Enshrouded (2024)

Areas covered in blue fog and spores, mushroom formations, deadly red areas where you would expect to find Vecna, but it's the world of fantasy, it's Enshrouded.

What I liked: A big fantasy world with quite a lot to do, a lot of quests, locations, materials. A good building system that allows to create varied builds. Sweet graphics and short loading times on SSD. Settings for casual players (I am turned off by high difficulty and the praised "challenge").

What I didn't like as much: map (strictly 2D. good luck guessing if your destination is on top of a hill or deep in a cavern under that hill), climbing or lack thereof (a game with so many mountains and hills, with grappling hook and gliders and no climbing? Nuts!) and the amount of crafting stations (craft this at Kiln, then this at the spindle, then this at the sawmill, then this at the forge, and only then go to the Carpenter).

All in all, enjoying it so far.

Tastes like Palworld... and that is not a compliment.

I am about 2 hours in and... well, I bought this blindly. Didn't look up any screenshots or reviews. Just gave it a shot.

Was disappointed to find that the title screen is basically the exact same as the one used in Valheim. If this wasn't also a survival crafting game, it would go unnoticed.

Okay so strike one, load up and... ah. Wow. This character creator is really bad and basically the same as Palworld and Valheim. Another ugly similarity.

Load into the world and... okay please can we just stop ripping off Breath of the Wilds aesthetic and sound design? I know it was a good game but when every single developer is blatantly ripping it off, they aren't influences. They are rip offs.

So far the game is... bland. It's alright. Though I can't shake the feeling that where other games use subtlety and lack of exposition to build mystery, this just uses it as laziness. I don't feel particularly connected or immersed into the world. Visually the graphics are... well they are nothing to write home about. Lighting effects seem to be slightly better than Palworld but overall the entire world just has that same bland "Did AI make this" feel to it.

I want to like the game but I can already tell, I probably won't get far into this. I just don't feel much creative magic here.