To put it simply Enshrouded is almost everything I want from a video game. Almost, but that part will come later. Important note here is I got this game on September 10th 2026 so this isn't a review for 1.0 or for earlier builds that I did not play.
To start it is a survival crafting game but it has successfully been hybridized enough with ARPG elements that almost all of the friction from S/C is gone, with the exception being low and mid level magic, but again that comes later. For the most part you can play this as almost a pure ARPG and not miss much, but being able to build and design fantastic bases and villages is a massive plus and there's plenty of S/C stuff to do if that's more your thing. That being said though if S/C isn't your usual jam there is still a boatload of things to enjoy here.
The combat is good, and not just survival crafting good. As in normal 3rd person action game good. Now I won't say it's absolutely fantastic and can stand toe to toe with dedicated action games, but it comes close enough to win me over which is saying a lot when the whole thing is a successful hybridization of both survival crafting and ARPG. For the most part every specialization feels legitimately good at what it's supposed to do with enough unique identity between them to not step on anyone's toes and enough flexibility that you aren't excessively locked into something like "I'm the big sword guy." Except for pure casters.
The building is solid and has less of an obnoxious learning curve like many other survival crafting games and generally responds well to the in game resource economy with a fantastic amount of aesthetic options that if memory serves is dramatically higher than almost every other S/C game I've ever played. Normal wood shack? You can do that. Mausoleum marble construction? You can do that. Want vines on the blocks? You can do that. An entire tower made out of the skulls of your enemies? Again, you can do that.
Now I do have two complaints. One minor and one major. To start with the minor: more armor variety would be nice as the variation I've seen is a bit lacking. Now for the major: magic is bad.
As a new player starting Enshrouded, to put it bluntly, you would be better served by pretending that player magic does not exist and enjoy your ranger or warrior without ever having to worry about trying out magic and wondering why you ever did so. Now the veterans will say the usual stuff here: "magic gets better later!" "eternal spells make this better." and my favorite "don't play as a pure caster." None of these actually fix the underlying issue with magic being not good. This isn't to say magic isn't viable, it is, but every other option is notably better.
To start a pure caster should not feel barely viable and unfun to play as until level 15 to 25 depending on who you ask. That's a design flaw and a failure of fantasy fulfilment. There's a difference between "mages start weak," as we all know and are familiar with that one, and "this is punishing and tedious until you unlock the things that alleviate the punishing and tedious aspects." Which a pure caster largely is until you unlock the eternal spells.
Now eternal spells themselves are part of the problem. They're a bandaid on the underlying problem. Because one of the largest problems with pure casters is an entire economy needs to be set up to fuel their basic combat competency that warriors get from normal gameplay and rangers experience at a dramatically lower rate. Warriors can have their entire combat economy set for hours by one good loot pull and crafting arrows for rangers requires comparably minimal effort without even mentioning that arrows are a common enemy loot drop. Spells however require an ever increasing economy behind them to keep them going, and Keen even soft acknowledges this by making eternal spells a thing. Eternal spells being similar to their crafted ammo counterparts but functionally infinite in their use. Which isn't good progression. Effectively it's saying "you know how annoying it was to constantly have to resource farm and craft stuff to cast fire balls? Well that's gone now. Good job." Which doesn't make me feel like I've appreciably grown more powerful as a wizard. It simply feels like I am no longer being taxed for wanting fireballs. Especially when the damage and AoE for magic is pretty paltry compared to what a warrior can get from a good loot pull. I don't care that fireball 1 can do 66 damage when it costs ammo and requires me to craft it from multiple manufactured components when I also have a great sword that can do 50-some-odd damage until the sword breaks, but often doesn't as I also have ability that repairs the sword when I kill things. To put it in economic terms my warrior pays a one time capital investment cost to be good for hours at a time. My mage has a re-occurring bill to simply match said warrior. For what crafting chain lighting enough times to have a respectable ammo stock to keep casting it would cost my comparable warrior now has armor forever instead of spell ammo as chain lightning costs copper. And then eternal spells come along to say "ok now you don't have to do that." But that's a tacit admission that the underlying system doesn't pay for itself. Because it doesn't.
The veteran advice for this usually amounts to either: hybridize or don't play mage until later. But, again, design flaw. Because if a classic fantasy archetype, in this case the wizard, isn't fun until level 30 (level cap is 50 for those who don't know) it means the system is bad. However I am harping on this because from what I've seen it doesn't seem like Keen is aware enough of exactly how hard magic is roadblocked from being as satisfying as, well, every other build in the game. Especially with the statement that most of the major changes are done. Because if this is a good preview of what a finished magic system looks like? That's great, but I'm going to continue to never use magic.
I'll cut it off there as I don't need to write a dissertation in a steam review when my overall opinion is still: Yes play this game. It's good. However my notes still stand: the game is better if you just pretend that magic doesn't exist.
