Keen Studios’ Enshrouded hit the building survival scene on January 24th to critical acclaim. An interesting story, fun, and responsive combat, and more await in the world of Embervale. The feature that stuck out to me however was the unique building style. Is it the best on the market or does it need real work?
To start off, let’s go through the process of making a small house to understand how it all works. Making a set of tools will greatly speed up the gathering of the resources needed to get started. Once you have enough stone and wood logs, convert them to building blocks on a workbench. This is where the magic starts. Grab a construction hammer and enable build mode. You’ll notice that there are a variety of different shapes available as well as the ability to change the material you’ll use. A unique aspect of the system is that all of these shapes are templates made of 1×1 blocks. Adding and removing blocks from the template shapes is simple, but beware, as the indicator that shows you which block is being affected can be hard to interpret.
Unlike other survival games, the building in Enshrouded gives the player a lot of freedom to do what they want. The only real limitation involves the alter where placement and the radius it projects around it to contain your base.
My Own Experience
I spent a few hours building a base I’ve dubbed Tsargrad. I decided to borrow from dwarven inspirations and carve the base into the side of a mountain. There are two floors, multiple rooms, and all the amenities an adventurer requires. There are a few snags I ran into whilst working however that I think need to be addressed. First and foremost, there needs to be more shapes. While the 2M and 4M shapes provided are fine templates, they lack a lot of shapes that would have been handy. If a 2×2 is a normal wall, there isn’t a horizontal 1×2 half wall. Second, why implement a block-by-block grid without showing us the grid? Having access to the grid would have made lining up walls so much easier. And finally, I’m not a fan of the cap on alters the lobby can have. I understand that an infinite number could lead to exploits, the map is so large that a handful of bases feels grossly insufficient. Yes, there is a progression that gives you access to more, but I don’t agree that it was necessary in the first place.
So is it Worth it?
Having said that, I’d argue that the Enshouded building really works well. There are little tweaks that could be made to improve the experience, but it isn’t all that bad right now. Valhiem, another survival builder, uses a gravity system that I dislike. Fortunately, Enshrouded has no such limitations, allowing you to build a tower taller than five feet. I believe that any building enthusiast will have a lot of fun with the game.
Interested in writing, editing or just being a part of Lv1 Gaming? CONTACT US HERE! We have a YouTube channel full of amazing content! Be sure to follow on Twitch as well! Follow us on Twitter @Lv1Gaming for updates. Follow our Facebook page! What’s your Reaction? What’s your Reaction?
Leave a Reply