This is shaping up to be a solid surviving crafting ARPG | Demo Review - Enshrouded
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✨Overview
Enshrouded is an exciting upcoming game that seamlessly blends survival, crafting, and action RPG combat set in a vast, voxel-based continent, this open-world adventure offers players the freedom to build, craft, and fight.
While exact release dates are still under wraps, Enshrouded promises to be a multi-platform release with a release on PC and on Xbox and PS5 later down the line. The game has a limited demo on Steam is a fantastic opportunity for players to get a taste of its potential. The 8 hour time-limited demo allows you to play through the initial quests, helping players become familiar with the game.
📖Premise / Story
In Enshrouded, players assume the role of the Flameborn, the last glimmers of hope for a dying race. This co-op survival adventure begins with nothing but your determination to survive and explore the wilds. Scavenging through the remnants of a fallen kingdom is a necessity for survival, and you must fend off ravenous beasts and monsters, both natural and unnatural. As you journey through diverse landscapes, including forests, caves, and dungeons, you'll uncover hidden knowledge and treasure. Your ultimate goal: to gather the strength needed to confront the horrors lurking within the Shroud, the land-devouring “mist”, and causes these lands to be “Enshrouded”.
🎨Visuals
Despite looking like a typical cut and dried modern Unreal Engine game, Enshrouded still presents players with a visually stunning world that showcases meticulous attention to detail. The lighting effects are enchanting, the stylized character models intricately designed, and the game world is beautifully crafted. From lush, green forests to dark and desolate enshrouded regions, even the underground lava-filled caverns are brought to life in vivid detail.
🎮Gameplay
The gameplay in Enshrouded combines elements from beloved titles like Valheim and Breath of the Wild, two games that are great in their own right and is a good choice for inspiration. Survival crafting, with elements of building, and action RPG goodness.
As a survival crafting game, Enshrouded includes typical features such as a resource gathering and crafting system, a tiered building system, NPCs like blacksmiths, and tools like workbenches to aid in your building and crafting endeavors.
Players have the freedom to construct their bases within the game world, and Enshrouded boasts a finely detailed construction system that offers more granularity than many other titles in the genre. This means you can place tiny individual 1 foot blocks instead of the usual large 1 meter walls or blocks seen in other survival crafting games. However, it's worth noting that the building placement system still requires some refinement, as it can be challenging to seamlessly and quickly snap building blocks together.
The combat system draws inspiration from Dark Souls and also Breath of the Wild, emphasizing the importance of timing, dodging, and parrying. It's a refreshing departure from the clunky norm, offering a satisfying and solid combat experience where hits feel weighty, and animations are both swift and responsive.
Players can choose their combat style, whether it's melee, ranged, or magic, and seamlessly switch between them using the hotbar. Beyond combat, Enshrouded introduces various platforming adventure elements, including gliding, grappling hooks, and wall climbing. These are complemented by puzzles, traps, and mechanisms found in ancient vaults and caverns, further adding minor flavors to the gameplay and character maneuverability.
⏫Progression
As you explore the world of Enshrouded and battle its formidable foes, you'll accumulate experience points and skill points. These can be invested to enhance your character's abilities in an action RPG-like fashion. Skills like reduced weapon degradation, increased endurance in enshrouded regions, and the ability to execute sneak attacks are some examples to provide ample customization options, allowing players to tailor their characters to their preferred playstyle.
📊Technical Performance
From a technical standpoint, Enshrouded performed satisfactory during the demo on my PC (i7-8700k, 32GB RAM, RTX 3080). I did not experience any game-breaking bugs and crashes throughout the entire demo experience. In fact, dare I say it even appears to be ready for Early Access, offering a high level of quality.
Enshrouded also features solid controller support even at this stage, enhancing accessibility for players who prefer that input method. However, there's room for refinement, particularly in terms of controls, which may take some getting used to, and there are many quality of life changes the game can benefit with, such as auto-run, a separate button for sprint and crouching.
⚖️Conclusion
The demo only offers a taste of the game's potential. However, for what was presented to me, Enshrouded is shaping up to be a great surviving crafting ARPG. That is if they can maintain this level of quality throughout the entirety of the experience, including the actual co-op play and balance, endgame content, and especially if they give players the tools to craft their own experiences, such as allowing for custom world settings or the hosting of private servers. While some minor issues exist, these experiences during the demo are overshadowed by Enshrouded’s overall quality and potential for refinement.
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