Enshrouded is a multiplayer take on Zelda brimming with untapped potential

When I tried out the demo for Enshrouded back in November, I commented that it held immense promise, despite a rough early state.

Fast-forward to February 2024, and Enshrouded is out in Early Access for all to play. No more limitations of the demo, and full 16-player glory in multiplayer servers, both public and private.

So, how has the experience changed since those initial impressions? Well, they haven’t. At least not by a lot. Enshrouded is still a fantastic game and an easy contender for my next big obsession. But it’s still in very Early Access, and the added freedom only highlights the areas that still need work.

The gameplay loop is solid

Just as in the demo, you begin the game as an adventurer lost to time, who wakes to a world filled with ruins of their once glorious civilization.

Your other compatriots are scattered around the world, which in enshrouded (see what they did there?) in a thick mist. Said mist is poisonous, and anyone lost in it for too long will die. Monsters roam the landscape, and ancient crypts hold even stronger foes.

Your basic gameplay loop follows a familiar rhythm. Find materials, craft gear, build homes, and repeat. Where Enshrouded stands out, is in how it balances elements from Zelda and other open world titles to its benefit.

For example, to unlock new buildings, you must find artisans of their particular fields. Farmers for farming, hunters for hunting, and so on. These experts are locked away in dungeons, some peppered with foes, others behind puzzles. Getting there is its own hassle, as the journey is often long, and you’ll need to stop and build halfway points in between.

To create those, you’ll have to level up your Flame, the heart of everything in your kingdom. That needs specific materials, some of which are only accessible through boss battles.

If that sounds fiddly and full of grind, that’s because, for the most part, it is. Everything works well, and there is a sense of progression in the early hours of the game, but it’s undeniably a hassle that leads to diminishing returns.

The higher level your flame, the longer everything takes to unlock. In its current state, Enshrouded ends up in a point where it just doesn’t make sense to grind for higher tier items apart from vanity. Building houses is a joy, gathering materials and refining them for a few measly walls isn’t.

Luckily, when the building mechanics work, they’re among the best ever devised. Especially if you’re into underground tunnels or Moria-style ruins. I’ve never seen anything before that allows this level of freedom in crafting a home that looks like you.

Enshrouded borrows a lot from Zelda

Where Enshrouded really stands out of the pack are the traversal tools, such as the grappling hook and glider. They’re familiar for anyone who has played a Zelda game in the past, but that’s hardly a fault.

Just as in its influences, climbing to the highest points on the map and touching down miles away is still a joy. Especially as you level up your gear, leading to even better ways to explore.

Sadly, the stamina system, another Breath of the Wild influence, is just as grating as it was in Zelda. Having to constantly eat and monitor your depleting gauges takes away from the adventuring, and is often far too tedious for its own good.

The system gets particularly frustrating when you’re building, as often you’ll be midway through an already tedious bit of excavating when you have to pause to allow for the stamina bar to rebuild. It’s that midway point between realistic simulation and power fantasy that Enshrouded can’t seem to get right. Too often, you’re faced with a wall that prevents one or the other from fully working.

Combat is similarly a mixed bag. The sheer variety is fantastic, and it’s a pure joy to switch between ranged, melee, and magic at the push of a button. But breaking weapons, convoluted spell mechanics, and dreary combat that is never fun when there’s more than one enemy, drag everything else down.

The puzzles vary from well-designed to frustratingly dated, and the best thing that I can say about them is that they look and feel like their influences. You can tell a lot of love for the Shigeru Miyamoto classic went into Enshrouded, and that’s not always a bad thing. But there are rarely points where Enshrouded feels like its own unique thing. Most of its frustrations and joys all lead to the games that it imitates. And, often, it’s hard to tell whether that’s a good or bad thing.

It has potential by the bucket load

Despite grievances, I’ve enjoyed my time with Enshrouded. As with all Early Access games, it’s not going to look or feel the same this time next year. Well, hopefully at least.

But that means that diving in right now comes with numerous asterisks. You have to prepare for an unfinished, often frustrating experience. There’s very little content past a certain point, although even the current amount is surprisingly packed. Even so, you’ll eventually hit a point where it feels more like work than fun, and that’s a death knell for games like this.

Enshrouded also struggles with its own ambitions. A survival game that’s also a multiplayer action romp, that also borrows from some of the best games ever made, would be a tough sell to any studio. Let alone a small indie one.

What it does get right is that much more impressive, when you consider just how hard Enshrouded makes things for itself. The vast, gorgeously designed open world is beautiful and fun to explore. The story is promising. The building mechanics, limited as they are, are more engaging than in any other competitor out there.

It just needs to come together in a more coherent way. Right now, Enshrouded is not there yet. But once it is, it’ll be one of the most rewarding adventure titles on any platform.

Fingers crossed.