I love trying out new survival games. But lately, I’ve been having a hard time not thinking about Enshrouded while playing them.
I actually wanted to sit here and write about a new Minecraft mod. But when I tried it out, the first thing that came to mind was: Phew, I’d much rather be playing Enshrouded right now.
And it’s not the first time this has happened to me.
For the past few weeks, I’ve been back in survival mode, all because of Enshrouded. I’ve started a new playthrough with my colleague Franzi, and I’d love to keep playing every night. The longer I play, the more other survival games—the ones that lure me in with base-building, exploration, and crafting—fade into the background for me. But why is that, exactly? There are 4 elements where Enshrouded simply has the edge for me.
1. The story
While many survival games completely ignore a story framework and place us in procedurally generated worlds for replayability, Enshrouded does the opposite. I explore a handcrafted world filled with the ruins of a fallen civilization. Little stories await everywhere, mostly told through notes scattered about.
Even though the backstory and these little tales don’t exactly blow me away, they breathe life into the world, along with its inhabitants. The fact that I gather
people for my base, build them shelter, and benefit from their expertise gives me a purpose beyond mere survival.
I have a mission: to rebuild human civilization, starting with my own village or fortress, where I don’t just build whatever I please, but need a house for the blacksmith, the farmer, the hunter, and so on. Eventually, I’ll have a truly vibrant, organically grown settlement—even if the NPCs don’t behave all that convincingly.
Instead of just fighting nameless monsters to get stronger myself, I’m doing something for others, and that’s a great source of motivation (it also reminds me of my beloved settlement-building in Fallout 4).
2. Progress
Enshrouded does an excellent job of keeping me entertained with new toys. Achieving milestones—such as rescuing an NPC, discovering a new material, completing a quest, or defeating a boss—unlocks new weapons and gear, as well as practical and attractive items for building. Over the years of Early Access, a huge pile of such unlocks has accumulated in Enshrouded.
As a huge fan of base building, I benefit from this in particular: I keep getting new building blocks for houses and tons of decorations—dozens of pieces of furniture, flower pots, dishes, windows, lights, and much more. With just what I get in the first 10 to 20 hours, I could spend forever building and decorating. But at the same time, I know there’s so much more waiting for me, like the new water system, which I’ll use later to have ponds and streams flow through my village!
3. The Building System
This brings me right to the next point: Enshrouded’s building system, which resembles a prettier version of Minecraft. As in many other survival games, I can easily construct simple houses out of wood and stone using pre-made floors, walls, and roofs. But for someone as obsessed with building as I am, there are so many more possibilities!
Instead of entire walls, I can also place individual blocks, allowing me to give my buildings any size or shape I want—though everything remains angular. Enshrouded encourages my creativity in this way, while also giving me the option to quickly build simple houses using the prefabricated components. They always look really nice when I build with advanced materials, even if I stick to very simple shapes.
But the houses and castles can still be customized however you like: Maybe I’ll add a bay window here, change the shape of the window, or have a tower sprout from the roof. For me, this mix of modular construction and prefabricated parts is the perfect building system in a survival game (aside from the occasionally clunky controls). And I’m not even taking into account the countless decorative options I’ve already raved about.
4. Convenience
In hardly any other genre have convenience features become as important to me in recent years as they have in survival games. Because while I love working my way up from a destitute survivor, I have neither the time nor the desire to spend dozens of hours mining ore, chopping down trees, and sorting through chests. And all of that can be bypassed in Enshrouded!
It starts with the difficulty settings, where I can fine-tune my own survival experience: The difficulty of combat, the experience points earned, the speed of ore mining, and much more can be adjusted—there are over 30 sliders to choose from in total. This way, I can ensure that battles remain challenging while still having to grind less thanks to higher resource yields.
That saves a lot of time, but starting October 15, 2026, it’ll get even better: Update 1.0 will introduce the ability to automatically collect loot from felled trees. Chests can be upgraded without me having to empty them first and take them to a craftsman.
The NPCs will have voiceovers, so I’ll have less to read. Notes found in the world will also be automatically read aloud by a narrator, so I can listen to the stories without Franzi snatching all the valuable loot from the chest right next to me!
Phew, that was a lot to take in, but I hope you now understand why Enshrouded has me so hooked right now. I’d also love to hear about your experiences: Has this survival game pulled you in just as much, or did its flaws bother you too much? Last but not least, I’d also like to point you to my fellow sufferer, Miffy, who’s currently also bogged down in a survival game—though for her, it’s Valheim: You can read her survival story in the box above.
