Enshrouded

I was genuine extremely, extremely impressed by what a terrible game Enshrouded was. Maybe the best way to explain what it does wrong is to think about the difference between what games intend to be, and what the actual gameplay experience is about. Enshrouded obviously intends to be an open world-crafting-survival-rpg hybrid. But a better title for it would be "You're out of Stamina: the Game." The gameplay experience is overwhelmingly dominated by instrusive, out of place limitations in what the player can do that come from the survival side, and they completely overpower the somewhat OK rpg aspects. To give a concrete example, my character right now is level 20. I haven't dumped every skill point into endurance, but I have put a decent amount into it, and I have unlocked a lot of skills that should make stamina recover faster, and limit the cost of thing like sprinting. And I also cranked up player stamina to the max in settings. And despite this, my stamina is *constantly* depleted. A big reason why is that the game world is huge, and you are going to want to run to get from point a to point b (there are no mounts). Which of course chews through stamina, slowing movement to a crawl. And once it is depleted, stamina recovers painfully slowly. Luckily there is a perk you can unlock that reduces the penalty to maximum from being wet. Okay, now think about that previous sentence. The game is a miserable slog because of how restrictive the stamina system is, and on top of that, the developers decided to make it worse by reducing maximum stamina when you are wet. Or hungry. Or not cozy enough. That last part isn't a joke, your character requires "comfort" for proper athletic function. Playing the game feels like taking care of a whining child. At least you could drink from a well for (again, no joke) a temporary bonus to maximum stamina of a whopping one percent. But wait, there is fast travel, right? I have never played a game with a more inadequate number of fast travel points. There are a few fixed ones that are spaced very, very far apart, and you can place a (very small) number of your own. But they are just woefully inadequate compared to the size of the world. It is painfully obvious that what the game calls "flame sanctums" should have all been fast-travelable. But they aren't. While we are on the topic of "painfully obvious", anyone who plays this game will see the environments have a huge level of verticality, and will rationally expect that the player character can climb. But they can't, at least not on surfaces other than ladders and ladder-like grates. So you have to awkwardly try to parkour up slopes, often being defeated by moderately steep hills. You do get a grappling hook, but, get this, there is exactly one type of tile it can be used on. One. This isn't like the hookshot in Zelda where some *types* of tiles can be grappled, and in fact you can't even try to use the hook unless you are near the one single hook tile it interfaces with and you are given a key prompt. Oh, and grappling gouges an absurd amount out of your stamina bar. And I just want to take a second to recognize how bonkers this is. The game severely limits your ability to traverse in the upward direction. And then, in the extremely, extremely limited subset of situations where it decides it will let you do this kind of traversal, it punishes you severely for even trying to do so. It's just such atrocious design. Every aspect of the game is just this bad. You constantly run out of inventory space, it's not uncommon for equipment to take 5+ ingredients to craft, and it is rife with awful platforming. And I almost forgot to talk about The Shroud! The developers had the bright idea to dominate map space with a washed out, dark, mist obscured biome. In addition to being visually boring, there are so many times I walked into a pit I just couldn't see because of the bizarre decision to severely limit visibility. And if you try to go someplace in The Shroud sooner than the developers want, you are killed in seconds. I'm going to repeat that last part for emphasis: this is an open world game where you die in seconds because you decided to explore an area "too soon". Enshrouded is an unmitigated disaster. It is not good now, it will not be good after it leaves early access, and it will not be good in ten years. I am genuinely at a loss for words to describe how awful it is.