Nobody's going to read this anyway, so... After thinking for almost 3 years, I have finally started going to gym.

I've been stuck in Fallout 76 for years—mostly because of the base-building system—yeah… I'm a sucker for that. In 2024, for Christmas, my best friend asks me, "What do you want as a gift?" "I don't know, bro, the games in my wishlist are ranked by preference." And what does the idiot do? He buys me a game he liked, which WASN’T EVEN IN MY WISHLIST. In fact, I wasn't even interested when he first pitched it to me so we could play together. And he doesn’t just gift it to me—he buys it for my wife too, just to make sure we play it. Oh well… 110 hours later, I can confidently say: it sucks. Don’t play it with friends. It doesn’t have good graphics. It doesn’t have new mechanics. It doesn’t have an awesome base-building system. It doesn’t have tons of cool biomes to explore. It doesn’t have constant updates. It doesn’t have insanely smooth gameplay similar to Breath of the Wild. It doesn’t have cool stuff to discover at every step. Oh, how I wish all of this weren’t outright lies and the reality wasn’t the complete opposite.

OK FINE, ALEX, IT’S ONE OF THE COOLEST GAMES I’VE PLAYED LATELY, AND IT HOOKED ME JUST AS MUCH AS 76, Terraria, AND OTHER INSANELY GOOD GAMES THAT ARE WORTH EVERY PENNY—AND THAT PUT MANY TRIPLE-A TITLES TO SHAME.

Happy now? Now get in Enshrouded and give me that wand — I respecced, and I’m a mage now.

No one's going to see this review anyway... I'm gay

---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☐ Beautiful ☑ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☑ Very good ☐ Good ☐ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't ---{ Audio }--- ☐ Eargasm ☐ Very good ☑ Good ☐ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ I'm now deaf ---{ Audience }--- ☑ Kids ☑ Teens ☑ Adults ☐ Grandma ---{ PC Requirements }--- ☐ Check if you can run paint ☐ Potato ☑ Decent ☐ Fast ☐ Rich boi ☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer ---{ Game Size }--- ☐ Floppy Disk ☐ Old Fashioned ☑ Workable ☐ Big ☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive ☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it ☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data ---{ Difficulty }--- ☐ Just press 'W' ☐ Easy ☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master ☑ Significant brain usage ☐ Difficult ☐ Dark Souls ---{ Grind }--- ☐ Nothing to grind ☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks ☐ Isn't necessary to progress ☑ Average grind level ☐ Too much grind ☐ You'll need a second life for grinding ---{ Story }--- ☐ No Story ☐ Some lore ☐ Average ☑ Good ☐ Lovely ☐ It'll replace your life ---{ Game Time }--- ☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee ☐ Short ☐ Average ☑ Long ☐ To infinity and beyond ---{ Price }--- ☐ It's free! ☑ Worth the price ☐ If it's on sale ☐ If u have some spare money left ☐ Not recommended ☐ You could also just burn your money ---{ Bugs }--- ☐ Never heard of ☑ Minor bugs ☐ Can get annoying ☐ ARK: Survival Evolved ---{ ? / 10 }--- ☐ 1 ☐ 2 ☐ 3 ☐ 4 ☐ 5 ☐ 6 ☐ 7 ☐ 8 ☑ 9 ☐ 10

This is Valheim with good picture

Posting this to offset the negative 'reviews' due to the current lobby crash, which already has a hotfix underway. People really need to use the *review* section for actual, objective reviews of a game - instead of using it as a place to post grievances. Mini update: 13 hours later and the game is running great - no issues - the world is gorgeous, the musics enchanting and well, just plain old having a lot of fun =)

I really wanted to love this game. The single-player experience is pretty solid. the building and combat are great, and the world is compelling. It's a ton of fun to explore and discover new recipes. But at present, it's only really playable single-player. There are only 2 flame altars per server, which means that either a 4 or 16 player server must share 2 bases between them. There is no way to make your own base, or chests, they're available to all. There are no admin tools to deal with griefers either. In addition progression is server wide, AND character dependent. This means if a character is not present when a quest is completed, they lose out on the rewards for the quest, but also can't receive the quests themselves, effectively gating their progression. Only one person gets boss and quest rewards, so on a 4-16 person server, good luck sharing loot. Even in two player co-op, both players always present, quest progression is broken. you can only have one major quest at a time, and I had a quest to make a weapon, which I didn't complete, as I didn't realize it was gating my progression. In that time, I helped my co-op partner complete several quests, including a major boss kill, and I don't have the quest completion reflected in my journal, but the area is permanently altered and I can't receive or complete those quests, so my progression is bricked. Given the way multiplayer is implemented, it's clear it started as a single-player game with a changing world that tacked on multiplayer to appeal to the survival craft genre. If you want a single player survival game with a compelling world and decent combat, go for it. But if you want to play multiplayer in any capacity I would look elsewhere.

Valhiem on Crack.

Wait.. This isnt Pal World!

Let me gain xp from building. I am the Base mommy, my friends go out and I stay behind and build mighty castles from which we operate. I don't know if it's a terrible idea, I want to be able to keep up somewhat with them whilst building! Please tell me if this is a dumb idea! Edit: This is a list of the suggestions of all the smart sausages and base mommy's in the comment section! (the biggest issue they adress is people abusing base building to boost xp) 1. Stanleys and Arch-_-Angelos were the first people to mention true XP sharing. Where everyone gets 1:1 xp conversion. Like Baldurs Gate 3! 2. GrimTactics suggested a daily xp cap for building. Meaning builders can still get some juicy xp, whilst stopping exploiters from going hog-wild. 3. Rhys takes it a step further! He had the idea of introducing an item set that disables the wearers personal xp gain, but whilst home, they gain xp at the same rate as the adventurer who has the other item. 4. Lord Vorian as the most thought out method I reckon. They suggest an xp reward for every amount of material spend building. Meaning destroying and replacing something still nets the same amount of total material spend, therefor not rewarding any additional xp. This one is interesting, it is still subject to some cheekiness, but anyone would still need to farm the resources, no matter if they just make a solid cube base somewhere purely for the xp it's their choice if they desire to spend resources in that manner. It also encourages serious players to build bigger, more grandiose bases, which I personally see as a huge win! 5. Pepito had the idea of an xp collecting scroll, or perhaps gem, which explorers could ferry around, having it accumulate experience, so they may give it to builders so they can absorb the collected xp. 6. Faris mentions reducing material returns from deconstructing and the server settings argument. Player freedom or the game dev's vision? Which is more important? He's also made my aware my head is, in fact, a Tomato. I am profoundly discombobulated. 7. And finally mont3000 , claims a slow xp trickle, which initiates after spending 15/30 minutes building would do the trick. Awesome suggestions everyone! I am already starting to like the character of the community. If any of the idea's here tickled your fancy, perhaps give the original poster some love on their steam page if they seem open too it!

My friend I play with said that if I post a review about the game and it gets 200 likes and 50 rewards, he'll buy me a bag of chips and a RTX 4090. So I'll leave this here.

No game chat, I am deaf and i need it to communicate with players.. A major downfal for the disabled player ie; Deafness, hearing loss, hard of hearing. I am geting a refund.

1.5 hours in with my son. So far it is fun, not quite a demanding on resources as valheim. I am going to be a tank, he a wizard though he is a archer so far. I died once so far he twice, got blown up the second time.

I wish there was a "thumbs horizontal buy in a year" option. + a technological marvel. Voxels are a difficult foundation to 'get right' and Enshrouded has a mini-voxel world with good performance, attractive to the eye, and enjoyable to explore. But ... most of the effort has gone into that foundation. - the world is basically like an MMO; mobs spawn in certain locations and wait for you to come to them - there's no threat in the world perse. you can build, build big, and never worry about storms, starvation, hostiles, world bosses coming to you etc. And this lack of threat is a big part of the game being very passive. Threats only exist when you go out to find them, but then the game is extremely gentle: death doesn't really mean anything, fast travelling everywhere - including home - is more convenient as a free uber ride on demand. You go out to unlock resources you need only for short durations/periods of the game, a boss head you need once, a recipe to complete a quest, and then you turn the page and repeat that in a different part of the world. Fast travel here, beat the spawns, collect xyz, fast travel home. Repeat. Without threat and consequence, the world feels like a lovely tapestry to play on and run about the 3d art to get a visual treat ... while never quite being pulled *IN* on a deeper level. It feels like Conan Exiles, but EA, so without depth of content. The skill tree is also flawed and I suspect will get some balancing corrections. AI .. doesn't really exist. It's year 2000 WoW levels of "spawn here and do nothing unless aggroed, then run at the aggroer" In all it is not a bad game, it is just a thin game with shallow content. Good for builders who just want to build, but if you are looking for a survival game where every x-time the mobs come to you and wreck your base, or the Shroud covers everything like THE FOG and mobs spawn in a world attack ...... this is not it. This is a passive game where base building doesn't matter, so you do it just because you can. I suspect in a year, in two years, the game will have more meat to the bones ... more purpose ... but it's EA, so ... 6/10

---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☐ Beautiful ☑ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☑ Very good ☐ Good ☐ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't ---{ Audio }--- ☐ Eargasm ☐ Very good ☑ Good ☐ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ I'm now deaf ---{ Audience }--- ☑ Kids ☑ Teens ☑ Adults ☐ Grandma ---{ PC Requirements }--- ☐ Check if you can run paint ☐ Potato ☑ Decent ☐ Fast ☐ Rich boi ☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer ---{ Game Size }--- ☐ Floppy Disk ☐ Old Fashioned ☑ Workable ☐ Big ☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive ☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it ☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data ---{ Difficulty }--- ☐ Just press 'W' ☐ Easy ☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master ☑ Significant brain usage ☐ Difficult ☐ Dark Souls ---{ Grind }--- ☐ Nothing to grind ☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks ☐ Isn't necessary to progress ☑ Average grind level ☐ Too much grind ☐ You'll need a second life for grinding ---{ Story }--- ☐ No Story ☐ Some lore ☐ Average ☑ Good ☐ Lovely ☐ It'll replace your life ---{ Game Time }--- ☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee ☐ Short ☐ Average ☑ Long ☐ To infinity and beyond ---{ Price }--- ☐ It's free! ☑ Worth the price ☐ If it's on sale ☐ If u have some spare money left ☐ Not recommended ☐ You could also just burn your money ---{ Bugs }--- ☐ Never heard of ☑ Minor bugs ☐ Can get annoying ☐ ARK: Survival Evolved ☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs ---{ ? / 10 }--- ☐ 1 ☐ 2 ☐ 3 ☐ 4 ☐ 5 ☐ 6 ☐ 7 ☑ 8 ☐ 9 ☐ 10

71 Hours to complete the Early Access release version. I seldom write reviews but Enshrouded has compelled me to put my thoughts down. Is the game good? Yes and No. Gameplay is fun and the sense of exploration is fantastic. It has a great foundation to be something special BUT it has some fundamental design issues. 1) Leveling is very poorly done. I progressed through 40ish or so hours with the exact same weapons. A million common drops or even worse Legendary drops with worse stats than an early Epic really takes you out of grinding. 2) Enemy variety is lacking. You will encounter 5 or 6 enemy types the entire game. Every area begins to feel the same because you are constantly facing the same enemy types. 3) Enemy Scaling is garbage. Killing a Level 1 enemy vs killing a Level 30 drops the same exact loot. Why would I farm a higher tier zone? Only point of higher tier zones is for materials tied only to these areas. It is not face stronger enemies with better drops. 4) Building types are pointless. Over the course of your play through you will pick up better build block types. Some even with the Epic tag. The problem with this, there is literally no point in using them. They do not give a comfort bonus for higher tier/nicer build blocks. There is also zero point is having more than 1 base. Place a main base, then only put alters and a work bench to repair weapons/tools if needed while farming. Another problem with bases, they're never attacked. This really draws away from the point of building bigger or more secure. You could live out of a 1x2 with a big court foundation square for your minions the entire game. 5) Quests are mehhhh, not terrible but not wonderful either. It's basically 3 quest types. Fetch, Kill/Boss Fights, & Area clears. Quests types could really use some variety. All in all, I enjoyed my early access time with Enshrouded but I don't think I'll be back for a while. It will need a lot of updates and design changes for me to attempt another play through. My recommendation, give it a solid 2 years in the oven to mature. Edit: Clarification is obviously needed why I'm down voting aka Not Recommending. The comments have clearly leaned into three areas (Time spent, Value, and You liked it?!?!). 1) "You put 70 hours and down vote, clown" 2) "70 hours is a lot of value for an EA title" 3) "You said gameplay is fun & it has an excellent foundation" Let me be clear. I enjoyed Enshrouded, but each passing day, that spark dimmed. I want to elaborate why I've set my review to Not Recommended. Day 1, "WOW this map is huge and look at all these icons!" As time passed, hmmm ok, it's a repeat of the same things to do over and over. Fighting the same enemies, just to receive the same mediocre loot. Next high to low moment, building my base. "Ok, the building controls are solid and work well. "Damn there are a million build types", "Wait, I can't just upgrade the material type? I have to remove and add, why???" "Nothing attacks, whats the point in spending time doing all of this?" At the end I realized that building for the screenshot is nice and all, but having a built in game mechanic, the comfort bonus that does not interface with building qualities that unlock along your journey is very lackluster. One, because building & harvesting resources is a time requirement w/ no payback and two, there is no threat to make you engage w/ protecting your investment. Again, same thing with leveling. At the start it's flowing and unlocking all these new crafting recipes, but yet again the flaws start to show. Why am I going to these higher tier zones, getting weapons & armor that is higher quality but worse stats. Then you start seeing weapons and armor on repeat, ohhh ok so the loot table isn't large enough yet. This is one area that could make the game immediately jump up in quality. It needs to feel exciting grinding for better gear. I say all this to come to my final point. Yes, I put 70 hours on a $30 game. Does that qualify as good cost to time value, absolutely. I've also reiterated the foundation of the game is fantastic and has the potential to be the best action RPG/survival game that's come out in the last few years. I think most of these flaws will be addressed as they move through Early Access, which come to my final key point. If I had to do it again, I'd wait until these things are addressed. I've completed EA and left Enshrouded feeling like the journey was shallow. That lasting impression is hard to escape, so for that......I suggest anyone on the fence to wait for these areas to be fixed. Jumping into this world fresh w/ the systems properly fleshed out would make for a much more exciting adventure.

I know the evil mushroom fog is like a health hazard but I go there willingly just to vibe. So many fun guys to hang out with 10/10.

I do wish the devs held out another week to get more players finishing up with Pal. I played the public Beta, and one of the closed Beta's, which had a lot more content than the public version. I can already see numerous changes and a smoother performance. So far this game is kicking butt! ---- Graphics ---- ☐ You forget what reality is ☑ Beautiful ☐ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---- Gameplay ---- ☐ Very good ☑ Good ☐ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't ---- Audio ---- ☐ Eargasm ☑ Very good ☐ Good ☐ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ I'm now deaf ---- Audience ---- ☑ Kids ☑ Teens ☑ Adults ☑ Grandma ---- PC Specs ---- ☐ Check if you can run paint ☐ Potato ☑ Decent ☐ Fast ☐ Rich boi ☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer --- Game Size --- ☐ Floppy Disk ☐ Old Fashioned ☑ Workable ☐ Big ☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive ☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it ☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data ---- Difficulty ---- ☐ Just press 'W' ☐ Easy ☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master ☐ Significant brain usage ☐ Difficult ☐ Dark Souls ---- Grind ---- ☐ Nothing to grind ☐ Only if u care about leaderboards and ranks ☐ Isn't necessary to progress ☑ Average grind level ☐ Too much grind ☐ You'll need a second life for grinding ---- Story ---- ☐ No Story ☐ Some lore ☐ Average ☐ Good ☑ Lovely ☐ It'll replace your life ---- Game Time ---- ☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee ☐ Short ☐ Average ☐ Long ☐ To infinity and beyond ☑ Jury is still out on this as I have not completed it yet ---- Price ---- ☐ It's free! ☑ Worth the price ☐ If it's on sale ☐ If u have some spare money left ☐ Not recommended ☐ You could also just burn your money ---- Bugs ---- ☐ Never heard of ☑ Minor bugs (So far, as one was reported soon after launch on Discord) ☐ Can get annoying ☐ ARK: Survival Evolved ☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs ---{ ? / 10 }--- ☐ 1 ☐ 2 ☐ 3 ☐ 4 ☐ 5 ☐ 6 ☐ 7 ☑ 8 ☐ 9 ☐ 10 So far the game is well worth it. They even changed how the day/night cycle functions and it is now more subtle than in the beta. Great experience and so glad it finally launched. On time!

I love it although its to difficult for me i am 66 years old and i love the game but vision problems make it hard to see in the shroud. I find there are to many enemies and I can not think that fast. I wish that there was a way to make an easy mode where i can still level up but not fight so many enemies or that they were not such high levels.

It's one of those games where you constantly hear your character gasping for breath due to stamina. The combat is trivially easy in a 1v1, but unbelievably clunky when outnumbered. The terrain is made from wet soap. I've died about 60 times, and 50 of those times are because I slipped down terrain to my death. The world is well built, but empty. You will explore a point of interest and the only reward you will find at the end is a chest with 10 stone arrows. This is one of those games that is most developed near the start, and quickly loses depth, quality, and polish the further in you get. Yes it is "Early Access". No, I have never seen an "Early Access" game fix this problem.

A friend of mine gifted me a copy of this game. At the time of writing of this review, I've put about 50 hours into this game. Here are the Pros: The game is beautiful. The building, is simple, but very fun. Homes can be as complex or as basic as you want. While I believe that Valheims building was vastly more complex, not every game needs to have building like Valheims. I can still make my grandiose homes with ease in Enshrouded. I enjoy the Souls-Like stamina based combat. As well as the perk/skill tree. And the lore is fantastic. I'm a lore junkie and I LOVE archaeological storytelling which this game has in spades. The map is massive, and filled with so much to do. It's rare to find dead zones on the map. I'm always stumbling across enemies to fight, mats to farm, and ruins to explore. The Shroud mechanic is great. The performance of the game is excellent too. I have had zero crashes, lag, screen tearing, none of it. I've discovered less than a handful of bugs, which is unheard of for an Early Access game. Oh, and finally, the Glider is a BLAST to use. I get massive amounts of enjoyment out of flying all across the map with the glider. The Cons: Magic and Ranged are so overpowered it's not even funny. I'm a Tank main, so I was very excited to see that there were perks/skills for Tanking. Except that Melee players get completely shit on the farther you go into the game. Despite massive levels of Con, and Armor, I don't feel any Tankier than I did when I started the game in rags. So the classes need more balancing, badly. The AI is very stupid, and extremely easy to cheese. Just get a little bit of elevation and you are untouchable. The difficulty spikes are quite unbalanced. You go from feeling insanely overpowered, to hitting like a wet noodle and getting deleted when an enemy looks at you. *Glares are the poison coated dual-wielding enemies* There's punishing difficulty, and then there is unbalanced difficulty. I want the former, but currently it's the latter. The parry timing is inconsistent. I parried the world in Demon's Souls, Dark Souls 1, 2, and 3, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring. I Mikiri Countered my way through Sekiro. I think I'm qualified to judge the timing on this games parries. Lol Conclusion: The game is one of the best Early Access games I have ever had the privilege to play. The devs know what they're doing and are consistently pushing out hotfixes and updates. Enshrouded is vastly more polished than most AAA games that release these days, it's massive, filled with content, and very fun to play. For the asking price, you will definitely get your monies worth and hours upon hours of content. I give Enshrouded an 8/10

After 22 hours, I don't recommend playing Enshrouded yet. The game has lots of potential, but several kinks and growing pains to work out. Here are some of my thoughts divided into specific categories: --------------------------------------------

Exploration:

• The world feels a little hollow and empty. Too many open and winding roads with no POIs, enemy NPCs, or interesting "hey what's that?" The world needs more density.
• Many building types are copy-pasted and have the same layout. I'm surprised many people aren't mentioning this because New World got obliterated for this same thing. Once you've seen a tomb/basement/decrepit house/campsite, you've seen them all.
• The ancient spires, which have a 'Legend of Zelda dungeon crawler with puzzles" feel to them, are very simple and lack challenge. Hopefully they'll add more difficult puzzles in later spires.
• You can simply break down doors that require switches, thus bypassing the puzzle altogether.
• While a neat concept, clearing a shrouded area and chopping the giant red shroud root becomes tedious after the 2nd time. They are not unique enough at this stage in the game, containing all the same enemies, aesthetics, and gameplay. Again, once you've seen one, you've seen them all and unfortunately Enshrouded currently locks skill points behind clearing them, making them more or less mandatory. I'd like to see this system improved upon by adding in some of the puzzle systems from the ancient spires.
• The large overworld map lacks essential details like bridge locations/decals once discovered. This should be painted into the base artwork of the map. The map also doesn't differentiate between biomes. The map only shows verticality and important POIs like shrines and quest areas.

--------------------------------------------

Combat and Enemies:

• Though simple, the combat feels responsive and fluid. All weapon types appear viable based on damage numbers.
• The skill tree is fun and offers unique gameplay experiences, but leaves me wanting more. I look forward to seeing this expanded.
• PvE and AI are incredibly underwhelming and simple. They often cycle between one or two attack animations, including special boss enemies.
• There aren't enough mob types currently. After exploring the playable areas in EA, you'll find the same enemy types scattered throughout. The ones that currently exist, look nice and polished.
• What enemy NPCs lack in mechanical depth, they grossly overcompensate in numbers and are overtuned. Even with food buffs and a tankier build, some enemies will still 1HKO, even if they are couple levels below.
• While I'm sure a bug, enemies will often get stuck underground or on terrain.
• There is no CC or stagger protection after a certain point. Meaning if you get swarmed or cornered, you can easily be chain staggered to death.
• Dodge rolling doesn't roll through enemies due to collision, meaning if you're cornered you'll likely be staggered to death.

--------------------------------------------

Loot:

• Enshrouded commits the greatest cardinal sin when it comes to loot: You can find epic and legendary quality items early on, only to replace them with an uncommon green a couple of levels later. Often the raw damage upgrade is far better than the minor perks from upgrading a lower-level legendary weapon. It NEVER feels good to move from a unique legendary with a cool model to a common green because of numbers. Epic and legendary weapons should be saved for end-game PvE and crafting.
• Looting items can add them to your hotbar with no option to toggle this off.
• Loot often feels underwhelming. I feel like after 22 hours, I've seen 95% of the possible loot drops. At this stage, it feels like Diablo where I'm waiting for a specific weapon to drop at higher quality for the extra upgrade slot.

--------------------------------------------

Crafting:

• Crafting is fine. What you'd expect from a crafting survival RPG, is not bad, but nothing inventive either.
• Crafted gear options look nice and function well.
• The game offers a "craft from chests" system by requiring items be placed in specific "magical chests", making other chest types completely obsolete. This feels redundant and should be the baseline for any chest.
• You can't salvage gear you've outgrown. Giving back at least a small amount of materials like cloth or metal scraps would feel better than simply being forced to delete the item.

--------------------------------------------

Other:

• I experienced very few technical issues.
• UI can be confusing and tedious with so many windows to cycle through trying to figure out what you're looking for.
• Gliding is quite fun and needed for a map with so much verticality.
• Fall damage is VERY unforgiving, sliding down a slope means taking massive damage once you finish sliding.
• The friendly crafting NPCs are slightly annoying, especially the blacksmith who is constantly berating you.
• Sound design is excellent.
• You can roll up a steep hill, while helpful, looks very unintended and goofy.
• Mining sulfur yields WAY too much EXP. Sulfur instantly breaks and yields 10EXP per swing. Within minutes ~level 10, mining sulfur leveled me up. I did this for several levels, as the EXP rate from mining sulfur felt more efficient than exploring and killing NPCs at my appropriate level.

-------------------------------------------- TLDR; The game lacks density, difficulty, and depth. It needs more time to cook in the oven and needs to greatly improve upon it's selection of enemies and their combat. I don't feel incentivized to explore, as even the later areas in EA share many of the same loot tables and gear drops from early areas. This game isn't bad, but I wouldn't say it's great either. Right now I'd rate it a 5/10. I'd say wait at least 6-12 months before investing time and money into Enshrouded. I will revisit my review as the game updates. -------------------------------------------- Edit: Grammar Edit #2: In response to some comments, these are my observations and primarily a list of things that came to mind as I was playing over the 22 hours. You're welcome to like the game in it's current state, and I certainly don't dislike the game, however that doesn't mean I feel its recommendable as is. I love this style of game and would love for it to succeed. I have no problem supporting the game in EA and expect some hiccups, bumps, and incomplete gameplay. That doesn't excuse it from criticism as it's still a product that I paid for. Nothing I saw in Enshrouded seemed particularly unique to make it stand out from other competitors in the market. This is primarily the reason I rated it a 5/10, as it feels middle-of-the-road in it's current state. I have played many games in EA, and most get better over time as development continues. As stated in my OG review, I will revisit upon subsequent game updates.

Nobody will ever see this so i'll eat a spoon for every like this comment gets

I've spent the majority of my playtime digging crackhead tunnels underneath my Flame in the starting area. The voxel based terrain really fulfills my dreams of digging a human sized ant colony.

Things I've learned about Enshrouded: 1. Mages is fun, but sucks. Smol damage, bad resource managment, and ammo for spells? (Whoever thought that was a good idea should be fired for real) 2. Bows durability is comparable to a twig and string held together by bubble gum and electrical tape. 3. Two handed warrior is god tier and mind numbingly cheese 4. Losing your rested bonus turns you into a 400 lb paraplegic midget that can only run 40 feet and climb 20 feet, after that you have to wait 3 business days for your stamina to recharge. 5. Building is fun 6. Hollowed Halls is a waste of time and hardly worth running through a 5 mile long hallway with barely anything in it except weapon durability eating mobs. 7. Tar bad, especially when not Well Rested. 8. Sicklescythe boss is just your little brother in the afterlife still spamming one move to beat you in a video game. (This can be negated by pressing his shit in and standing directly in front of him.) I wish there was a "Idk" button for recommendations on this game so imma have to default to no, at least until they stop being so nit picky with balancing in a pve game.