Enshrouded Review (PS5, PC)
Developer: Keen Games
Publisher: Keen Games
Released: January 24, 2024 (PC Early Access) / October 15, 2026 (PS5 and PC 1.0)
ESRB: T for Teen (Violence)
Price: $39.99 (Standard Edition)
I’ve always enjoyed games that give me a big world to explore, plenty of things to discover, enemies to fight, loot to collect, and the freedom to occasionally forget about whatever I’m supposed to be doing so I can go off and do something else entirely. Throw in some RPG progression, crafting, and the ability to build a home for myself, and you’ve got a pretty good recipe for a game that’s going to keep me entertained for a long time. That’s pretty much what Enshrouded brings to the table, and while it takes a little while to really get going, once everything starts coming together, it’s a wonderful experience that manages to scratch several different gaming itches at once.
Developed by Keen Games, Enshrouded is an open-world survival action RPG set in the fantasy world of Embervale, a once-thriving kingdom that has been devastated by a mysterious and deadly fog known as the Shroud. You play as a Flameborn, one of the last hopes for restoring the land, and your adventure involves exploring the remains of civilization, battling dangerous creatures, gathering resources, rescuing survivors, and gradually building something resembling a home in a world that’s seen much better days.
It’s an interesting combination of genres, borrowing elements from survival games, traditional action RPGs, and sandbox building games without feeling entirely beholden to any one of them. You can spend your time exploring ancient ruins and fighting monsters, gathering wood and stone to build a house, crafting better equipment, or simply wandering around to see what you might discover. And perhaps the best thing about it is that you can adjust the experience to suit the way you want to play.
Before we really dive into this, let me set the stage for where I came into the game. I’m not typically a fan of the survival/crafting genre. I’ve played Ark, I’ve played Conan Exiles, and I’ve played Minecraft, and I didn’t enjoy any of them. None of them ever held my attention for very long. Well, Conan did for a minute, but that’s just because I made my character a woman with big breasts who was running around without a top. But I digress. I don’t typically enjoy this genre, but I do enjoy Enshrouded. So, in this review, we’re going to examine what makes this one different from other somewhat similar games. And it’s largely because of what I said in the preceding paragraph: it’s an interesting combination of genres.
And if you’re picking it up and just starting out, we have a beginner’s guide available here with more coming eventually.
A Slow Start to a Wonderful Adventure
I will say right up front that Enshrouded doesn’t necessarily make the strongest first impression. The opening hours can feel a little slow, especially when you’re still getting accustomed to the mechanics, figuring out how everything works, and gathering the resources necessary to start making some meaningful progress. You’re introduced to a fairly substantial collection of systems, and it takes a little while before everything begins clicking into place.
That’s not necessarily a complaint. I would much rather have too much thrown at me in the beginning and be given some initial freedom than have the game hold my hand, put me on training wheels, and tell me exactly what to do and how to do it. It’s kinda nice to just run out of the starting area, picking up stuff that you don’t know what it is or what it’s for, but knowing you’ll figure it out eventually. It beats the alternative of running along, picking up a stick, and then having the game pause to tell you that you picked up a stick, followed by four pop-ups explaining all the things you can do with that stick.
Fortunately, the somewhat slow start is mostly a matter of getting your bearings and learning the ropes, and things really begin to open up once you establish yourself and start making some headway. What initially feels like a relatively basic survival and crafting experience gradually opens into something much more interesting as you discover new locations, acquire better equipment, unlock crafting possibilities, and begin developing your little corner of Embervale.
That sense of progression is one of the things I enjoy most about the game. There’s always something else you can work toward, whether that’s a new piece of equipment, a crafting station, a building project, or some distant location on the map that looks interesting. One task naturally leads into another, and before long, you’ve got a whole collection of things you want to accomplish.
I enjoy that kind of freedom in games, especially when the individual activities are entertaining enough that I don’t feel like I’m simply checking items off a list. Enshrouded does a good job of making the various systems complement one another, so the time you spend exploring and fighting feeds into your crafting and building, while the work you put into your settlement helps prepare you for your next adventure.
Exploring Embervale and Surviving the Shroud
Exploration is easily one of Enshrouded’s greatest strengths. Embervale is a large, beautifully designed fantasy world filled with forests, mountains, valleys, abandoned settlements, ancient ruins, and all manner of places worth investigating. The landscape has enough variety to keep things interesting, and there’s a real pleasure in setting out from your settlement without necessarily knowing what you’re going to find.
Unlike games that rely entirely on procedurally generated environments, Enshrouded features a handcrafted world, and I think that makes a difference. Too many games these days rely heavily on procedural generation because developers believe it keeps things fresh. Sometimes it does; most times it doesn’t. Here, locations feel deliberately designed, with interesting terrain, structures, and points of interest that encourage you to investigate rather than simply rush from one objective marker to another. The ability to manipulate the terrain adds another dimension to exploration, allowing you to dig into the ground, mine resources, and interact with the environment in ways that aren’t possible in most traditional action RPGs.
Of course, the defining feature of the game is the Shroud itself, and I think Keen Games really nailed this particular mechanic.
Throughout Embervale, large areas have been consumed by a mysterious fog that transforms the environment into something far more dangerous. Entering the Shroud immediately changes the atmosphere, both visually and mechanically, as you’re suddenly operating under a time limit. One minute, you’re building a cozy cabin, and then you venture out into the woods looking for some more wood and possibly something to eat, only to find yourself entering the Shroud. Naturally, you’re going to explore it, but now you’ve got the added stress of a timer counting down. Not so cozy now. You can’t simply wander around indefinitely, casually collecting everything that catches your eye. You need to pay attention to how much time you have remaining, where you’re going, and how you’re going to get back out.
It’s a wonderful way of adding tension to exploration without turning the entire game into a relentless survival ordeal. You might enter the Shroud with a specific objective in mind, only to discover something else that looks interesting, and suddenly you’re having to decide whether you’ve got enough time to investigate or whether you should get yourself back to safety.
The fog itself also gives the world a distinct personality. The contrast between the relatively peaceful areas above and the dangerous, corrupted regions below is striking, and the Shroud makes venturing into certain parts of the world feel like a genuine expedition. It’s one of those mechanics that could have easily become annoying if handled poorly, but here it adds something meaningful to the experience.
Movement and traversal become increasingly enjoyable as you acquire tools like the Grappling Hook and Glider, opening up additional possibilities for getting around the world. It is immensely satisfying to reach a high point, take in the scenery, and then glide toward your next destination rather than having to walk the entire distance.
Combat That Makes Exploring Worthwhile
As much as I enjoy the exploration and building aspects of Enshrouded, I’m also very pleased with the combat. Survival crafting games sometimes treat fighting as something of an afterthought, with fairly basic mechanics that exist primarily to give you something to do between gathering resources. Thankfully, Enshrouded puts a lot more effort into this side of the experience.
Combat feels much closer to a traditional action RPG, with melee weapons, ranged attacks, magic, blocking, dodging, and a variety of skills that allow you to develop a character around your preferred approach. Whether you want to get up close and personal with a sword and shield, attack enemies from a distance with a bow, or experiment with magical abilities, the game gives you plenty of room to develop your own fighting style. I can’t speak much for the magical abilities, though, as I prefer to play as a warrior, and so melee is what I went with. Somewhat surprising, considering I usually opt for a bow and almost never choose magic. Unless I’m playing as a female character, then magic somehow seems fitting. Yes, I give gender roles to fictional classes that might not make sense to everyone.
The melee combat is responsive and entertaining, and the variety of enemies helps keep encounters interesting as you explore. You can’t necessarily expect to charge into every situation swinging wildly and come out victorious, although I certainly wouldn’t blame anyone for giving it a try because I certainly did. Learning how enemies attack, managing your stamina, and making use of your available abilities all contribute to a satisfying combat system that fits nicely alongside the game’s other mechanics.
Character progression also helps make fighting worthwhile. Earning experience and unlocking new skills provides another reason to venture out into the world, and the skill tree offers plenty of opportunities to customize your character to your preferred playstyle. I appreciate having those options rather than being locked into one particular style of play, especially in a game where you’re likely to spend a substantial amount of time with the same character. Along the way, you’re going to acquire different weapons and equipment that open up new gameplay possibilities, and you may find yourself wanting to experiment with something you hadn’t originally considered.
Most importantly, fighting is something I actually look forward to doing. That’s a pretty important distinction for a game that combines so many different systems, because even the best exploration and building mechanics wouldn’t be quite as appealing if every encounter with an enemy felt like a chore or a cakewalk. And if you feel like it’s becoming either of those things, well, you can adjust the difficulty to your liking.
Building Your Own Little Corner of Embervale
If exploration and combat weren’t enough, Enshrouded also features an excellent building system that allows you to create everything from a modest little house to an elaborate settlement or sprawling fantasy fortress. And if you’re the sort of player who enjoys spending hours tinkering with a building project, there’s an awful lot here to keep you occupied.
Your Flame Altar establishes a protected area where you can construct your home, and as you gather additional materials and unlock new crafting options, the possibilities continue expanding. The voxel-based building system offers an impressive amount of flexibility, allowing you to work with different materials and shapes rather than being restricted entirely to a handful of prefabricated structures. You might never encounter an error telling you that you can’t build something, unlike in some games that turn your craftable object into a red box, causing you to spend 30 minutes trying to figure out why you can’t place it there, only to discover there’s a six-pixel pebble blocking the way. Can you pick it up? No, it’s not a “stone.” Can you kick it out of the way? No, it’s part of the procedurally generated map. Wonderful! That problem doesn’t seem to exist here, because the good folks at Keen Games employed a little common sense. Or at least I reckon they did; I haven’t encountered that design issue yet.
You can start with a simple shelter and gradually transform it into something much more ambitious, complete with rooms, furniture, workshops, and whatever decorative touches you feel like adding. Rescuing craftspeople and bringing them back to your settlement also gives your building projects a practical purpose, as these characters help unlock additional equipment, materials, and crafting possibilities.
This type of thing is always infinitely enjoyable to me, because it’s what I’d like to do in real life if money wasn’t an issue. Find a piece of land that looks good, build a cozy off-grid cabin, expand on it over time, establish a whole homestead. Fence in the area, and get fortified positions to tell the government to stay the hell away.
I really enjoy this aspect of the game because it gives you something worthwhile to do when you’re not in the mood to go adventuring. Sometimes you want to fight monsters and explore dangerous ruins, and sometimes you just want to spend an evening working on your house. Enshrouded accommodates both moods wonderfully.
That’s not to say the building system is without its frustrations. While I think the mechanics themselves are excellent, I do occasionally find myself getting annoyed with the camera when trying to position certain pieces or work in tighter spaces. It can become a little fiddly, and there have been moments when I’ve spent more time wrestling with the view than actually accomplishing whatever I was trying to build. But so far I have been able to put stuff where I want to put it, even if I had to wrestle the camera and controls a bit.
It’s not a dealbreaker by any means, and it certainly hasn’t discouraged me from enjoying the construction side of the game, but it’s one of those little annoyances that occasionally interrupts an otherwise excellent experience. When everything is cooperating, though, building is incredibly satisfying, and the freedom to create your own little settlement is one of the game’s biggest selling points.
Playing Your Way
One feature that deserves some attention is the extensive collection of difficulty and world customization options. Rather than forcing everyone into the same survival experience, Enshrouded allows you to adjust numerous settings to better suit your preferences, including combat difficulty, resource gathering, and various aspects of survival and progression.
I absolutely love having this kind of control over a game.
Not everyone wants the same experience, and I don’t believe every game needs to be brutally difficult to be enjoyable. Some people want a demanding survival adventure where every expedition is dangerous, and resources are hard to come by. Others would rather spend their time exploring, building, and enjoying the world without constantly worrying about getting killed or having to spend an eternity gathering materials.
Enshrouded gives players the flexibility to find a comfortable balance between those approaches, and I think that’s fantastic. You can make the game more demanding if that’s what you’re looking for, or you can adjust things to create a more relaxed experience that places greater emphasis on exploration and creativity.
For this review, I played entirely solo in my own private world, using what I assume are the default difficulty settings since I didn’t change anything. I found the experience thoroughly enjoyable. The game supports cooperative multiplayer, but since I haven’t personally played with a group, I’m not going to pretend I can tell you how well that aspect works. What I can say is that Enshrouded offers a tremendous amount of entertainment for someone who prefers to explore, fight, and build at their own pace without having to coordinate with other players.
I appreciate that because some survival games seem designed around the assumption that you’re going to have a group of friends playing alongside you. Some insist that if you’re going to play online, you’d better not sleep in real life, because if you do, you might wake up to discover your character has been kidnapped and is now being held in some group’s dungeon while all your hard work building your little estate has been destroyed. While I’m sure building an enormous settlement and exploring dangerous areas with friends could be entertaining, I’m perfectly content doing my own thing, and Enshrouded has given me plenty to enjoy on my own and at my own pace.
A Few Rough Edges
Beyond the occasionally frustrating building camera and the somewhat slow beginning, one of the more interesting things I noticed while playing Enshrouded was how certain aspects of its interface reminded me of games like Disney Dreamlight Valley and some of the free-to-play gacha games I’ve played or encountered over the years.
It’s difficult to point to one specific element responsible for that impression, but there’s something about the presentation of certain menus, interface elements, and control interactions that brings those games to mind. That’s not necessarily a criticism, and I’m certainly not suggesting Enshrouded shares their monetization systems (it most certainly does not) or anything of that nature. It’s simply a resemblance I noticed while navigating the game’s various systems. Just one of those observations where this kind of looks like that. And I rather liked Disney Dreamlight Valley, which has its own cozy crafting and quasi-homesteading elements, so the fact that certain aspects of Enshrouded remind me of it is actually a compliment.
With so many different mechanics packed into the experience, you’re naturally going to spend a fair amount of time interacting with menus, crafting stations, inventory screens, and equipment options. Most of it works well enough once you’ve gotten accustomed to everything, although the sheer number of systems can make the opening hours feel a little overwhelming. And even the later hours, if you forget a few things along the way. I may be an Alabama fan, but I don’t claim to be an elephant. I do occasionally forget stuff.
I also think this contributes to the slow start I mentioned earlier. Enshrouded takes some time to reveal just how much it has to offer, and players who expect everything to click immediately might find themselves wondering what all the excitement is about. Give it some time, though, and the various pieces begin falling into place.
None of these issues, if you’d even call them that, come close to ruining the experience for me. And yes, I realize I titled this section “A Few Rough Edges” and then proceeded to explain why one of those supposed rough edges was actually a compliment. It’s my review, and I reserve the right to be a little contradictory if I feel like it. Anyway, as much as I enjoy the game, it’s not completely without its annoyances, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with acknowledging them while still recognizing just how much Keen Games has gotten right.
Final Verdict
Enshrouded is one of those games that manages to bring together several different things I enjoy (RPG mechanics, action RPG combat, and building a little homestead) and some things I don’t typically enjoy (basically the entire survival genre, minus the crafting) and somehow make them work remarkably well as a complete package. The world is a pleasure to explore, the combat is entertaining, the Shroud adds a welcome sense of danger and urgency, and the building system offers enough creative freedom to keep players occupied for a very long time.
I also appreciate the ability to customize the difficulty and other aspects of the experience, allowing players to decide for themselves how demanding or relaxed they want their adventure to be. That’s an approach I’d love to see more games embrace, especially when they’re trying to appeal to people who enjoy different aspects of the same genre.
The slow beginning might turn some people away before they get to the good stuff, and the camera can occasionally make building more frustrating than it needs to be, but those complaints are relatively minor compared to everything the game does well. Once you begin making progress, expanding your settlement, developing your character, and venturing farther into Embervale, it becomes increasingly difficult to put down.
Whether you’re looking for an action RPG with enjoyable combat, a fantasy world filled with places to explore, or a building game where you can spend hours creating your own little settlement, Enshrouded has plenty to offer. And if you happen to enjoy all three of those things, well, you’ve probably found yourself a game that’s going to eat up a decent amount of your free time
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time with Enshrouded on PlayStation 5 and will continue progressing through it. I can easily recommend it to anyone who enjoys this particular combination of exploration, combat, crafting, and building, and most certainly to anyone who’s like me and doesn’t typically enjoy other games in the genre, such as Ark.
It’s not perfect, but it’s a wonderful game that checks an awful lot of boxes. And for only $39.99, it offers a generous amount of content compared to many games that cost twice as much, which makes it a steal in my book.
Enshrouded gets a four out of five: TRIUMPHANT.
A digital code was provided by a PR firm on behalf of the publisher for review. Reviewed on PlayStation 5. Played entirely solo in a private world.
