Later this year, the new co-op survival RPG Enshrouded will be released on Steam. MeinMMO editor-in-chief Leya Jankowski got an exclusive insight into the gameplay of the game. Only now does she understand what makes the game so special and how it sets itself apart from other genre representatives like Valheim.
When I saw the first trailer for the survival game Enshrouded, I thought: That looks pretty cool. But why should I play it when Valheim is out at the same time? At first glance, the games look quite similar.
My opinion about Enshrouded changed when I was able to see detailed alpha gameplay.
The developer studio of Enshrouded is based in Germany and is called Keen Games. You may know them from Portal Knights. That’s a now 7-year-old sandbox action RPG that has a vibrant community and is often praised for its great mix of sandbox and RPG elements.
This experience of developing a long-lasting service game with the corresponding community build-up is something Keen Games brings with them and lets flow into the much more mature Enshrouded.
Voxel game world makes the difference
Antony Christoulakes is co-founder and creative director at Keen Games. He visited our office in Munich to show us the alpha gameplay of Enshrouded and tell us more about the game.
Somewhat nervously, Antony takes us through the game world of Enshrouded with his character. Many people haven’t seen the new project from Keen Games yet. The first tests are still for a very small circle.
We start off as you would in any survival game: with a nearly naked character, we are thrown into the wilderness and have to survive somehow while monsters are out for us.
Up to that point, I think: The environment and graphics are quite nice, but the game doesn’t stand out much yet. That changes when we get to the base building
in the gameplay presentation.
While Antony talks about the features and builds his little house at the same time, my eyes widen. In the description texts for Enshrouded, it already states that we are dealing with a voxel environment. What that ultimately means for the gameplay of Enshrouded only becomes clear to me when I see it.
The base is made up of tiny parts, creating an incredible variety. But in the game world of Enshrouded, everything can also be broken down into its individual parts.
In terms of the game’s aesthetics, I didn’t fully grasp from the previous trailers that it is a voxel game world. Keen Games is working with their own engine to be able to present the game world this way.
Focus is on creativity and community
Like in Minecraft, you can do whatever you want with the game world. So it’s not particularly special on its own.
However, this is combined with a mature environment and RPG elements, where you can develop your character with skill points and a talent tree.
You have a quest where you need to loot resources from a horde of bandits? Why not dig a tunnel through the world and rob the bandits from behind? That might be more convenient than fighting.
Are you a basement child at heart and hate the sun? Then start a mole clan and build your base underground.
As we talk about the possibilities, Antony explains that they want to offer a creative experience with Enshrouded. They hope the community will quickly get creative and use the building blocks of the environment in ways the developers can hardly imagine themselves – even at the risk of it ending up like Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom:
While Enshrouded can be played solo, the game is heavily geared towards co-op. The appeal lies in building something together and helping each other create a cool base.
Enshrouded will be a pure PvE game, and the survival elements should be harmless. For example, food is supposed to provide buffs, but starving won’t send you straight to the afterlife. The survival game is designed more for relaxing evening gaming with friends.
Strength is not expressed in previous trailers
Enshrouded could hit Steam just as hard as Valheim, without copying Valheim. According to Antony, the game was developed long before the release of Valheim.
How good the game will ultimately be is, of course, hard to say after a one-hour alpha gameplay presentation. But it makes me at least optimistic that a cool survival RPG is coming our way that you might enjoy if you like games like Minecraft, Stardew Valley, Conan Exiles, or Valheim.
It’s impressive how smooth
the graphics of the game are, even though it has a huge voxel world with beautiful biomes. In the presentation, I particularly liked a magically-themed underground cave with glowing mushrooms. I would love to mine that for a mushroom apartment.
Based on the insight I received, I can at least recommend putting Enshrouded on your watch list and hope that there will soon be more insights into the voxel game world for you.
