I've Played 50 Hours of Enshrouded - Review

all right I got to say today I am quite happy to let you know I think enshrouded is a very good game I've been playing pretty much non-stop this past week and still can't get enough in fact I have every intention to keep on playing after this review goes live the game has just totally sucked me in taking me by surprise with the sheer size of its World variety of locations and enemies great feeling combat and an overall high quality of content across the board this is exactly the sort of Survival game that I have wanted for some time has all of the basic survival features with Gathering crafting and building but what is really at the Forefront is a heavy emphasis on exploration Discovery and classic fantasy RPG elements all of which has left me regularly feeling similar things to what I felt playing games like valheim or Skyrim and no I'm not saying that enshrouded is just like those games it isn't in many ways but rather that the sense of Discovery and desire to keep on exploring that it creates is very much along the same lines and for for that reason alone I've been loving my time with this game now I'm going to talk a bit more in detail about the things I like and also the things I dislike and could use Improvement but first I want to give you a rundown of what in shrouded is all about to give you just a clear picture of what the game is now officially they are referring to this as a Survival action RPG you start off waking up with nothing but a pair of shorts and are asked via the main story quest to go out gather resources and begin construction on a base although even right from the start things are open to be approached as you please with a nearby cave system and ruins that are begging to be explored now doing so we'll introduce you to combat in the game as you take on a few basic enemies as well as rewarding you with some Loot and consumables and this rewarding of exploration is a theme that continues throughout the game now eventually you'll start Gathering some stones and you'll have the materials needed to build your first flame alter these are essentially plots in which you can construct buildings now Base building and enshrouded consists of all of the expected elements you're able to place foundations walls columns and stairs first picking a structure type and then what material be it wood stone or whatever else you'd like it to be made out of now after placing your first flame alter the main story takes you through a series of steps basically introducing you to some key elements of the game first you are asked to rescue an NPC specifically the blacksmith he is trapped inside of a nearby Vault now once saved he can be summoned at your base and Grant you access to new weapons and armor then after that you are guided to an Elixir well in which you must make your way underground while fighting back enemies and dealing with the ticking clock of the in shrouded mechanic which functions sort of like an oxygen meter once you locate and destroy the Shroud rout at the base of the well it will lift the nearby fog and allows you to freely explore then next in the main story Quest you're asked to locate a few nearby flame sanctums and shrines activating these rewards you with resource used for upgrading your base and then you're tasked with ascending and an ancient Spire this is a massive Tower high above everything else in the region upon finding the entrance you will climb the tower by engaging with many different forms of jumping and other puzzles making your way to the top rewards you with loot and unlocks a new Fast Travel location now these four objectives remain pillars of the rest of your playthrough locating NPCs along with doing quest for them clearing various shroud Roots found in Elixir Wells and elsewhere activating flame sanctums and shrines and ascending ancient spires and other major points of interest these aren't the only four activities or things to do but they are definitely the most frequently reoccurring ones now after you've gone through the first initial steps how the rest of the game plays out is really entirely up to you you will be asked to continue exploring the world and completing tasks related to progressing the game systems mainly tied to finding new NPCs unlocking further crafting and building options and upgrading your flame alter which is a main roadblock in progressing into the later stages of the game how you do any of this though the pace at which you progress is totally your call this game features a massive world and I mean huge and it is loaded with points of interest and places to explore which if you want could very well Sidetrack you for tens or hundreds of hours before making any significant main story progress and that isn't even accounting for the base building as well which could also easily add up to many many hours even just in the early stages of the game the point of which is there is a lot of content a lot of things to do a lot of stuff to fill your time when playing and enshrouded and I'd like to go over some of these various aspects starting with the world and exploration now as mentioned this game is tremendously big but unlike many survival games that opt for procedural World Generation and shrouded is static all of the terrain every point of Interest the items puzzles and boss locations everything about the world in this game is the same for everyone now initially I wasn't sure about this but after playing and just seeing the size of the game I've actually been fairly impressed with the variety of things to see and do these include settlements from massive towns with tons of buildings cellers and Towers to humongous castles in settlement locations you'll usually find one distinct faction of enemies and then also lots of Loot and sometimes bosses to fight there are dungeons of various kinds with different names like catacombs and Sun temples these are usually longer more extensive excursions and besides fighting enemies will include some form of puzzle solving traps to void and also a boss to fight there are outposts these are smaller camps most of which we've seen have either had Bandits or zombies in them as well as a mini boss now so far we have counted around eight unique bosses found at these camps some of which are reskins with different sizes and difficulties there are also things like Berry tombs these are sort of mini dungeons you'll usually actually have to mine or break away rocks to access these they tend to consist of a couple of rooms and a treasure chest at the end and then there are many many many various smaller unnamed areas camps Farms caves and ruins tons of different locations you'll come across while exploring the world and while in these locations you might happen to be on quests that you're that you get from NPCs or from the main story quest line but you will also very frequently come across pages and Scrolls on the ground which uncover a bit of lore and typically also point you to new points of interest and locations on your map and this is besides just natural exploration another thing that really fuels the discovery and exploration and that is on top of all of the other points of interest those main pillars of points of interest that I mentioned earlier those ancient spires the towers you have to climb to the top solving puzzles on your way up the ancient vaults which is where you go to unlock NPCs typically these will be full of enemies and things for you to do there are the Elixir Wells which are like tiny delves that are underground you have to kill the Shroud rout to clear the area sometimes there are bosses there there are just lone shroud routs that can be found all throughout the world you'll go and destroy those to clear the fog and then there are the ancient obelisks these are like information Towers when you come across and interact with one of these they will give you the exact location of every specific type of point of Interest so maybe you find an obelisk that will show you where every shroud route in the immediate area is located and all of these points of interest all of these activities pepper the landscape which consists of several different biomes so you start out in the specific region with Rolling Hills and sparse trees and you know little mountainous areas but then after that you venture into this dense Woodlands area eventually you're guided towards the desert and eventually the mountainous region as well progress to these areas are not just gated by enemy levels because higher level enemies are extremely deadly and you don't do a lot of damage to them but they are also gated by the fog or the enshrouded areas as The Game's name is so beyond the different biomes the game is further divided into two sections you can think of it as the Highland areas where you were able to free roam without restriction but then there are just as many lowland valleys and Ravines that are all engulfed in this thick fog it's almost like they replaced water with fog these are areas that you can walk around but in limited duration because anytime you enter an in shrouded region what is more or less a breath timer starts ticking away giving you a limited amount of time before needing to quote unquote come up for air this creates a sense of urgency while exploring these areas as you'll either need to leave the fog before the time reaches zero because if it reaches zero you are dead or you'll have to search out various things like hourglass capsules or flame altars which can instantly replenish your time there are also things like potions and gear that can be used to extend the amount of time you can spend in the Shroud and this system all across the board creates a really nice push and pull while exploring these specific regions of the world the unshrouded areas uh overall I would say that the Shroud makes up about a fourth of the total play Space you'll enter these regions fre quently but it's not the only thing you'll be doing you'll spend much of your time in the higher land regions periodically going into the Shroud to clear the Elixir Wells to clear shroud routs and to accomplish the objectives of certain Quest but most of the play time is spent above the Shroud regions uh exploration in this game with all of this stuff coming together I have found incredibly enjoyable especially when coupled with all of the movement potential with things like a double jump you have a grapple hook and a Glide there's the fact that the world is made up voxels that can be destroyed letting you make little nooks in a hill allowing you to more easily climb your way up or letting you break through walls or or roofs like this definitely isn't a game that has one clear definitive path for you to get to point A to point B no this game has tons of freedom of exploration and coupled with all these systems and the diversity of points of interest all the different locations and the biomes throw in the Shroud system into the mix as well uh exploring in this world has just been incredibly enjoyable and satisfying I really really like it now let's talk about NPCs and the crafting system so at the very start of the game crafting is done on the go you've got field crafting where you're able to make the basic tier one tools weapons armor ammo torches bandages Etc you then will learn how to set up a workbench after making your first flame alter this lets you build additional tools like traversal items you can make your glider and grappling hook there along with a ton of different Base building related stuff but then after that everything comes from NPCs these not only open open up a new crafting options they also help towards General progression in the game and also feed into each other especially when you get to late game for example certain NPCs will require parts from other NPCs in order for you to create things now all NPCs will have tons of different quests first you're asked to find the blacksmith as mentioned earlier and he will have several Quests for you examples of which are he'll give you a quest to find the next NPC chamber so after the blacksmith you're asked to locate The Alchemist you'll also get quests from him and the other NPC to go to different points of interest to collect Loot and rewards pointing you to catacombs Towers Sun temples and all sorts of areas where you'll get some sort of loot there will be chain quests that take you to a few different locations on hunt for a rare tool which will then be used to upgrade that NPC stations or unlock new crafting facilities NPCs will also give you hints on where to find new resources occasionally actually pointing to their exact location on your map because as you move through the game's different biomes and you progress like many surv games they introduce new versions of ore new versions of wood uh new consumables and collectibles and just new new resources for you to gather and other various points of interest will be pointed out by your NPCs granting rewards such as new weapons glider or grappling hook upgrades new building blocks and plenty of other useful stuff now generally speaking here's what each of the NPCs in the game do so first there is the black Smith this is the initial guy you get he introduces you to the mechanics of crafting basic metal tools and weapons as well as armor as you upgrade the blacksmith he gets much better and stronger weapons and armor the second NPC you're asked to find is The Alchemist this is pretty straightforward he is used for making various potions and other ingredients to fuel the other Crafters then there is the hunter who is used for making various hides and paddings you can make tons of different arrows as well as some hunter or stamina class specific sets after the hunter you're guided towards both the farmer and the carpenter now the farmer is probably one of the most important NBCS because she allows you to turn any plants into seeds and then you can take those seeds Farm more plants yourself basically create a Bountiful Harvest this becomes especially important late game where resources are rarer also the farmer gives you access to various cooking apparatus can do simple things from cooked meats but more complicated dishes soups and even sandwiches and then the fifth and final NPC is the carpenter who is used for making planks storage and lots of decoration which plays into the Comfort System of Base building which then moves us on to Base building in the game so this is done using a tool called the construction Hammer you equip it and then it lets you enter build mode here you're presented with various template options for constructing a base the foundation walls Windows Doors columns ceilings floors stairs Etc the game gives you various size options you can place one by one and up to 4x4 variants place them however you want using whatever materials you've discovered so far so you start with wood and then move into various forms of stones and metals the game does also have terraforming although I haven't personally used much of it uh you can use it to manipulate the terrain probably the biggest thing with the base itself though Beyond being a place to store your NPCs and all the various crafting stations if is the Comfort System this is a super important element of the game as it provides a massive buff to your stamina increasing your max stamina as well as the stamina regeneration so you raise your comfort level by basically put putting certain items inside of your home usually all sorts of different decorations now this starts out you get a comfort buff it gives you that boost to stamina and Stam regen but at the very beginning it only lasts a few minutes eventually once you get enough Comfort items and a high enough level Comfort items in there eventually it can last like we're about an hour now total of the Comfort Buff when we're back at home and it is such a big Boon getting that increased stamina and the regen that we're typically if we ever die or the timer runs out we're porting back to base to get that Comfort buff because it's so helpful while moving and exploring and then also at your home besides trying to raise its Comfort level and doing all those other things you have got that flame alter and you'll be upgrading this because as I mentioned upgrading it is vital important towards later game progression upgrading the alter not only does things like increase the area in which you can build your base but it also unlocks the ability to place New Flame alars so these will be used either to make additional bases but more so we have been using it for fast travel there are two places that you can fast travel in this game you can fast travel to those towers that you climb once you reach the top you unlock a fast travel to that location and you can also fast travel to your flame alters and you can have many of these as you progress and level up your base flame alter it lets you place many more flame alars around the world we just use these as mobile fast travel locations now the next thing I want to talk about is The Game's various progression and RPG systems um there's quite a lot in here so first we've got the gear weapons and items the game has various gear slots for you to fill there's Helm chest gloves pants and feet there are also accessories like your grappling hook glider two ring slots and a backpack letting you store more the gear comes in various sets the sets will come with bonuses that sort of tailor toward specific play Styles whether you're focused on melee agility or magic user there's also weapons in the game now these come in different Rarities there's white blue purple and gold there are some base level items that you'll get various Rarities of but then there's also special unique named items that always come in gold and these are highly highly valuable you'll definitely be searching for these because the higher Rarity a weapon is the more number of upgrades with each one of those upgrades bumping its level but also granting additional uh passive Buffs so you get more damage you get new stats like increase crit or life leech or Mana leech all sorts of different abilities and then there are tons of different items like any Survival game you got a bunch of consumables it kind of uses a valheim inspired buff system where food is going to give you useful bonuses like increasing your stamina regeneration Health regeneration your maximum stamina your maximum health boost to the amount of time that you can spend in the Shroud giving you increased crit chance all of the expected stuff that you would expect from any survival or RPG game and also the game is full of tons of different resources that fuels into the crafting systems the woods the stones the cloths the ores salt bone herbs all of those things in addition to the Gear looking for weapons looking for various gear sets and gear that has the stats that you want there's also a skill tree so you acquire skill points either by leveling up with a cap of level 25 or by clearing shroud Roots which will also Grant you additional points and then you spend those points in the skill tree so this tree is fairly large it's spread out into three primary sections basically broken up into a focus on melee ranged and Magic there's also three different node types which I'll call major medium and minor three different sizes the major nodes the biggest nodes Grant entirely new abilities these include thing like the ability to Blink the ability to do a jump attack or a double jump and then all sorts of abilities tailored to the different play Styles in the game in fact they have rough archetypes in the skill tree that give you a general idea of the class fantasy that is fulfilled if you head in certain directions these go tank Warrior Barbarian athlete Survivor Beastmaster Ranger assassin trickster wizard healer and battle mage now you have to keep in mind there are only so many skill points in the game and you can't get every single skill node in the skill tree so you are going to have to make decisions while I was going through my playthrough I was primarily focused on a melee build a sort of like a warrior SL tank hybrid while also going a bit into to the survivalist um I'm sorry the Survivor area because I wanted to go in that direction to get access to the double jump which mind you pretty vital I would say double jump is a skill that absolutely everyone should get in the skill tree which is actually probably one of my biggest complaints about the tree I do find it fairly interesting but some of this stuff feels like it should be Baseline I think double jump is a great example of that everyone should have double jump as because it is such a massive disadvantage to not have double jump when it comes to trying to navigate this world outside of major nodes you've got minor nodes which will add strong but useful Buffs like flat percent damage increases for the various types of melee ranged and spell attacks reducing resource cost of abilities doing things like pacifying nearby Wildlife or increasing rested buff duration reducing the amount of wear and tear on your tools lots of useful abilities from these medium nodes and then the smallest nodes will give small stat Buffs but these definitely stack up to be very strong over time especially if you get many of them and these will mostly increase your attributes giving you more more Health through Constitution more melee damage through strength agility stamina intellect again all of the standard RPG stuff so that is a basic overview of the major systems features and content in enshrouded now I want to talk a bit about what I love and what I think could use some work right out the gate I got to say hands down my favorite thing about this game is the world and exploration I just think exploring and ined feels so incredibly good specifically the varied ways the many different ways you can approach situation with all of the traversal options which include the ability to climb ladders and stairs the ability to double jump your grapple hook and your Glide using that in these various types of terrain using that on any of these points of interest and locations you can pretty much approach any obstacle be it navigating the world or getting into a location or getting to a boss or getting your way to a treasure chest in absolutely whatever manner you want there is so much potential here for like creative exploration in the world that I I really love and that is just made that much more interesting by the varied amount of objectives of points of interest of locations it just feels like a rich fantasy world that has just been incredibly enjoyable to explore and spend time in and I love all of the freedom that you have while doing that couple all of that with the puzzles that there are to solve the jumping puzzles but then also just straight up just puzzle puzzles and with how big the world is and all that variety of content I just I really can't say enough how much I have enjoyed exploring in this game how much of a positive to the overall experience it is it it's one of the main selling points for me but also the second thing that we really haven't talked much about so far but I got to say I think the combat is extremely well executed now it is a very simple system it isn't terribly complex you only have a basic attack initially but then over time as you get more skills you unlock the ability to do more things mechanically in combat for a little bit more skill but even with the basic Attack the Block and parry and Dodge system even at the base it feels really good it feels very satisfying and then you start mixing in the different type of attack options with the melee the rang and the magic spells which everybody can use it doesn't matter what build you're going with you can use melee ranged and magic and you should use all of these things combat has been really really enjoyable I found the progression system to have a lot more depth than I expected now the skill tree is what it is it's pretty straightforward you just spec in a direction right but you can go in multiple directions you can go battle mage where you got a little bit of warrior and a little a little bit of Mage a little bit of healer I mean I don't have to explain all of the different potential directions and hybrids that you can do because the skill tree like I said a moment ago it shows you all of those different sort of archetypes and roles that you can fill but specifically coupling that with the different sets of armor with all of the different boost and bonuses they give to the various play Styles whether you want to go tanky or aggressive whether you want to want to go stamina focused magic focused or melee focused or tank focused or any mix in between there's a lot of potential here for basically expression of the player RPG class expression and the last big thing that I've just really appreciated and enjoyed in this game is it's Co-op now I've played probably about half of the time solo half Co-op I've enjoyed solo just as much as Co-op but there's so much extra fun that can be had while playing with people I know that is generally the case for pretty much every game but I think especially in this game it seems almost like it was built from the ground up with co-op in mind in fact they support up to 16 players per server is the number and um I think that's probably a bit too much I'm happy with somewhere in the vicinity of 3 to 5 uh for my play sessions but nevertheless Co-op if you can do it if you have friends who are playing I definitely suggest giving it a shot now like I said at the top as a whole I really like this game um it's definitely one I know it's not saying much because it's just the end of January now but it is one of my favorite games of this year so far I mean it sounds ridiculous because yeah we're only a month in the year but I I really really like this game I'm definitely going to keep playing it after this review but nevertheless I do have some points of feedback and critique here uh starting off I think the game balance could use some work some enemies are just significantly harder than others particularly things like the green Berserker enemy type way faster than every other enemy and way harder hitting in fact you see him about halfway through the game The Game's total progression and He Still Remains one of the toughest enemy types in the game even once you get to the late game I would say that the bosses are generally cool but um they feel a little imbalanced as well either you are overleveled and they are way too easy or you're underleveled and they can on-shot you and take a significant amount of time to work down very rarely did it feel like the boss fights when I came across them were perfectly balanced and then also because this game has so much freedom of exploration and movement which is great this also means that you can cheese pretty much every single boss in the game it's as simple as double jumping and using a ranged attack be it magic or a bow usually you can just just Stand Out Of Reach of the bosses and pluck away their health um pretty straightforward I think it's cool when games have this system but it also feels unsatisfying fing if you do happen to engage in it the other thing like I mentioned earlier is I think there are parts of the skill tree that should be pulled out of the skill tree and just be Baseline specifically that double jump I really feel like that should just be a baseline ability it's just a must-have it's almost like without question an ability that absolutely everyone in the game should have and not having it feels like you're at a severe disadvantage there's a couple of other examples but the double jump is a glaring one that I would say that should be Baseline for everyone and replace that with just a more interesting stamina focused ability for people another point of criticism or I guess a wishful thinking thing is PVP uh it's not in the game at all now the developers have stated it's something they may consider down the road and I seriously hope they do because this game feels like it would just be so satisfying to engage in PvP especially with all of the character class variety that there is between the different weapons the different specs and the different gear that you use I just feel like PVP would be very very fun if that's something they could consider down the road I would absolutely love to to see it and then another uh point that I want to bring up here is the fact that this game is incredibly story and narrative light there is a main story Quest it's pretty much nothing but text you're not going to be getting loads of dialogue or cut scenes in this game I personally don't mind it but I know some people will find this as a massive negative so I did want to uh bring that up but even with these points of criticism generally speaking I just have really enjoyed and shrouded it has been an absolute blast I can't wait to keep on playing I'm actually going to leave the the save that I currently have that I played through to do this review and I'm going to start a brand new save once the game is officially launching and it is an early access release but it launches this week I'm going to start fresh and play with a bunch of my mates because it just it's going to be a lot of fun i' I've liked it so much I'm happy to go through again and I'm looking forward to continue playing but there you go that is going to do it for this video thank you so much guys hope you enjoyed it and yeah I'll see you in the next one take it easy

Channel: Force Gaming

Views: 836,106

Keywords: enshrouded preview, enshrouded review, is enshrouded any good?, enshrouded gameplay, enshrouded coop, enshrouded impressions, should you play enshrouded

Id: sB_kGjvF3pw

Length: 25min 49sec (1549 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 24 2024