Dragon’s Dogma 2 is still a beast of a game, as I’m now over 50 hours into it, and most of that time is spent on the new expansion. But on the side, when a cousin of mine calls to see if I’m free, we boot up Enshrouded, an open-world crafting survival game that just left early access and is now a fully released game. I had no knowledge of or experience with the game, as I wanted to wait for its 1.0 release. It’s finally here, and I’m happy that I patiently waited. Some thoughts.
Action RPG first, Everything Else Second
Enshrouded is your usual open-world crafting survival game, but it’s what’s under the hood that makes it shine. I’ve never been much of a builder, as I usually make squared huts and call it a day. It was the same deal when I played Palworld, as it’s not about how my structures look but rather how they make my base efficient. Same deal with Dune: Awakening, though in that game, the possible look of your buildings at the beginning isn’t so inspiring. Enshrouded is a different story, as there’s a lot of room to be creative at the very start of the game.
It’s nothing new, as we’ve had games with amazing base-building features, but this one got me a bit inspired with the 2m and 4m block options you have right from the get-go. Big or small, or just slightly misaligned, my cousin and I were able to create a reasonable base to accommodate all our stuff and the NPCs we’ve collected so far.
We established an open section for crafting and producing specific items, a farming section to grow things, a center with all our beds surrounded by storage boxes where with just a press of a button, all our items we brought home go to their respective boxes to stack with similar items.
With two people working together, we started creating farming patterns, sometimes going off on our own as I handle farming Metal Scraps while he goes and explores a hidden cave he stumbled upon when gathering materials at an abandoned farm. As we explore, the options for what to craft grow, and as we level up, the roles we want to focus on become more defined.
I went for the battle mage route, with the ability to fend off hordes of enemies if there’s no time to cast a spell. I also have double jump and have evolved my dodge into a short teleport. My cousin went full archer, which isn’t the best combination, but I like how there are multiple ways to build your character beyond the typical high-fantasy roles.
We are still early on, as we’ve both reached level 10, but it already feels like we’ve explored a good amount of the game world, even though we’re nowhere close to scratching the surface.
A Massive Game Waiting to be Explored
Our last session had us experiencing the game’s first dungeon, a tough location where we explored a dark tomb filled with hordes of skeletal enemies that can overwhelm you if you let them. It’s tough, but it gave me a glimpse of how much more complex these dungeons will be in the later stages of the game. We had a great time fighting our way to the final room of the dungeon at level 10. What about at max level in Enshrouded’s final areas?
Enshrouded gives you enough room to make it feel more like an action RPG, as the survival part of the game and maintaining your base feel like afterthoughts. In Palworld, if you don’t manage your bases properly, you might find a few animals starving to death, so you have to plan and set things up just right to be free to do what you want. In Enshrouded, there are no food penalties, as eating serves as a buff for your character. The same goes for hydration. You don’t have to sleep to maintain your stamina, and you don’t have to worry about your NPCs’ well-being. That’s probably one of the reasons why the game is pulling me in, as I can treat it more like a dungeon-crawling action RPG with a very deep base-building system.
Enshrouded feels easier to get into, as an actual skill tree with the possible perks you can unlock gives you something to aim for. This is something RuneScape: Dragonwilds was missing, as there wasn’t much significant character development in its first few hours. If you want to specialize in a particular role or mix two specific roles, you can use your skill points as you please in Enshrouded. In RuneScape: Dragonwilds, you have to perform certain activities to level up the relevant skills, such as attacking with melee weapons or shooting arrows if you want ranged perks.
It also feels more challenging overall, as there’s a limited amount of time you can spend within Shroud-covered areas, where the game’s most dangerous enemies can be found. These areas have a looming death clock hanging over you as you explore enemy-infested locations. When the timer hits zero, you die and drop a good chunk of the materials you gathered.
It’s great so far, as Enshrouded is slowly becoming one of my favorites in the genre.
How was your weekend?
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About the Author - Carlos Hernandez
Carlos Hernandez is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Too Much Gaming, where he writes about video games, reviews, and industry news. A lifelong gamer, he would do anything to experience Final Fantasy Tactics for the first time again and has a love/hate relationship with games that require hunting for new gear to improve your character.
Our The Blood of the Dawnwalker review explores Rebel Wolves’ dark fantasy RPG, its 30-day time limit, the day and night cycle curveball, excellent side quests, and shortcomings.