Why Enshrouded Earned Our Game of the Week #62 Pick

Game of the Week #62: Enshrouded Has a Little Bit of Everything

As Enshrouded prepares to launch its 1.0 release, this open-world survival crafting, base-building action RPG is a mash-up of so many great gameplay elements that it’s hard not to fall in love with this decaying world.

It sounds generic, I know. Another Early Access open-world survival game where you can build your own base sounds like about half of Steam’s library, but Enshrouded has done something that feels magical. It mixes elements from so many other games that, on paper, it doesn’t seem like it would work. Even writing the opening blurb is an exhausting mishmash of genre tags that strains the eye.

Since Enshrouded launched in Early Access more than two years ago, Keen Games GmbH has been hard at work crafting a fantasy world in decay. Your character, the Flameborn, works to revive the fallen civilization using the many weapons, tools, and forms of magic at their disposal.

Enshrouded 1.0 Release Date Trailer

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My Sword, My Shield, and My Grappling Hook

When I say Enshrouded feels like a bunch of elements mixed together, I mean that when you first learn how to fight, you immediately feel it.

Expecting some generic third-person combat, I was not ready for one of the first things I learned in my survival game to be dodging and perfect parrying, especially not for how good both feel.

The combat is smooth and offers a challenge, especially when taking on higher-level enemies. Defeating those enemies gives you XP, like a standard RPG, but then you’re met with a skill tree with its own paths leading to different roles you can take up.

It feels like multiple games smashed into one, especially when you get your grappling hook and glider to traverse the world, along with upgrades that let you use both in combat as well.

When you gain the ability to grapple onto bigger enemies or pull flying ones closer to you, these interconnected systems blend so seamlessly that they create their own unique feeling. The game does a great job of putting the cool factor into your hands.

Leveling also extends to your armor, weapons, staves, wands, and more, with different tiers of loot to find while exploring the world. Everything is customizable until you find the perfect weapon for you. For me, it was a greatsword I used while double-jumping over people’s heads.

One of the Best Base-Building Systems Out There

While I love the combat in Enshrouded, whenever I play survival crafting games, the first thing I always examine is the base building. For me, one of the most satisfying base-building games is still Valheim, but Enshrouded is a close second.

Every minute detail you could think about putting into your little home is possible. With its destructible environments, you could be like me and put a base in a cliff face to live out the dream of having your own little hobbit home.

With so many different building blocks and materials to use, you can go from having rustic castles to glowing, mushroom-covered wizard towers, or just a nice medieval home.

This also combines with the town-building part of the game. Rescuing survivors and reviving them allows you to craft new tools, weapons, armor, building blocks, decorations, and more, but you have to give them a house to live in.

I spent about 10 hours just making cute little homes and roads so that I could give all my little NPCs a nice place to live. This aspect of Enshrouded alone made me love the game.

Dungeons, Quests, and More

On top of everything else the game has to offer, the most fun part is exploration. While many other survival crafting games make exploration more of a resource-gathering task, Enshrouded has its own questlines that help you find more townspeople or tools that upgrade what they offer.

To get around the world more effectively, you enter towers filled with puzzles and challenges that allow you to rekindle them and unlock them as fast-travel points. Their height also makes them great jumping points for using your glider to travel around.

Dungeons hidden in valleys hold new building blocks or special weapons and armor to find. The Shroud that fills the land has bosses hiding around every corner. Hidden rooms and locked doors can lead to chests filled with legendary loot.

Books and letters revealing more about what happened to the people of this world are everywhere. The game has so much to find that you often stumble into these areas by accident while trying to reach another objective.

Why Enshrouded Is Our Game of the Week

Enshrouded has added so much during its more than two years in Early Access that I’m shocked I never got into it sooner. In October, Enshrouded will leave Early Access with its full 1.0 release.

While many people, including me, love this game, it still has some performance issues that can be hard on older systems, especially when playing with the graphics set to maximum. Even with my computer, it ran very hot while I was taking in the sunset over a small lake.

Despite that, Enshrouded is great. It offers a wide variety of customizable ways to explore, build, and fight in the world, and it feels like most groups of players could easily fall in love with the game.

And that’s why Enshrouded is our Game of the Week #62.

Enshrouded

Release: Early Access January 24, 2024 — Version 1.0 October 15, 2026

Genre: Survival Action RPG, Open World, Crafting, Base Building

Developer / Publisher: Keen Games GmbH

Platforms: PC via Steam; PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S planned

Related Reading

Enshrouded Early Access Impressions

Enshrouded Adds Difficulty Options, FSR 3, and Customization

Enshrouded’s Wake of the Water Update

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