On January 24, 2024, Enshrouded will launch in Early Access on Steam. MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus was able to play it in advance and is absolutely thrilled: The survival game from the German studio Keen Games in Frankfurt am Main takes many ideas from big hits like Valheim and Conan Exiles and makes them even better.
Enshrouded has been on my mind for a while now. When it was announced, the survival game seemed to many like a “Minecraft for adults”, as it features similar voxel mechanics and extensive terraforming.
Now, I love survival games, but I can’t get into Minecraft at all. Too much freedom usually leads me to boredom. However, Enshrouded wanted to entice with a mix of survival, combat, and exploration. That did hook me, as it has many other interested players as well.
I have now played a preview version for about 12 hours, which was a bit buggy but already very enjoyable. However, I would like to distance myself significantly from the original narrative of “Minecraft for adults” at this point.
Enshrouded reminds me more of a German Valheim that snatches the best features from Conan Exiles and directly remedies all the criticisms I had for both games.
Like Valheim and Conan Exiles, but even better
Right from the first moments, Enshrouded practically screams that it was inspired by Conan Exiles and especially Valheim:
- The start itself is quite classic survival: I start naked in a bucket and first have to learn what is going on in this world. A mystical voice from the off helps me with that.
- Controls and combat are virtually identical to those in Conan Exiles or Valheim, especially with the dodge and parry system. Fighting is directly a lot of fun.
- Skills are distributed through points in a huge tree and allow builds and proper classes like in an RPG, such as: tank with shield, mage, healer, assassin, or – my current favorite – barbarian with a two-handed axe.
The real Valheim flashbacks happen in the building and crafting system. I learn new recipes not through skills, but by finding new materials or building new workshops. Just like the dead Viking heroes.
Especially the expansion of my own base is a delight. Enshrouded has a voxel mechanic like Minecraft, but without the annoying physics and static like in Valheim. This means that those who want can build tunnels and caves that will not collapse. Excellent for all creative minds.
What smells the most like Valheim to me is the food system. I cannot starve or thirst to death, but food provides useful buffs. Better food also means better buffs for stamina, health, or attack power.
Additionally, there is a kind of servant system like in Conan Exiles. But instead of enslaving the NPCs, here I free them and actually receive new crafting options from them, not just better recipes.
A huge world with a touch of … Zelda?
The perhaps biggest unique feature of Enshrouded in the current survival environment is the map and exploration. The map is not procedurally generated like in Valheim, but fixed like in Conan Exiles.
This is also important because there are specific places you must visit to progress. More specifically: puzzle towers where jump puzzles and more await, as well as special altars. As a reward for finding and mastering them, there are materials with which the base can be upgraded.
These towers actually led to a mature discussion between the colleagues from GameStar and me when we played together. For 2 out of our 4-person group, Enshrouded felt like Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom as multiplayer. For the other two, it was a significantly more playful Conan Exiles.
By the way, Enshrouded can be played in co-op without PvP with up to 16 people per server.
The big problem: Enshrouded wants to be too pretty
Exploration is an important factor in Enshrouded, and that is evident everywhere. One of the coolest features in the game for me was the medieval wingsuit made of leather. Instead of annoying climbing or glitching around, I simply build myself a glider and soar over the map. It feels wonderful.
The most important feature for exploration is the “miasma”, a type of fog that envelops certain areas of the map. As humans with a special blessing, we can survive there while everyone else would die instantly. Actually a cool idea.
The problem here is that the fog consumes an incredible amount of performance. Even with powerful graphics cards (all in the 4000 range), there were problems which mostly occurred due to fog and lighting.
I know that the developers are aware of the problem and are working on it. However, during testing, it was irritating not to get more than 70 FPS even at medium settings. Valheim has a similar exploration demand but makes it easier: There, the creators rely on pixel graphics that still look great with the right settings. Enshrouded may just want too much.
The biggest point of criticism from the colleagues is the balance. André Baumgartner from GameStar criticizes that it is relatively easy to find strong equipment when you move a bit out of the “planned” level area. As a result, the character becomes suddenly too strong for their level. You can find the detailed review of Enshrouded with a rating on GameStar.
Here it particularly shows the different perspective. For an adventure, such a thing is bad, as the sense of adventure is lost when you wipe everything away without problems. However, for a survival RPG, that’s not a problem since it’s all about raw survival. Every advantage is welcome.
From a survival fan’s perspective, Enshrouded offers me everything I need: great exploration, a mature building system, and excellent combat mechanics. The rest is a bonus that I accept with pleasure. If the developers can now improve bugs and especially performance, Enshrouded definitely has the potential to be the next Valheim. You will surely find it soon in my list of the best survival games for PC, Xbox, and PlayStation.
