The kingdom of Embervale is ours, more or less. In the survival game Enshrouded we can conquer, build on and hunt the world, which is about 25 square kilometers in size and consists of voxels, according to our ideas. We do that alone or in a team with a total of 16 participants in one game.
Enshrouded is created by the Frankfurt developer studio Keen Games, which was awarded the German Computer Game Prize for Portal Knights. Still in 2023 is an Early Access (Steam) planned for Windows PC, implementations for Playstation and Xbox will follow later.
During a presentation, the team repeatedly named Valheim as an important role model. There shouldn’t be any special super feature in Enshrouded, instead the title should primarily score with a mixture of survival, fighting, building and role-playing.
The players control their avatar from the shoulder perspective through the huge world of Embervale and mess with all kinds of computer-controlled monsters. A special danger comes from a mysterious fog – the Shroud. Shroud actually means shroud, but also cover or veil.
The poisonous fog wafts especially in depths where the players can stupidly make particularly great discoveries. While you can immerse yourself in the gas for a short time, don’t take too long – or look for ways to protect yourself.
Perhaps the greatest feature – and actually a super feature – could be the building system. Players can build palaces and temples, castles and palaces from scratch using pre-designed templates as well as by hand. Enshrouded is intended to offer a particularly large amount of freedom here with the help of voxels – to put it simply: three-dimensional pixels.
Above all, as in Minecraft, you should be able to penetrate into the depths in order to get to the treasure of overpowering bandits from below and without a fight. In addition, there should be all kinds of equipment in dungeons and caves, the makers have named magical elixirs as an example.
Enshrouded: Battles and Classes
The world keeps reverting to its original state over the course of (real) days. If we get it right, that’s part of the larger storyline. However, we should at least stop this backward development with freely placeable flame altars in certain areas, or at least slow it down considerably.
In addition to building, there are also battles with monsters, which are relatively classic with long-range and melee weapons plus evasive maneuvers. Those who act tactically and dope with magic potions and similar extras in good time should not be faced with huge challenges.
Also important: when leveling up, players can increase values such as strength or intelligence. On the other hand, distribute points in the talent tree for warrior, ranger and magician skills. Shuffling is not only allowed, it’s encouraged – every advantage counts if we want to secure long-term dominance in the kingdom of Embervale.