Early access open world role-playing game for 1 to 16 players.
Steam Page
About the Game
Enshrouded is, as of February 2024, a title still in development. However, for a recommended retail price of currently 30 euros, you get a well-developed role-playing game set in an open fantasy world with a medieval feel.
The plot is quickly explained: The player takes on the role of a Flameborn, awakened long after a fateful event, to combat the toxic mist released due to human greed and the warriors spawned from it.
This Early Access version is largely bug-free, offering beautiful landscapes and plenty of corners to explore, filled with lovingly crafted details. You can craft, prepare food, build bases, or repair ruins, and of course, engage in combat.
There is some criticism online regarding the option to level up skills towards becoming an archer because spent arrows cannot be collected again. This is particularly annoying because crafting arrows is relatively laborious.
The skill system and the skill tree itself partly resemble those from The Witcher but offer their own features.
Overall, Enshrouded is a rather relaxed game, but that shouldn’t overshadow the fact that combat sequences can be hectic and challenging at times. Moreover, it’s possible to enter an online session with your advanced character and then return to single-player mode afterward. Completed quests from single-player mode can be solved again in multiplayer.
The somewhat simplistic character designs still offer room for future improvements. Nevertheless, there are diverse options in the character editor, allowing you to create different player characters.
Enshrouded can be played as a single-player adventure, in local multiplayer mode, or with up to 16 players via internet servers. Setting it up reportedly is very easy to accomplish.
The game’s duration, including base building and average gameplay, is approximately 100 hours, but it can be much shorter if you follow quests directly. However, much more time can be sunk into the game if you focus on building. The technical solution is similar to that of Minecraft, although it stands out and takes its own path. This is evident from the fact that the world of Enshrouded is not made up of cuboid elements.
Building is remarkably intuitive and offers a lot of pre-made elements to help save some building time.
Controller
Xbox controller with freely configurable mappings.
PS5 controller.
Keyboard
Typical WASD controls.
Can only be played with keyboard AND mouse.
Keyboard mappings are freely configurable.
Often requires simultaneously pressing two or more keys, or occasionally repeated key presses in quick succession.
The main menu can only be accessed via the ESC key.
During gameplay, words, numbers, or sentences must be entered (e.g., player name).
Mouse
The mouse cursor is confined to the game window or fullscreen and cannot be dragged out.
The player character does NOT move automatically by clicking in the game environment.
Requires left-click.
Requires right-click.
The use of the mouse wheel can be bypassed via the keyboard.
Mouse Sensitivity
Mouse sensitivity can be freely adjusted.
The in-game adjusted mouse sensitivity can be turned off.
Display
Option for fullscreen or windowed mode.
Selection of different resolutions directly in the options menu.
Audio
Sound is useful for the game.
Speech is always subtitled.
Sounds are NOT visually represented.
The direction from which a sound comes is NOT visualized.
Subtitles
Includes subtitles.
Subtitles are in serif font.
Subtitles are in large font.
Graphical User Interface (GUI)
GUI can be hidden.
GUI is easily recognizable.
Computer Aids
Enable Viacam head mouse.
Works exclusively for mouse movement and individual left clicks.
The ‚Clickwindow‘ is permanently invisible and inaccessible in the game’s fullscreen mode.
Voice Activated Commands Speech Control
Not yet tested.
Windows Magnifier
Windows Magnifier not yet tested.
Windows On-Screen Keyboard (OSK)
Does NOT work in fullscreen mode.
Time Limits
Has time limits.
Time limits are generous.
Savegames
Automatically saves the game state.
Automatic checkpoints for saving are NOT too far apart.
