Enshrouded is yet another survival game that has appeared as a top talking point around the same time Palworld was blowing up. The game is supposed to be an interesting mix of survival crafting with a souls-like combat system and people are really giving it a lot of praise since the early access launch on Jan 24th.
Starting right out the gate, I don't think this game is ready yet. There is quite a bit of content on offer, but I don't think it comes together well enough to really be worth investing a lot of time into. Some of the elements here are really cool, like the base building system is incredibly detailed and doesn't require a lot of gathering in order to have basic building items to make a decent base. However there doesn't seem to be any reason to make a base at all. I mean you need a base for your core bondfire, but besides that there doesn't feel like there is any real progression to be had with the base outside of a creativity tool.
Secondly the combat system is floaty and chaotic and doesn't really mesh well with the Souls-like idea. It's fine enough but it's no Souls game and again it feels like it's missing the connecting tissue that really makes the combat feel fun. You can build gear and craft items in your base with various materials and there is a clunk skill system in place that really doesn't feel impactful at all. One of the problems me and my group had was there seemed to be a big lack of healing in the early game, and there is no passive regeneration of health. So as you explore and fight, any injury just builds up until you simply can't proceed or die. Top this off with a terrible leveling curve means you struggle to level match your enemies. We started the game and got to level 2 in less than 10 minutes, however we would remain level 2 for over 3 hours before finally hitting level 3 and that simply doesn't make any fucking sense to me.
Eventually the regeneration thing fixed itself as we unlocked gear that passively grants some slow regeneration to your health, it's slow but it also means if we can win the fight then we can eventually regen the HP and not have to fight until death. Which by the way, there is no regeneration or refilling of health at your base bonfire nor any other bonfire beacon in the world. If you have no food, or potions you cannot gain HP back period. At least nothing until you get the gear that'll regen for you. So the whole opening of the game is a slog, it's not exceptionally hard because enemies don't come back when you die so it's a matter of attritiion to get through an area.
I need more time with Enshrouded to make a full on final verdict, at least on the games current state, but I can safely say there is promise here but it needs a lot of fine tuning right now. The opening hours especially are a fucking slog due to simply not having some basic shit to make the game flow better. Now that I'm over that hump so to speak I'll have to see what else there is to the game, but I think this one might be one to avoid until it's gone through many many more updates.
Starting right out the gate, I don't think this game is ready yet. There is quite a bit of content on offer, but I don't think it comes together well enough to really be worth investing a lot of time into. Some of the elements here are really cool, like the base building system is incredibly detailed and doesn't require a lot of gathering in order to have basic building items to make a decent base. However there doesn't seem to be any reason to make a base at all. I mean you need a base for your core bondfire, but besides that there doesn't feel like there is any real progression to be had with the base outside of a creativity tool.
Secondly the combat system is floaty and chaotic and doesn't really mesh well with the Souls-like idea. It's fine enough but it's no Souls game and again it feels like it's missing the connecting tissue that really makes the combat feel fun. You can build gear and craft items in your base with various materials and there is a clunk skill system in place that really doesn't feel impactful at all. One of the problems me and my group had was there seemed to be a big lack of healing in the early game, and there is no passive regeneration of health. So as you explore and fight, any injury just builds up until you simply can't proceed or die. Top this off with a terrible leveling curve means you struggle to level match your enemies. We started the game and got to level 2 in less than 10 minutes, however we would remain level 2 for over 3 hours before finally hitting level 3 and that simply doesn't make any fucking sense to me.
Eventually the regeneration thing fixed itself as we unlocked gear that passively grants some slow regeneration to your health, it's slow but it also means if we can win the fight then we can eventually regen the HP and not have to fight until death. Which by the way, there is no regeneration or refilling of health at your base bonfire nor any other bonfire beacon in the world. If you have no food, or potions you cannot gain HP back period. At least nothing until you get the gear that'll regen for you. So the whole opening of the game is a slog, it's not exceptionally hard because enemies don't come back when you die so it's a matter of attritiion to get through an area.
I need more time with Enshrouded to make a full on final verdict, at least on the games current state, but I can safely say there is promise here but it needs a lot of fine tuning right now. The opening hours especially are a fucking slog due to simply not having some basic shit to make the game flow better. Now that I'm over that hump so to speak I'll have to see what else there is to the game, but I think this one might be one to avoid until it's gone through many many more updates.
