- The map is not helpful enough for route planning
- fiddly selection of spells during combat
- craftable items spread across too many workbenches and NPCs
- little influence on the world
Feels just as comfortable in front of a gaming PC as she does in a hammock in the garden. Likes the Roman Empire, container ships and science fiction books. Focuses mostly on unearthing news stories about IT and smart products.
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