Highlights

  • Nightingale and Enshrouded Palworld are both major survival games debuting 2024, and though both are story-heavy experiences, they have some clear differences.
  • Enshrouded leans into RPG and combat mechanics, while Nightingale focuses more on typical survival aspects.
  • Nightingale emphasizes exploration through procedurally generated realms, while challenging players with survival mechanics like hunger and rest.

2024 is turning out to be a big year for survival games, with Palworld and Enshrouded both making waves in the industry and now Nightingale, Inflexion Games' fantasy survival game set in the Victorian era, bringing up the rear with a rather unique experience. All three games are currently in early access and are already receiving regular care from their developers, with Nightingale being the most recent of the three to launch.

Of the three big survival games already released this year, Nightingale and Enshrouded are the most alike. Unlike Palworld, both Nightingale and Enshrouded are heavily lore-driven, largely relying on their stories to shape their worlds and continuously nudge players forward. However, the two are also very different in their approach to the traditional survival formula, as Enshrouded leans more heavily into RPG and combat mechanics, while Nightingale opts for a more casual approach and a greater emphasis on exploration.

Entering a portal as a solo player in Nightingale
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Crusading through the Faewilds is no easy task, but Nightingale allows all players to experience its mystical worlds regardless of how many they are.

Enshrouded and Nightingale Are Two Lore-Driven Survival Games With Different Approaches

Enshrouded Leans More Heavily Into RPG Mechanics Than Nightingale

In some ways, Enshrouded could be considered a typical survival game; it features in-depth base building and crafting, as well as rewarding and often challenging exploration. However, there remains an ongoing debate about whether Enshrouded really is a survival game, as it not only lacks traditional survival mechanics like hunger and thirst but also leans more heavily into RPG and combat mechanics than most survival games do. In fact, it emphasizes its RPG elements and combat so much that it could be considered an action RPG even more than a survival game. In this way, it differs tremendously from Nightingale.

In Enshrouded, players are dropped into the world of Embervale as a Flameborn, one with an "inner Flame" that allows them to survive a poisonous fog known as "the Shroud" for a short period. In the Shroud, players encounter more challenging enemies to defeat, and, if they venture deep enough, better rewards than they could find outside the Shroud. Such demanding combat and exploration mechanics require more from the game's RPG elements, which come in the form of twelve different classes, each with a healthy number of nodes that unlock new skills and passive bonuses. This is perhaps the most significant way in which Enshrouded differs from Nightingale as well as most survival games in general.

Nightingale Is More "Survival" Than Enshrouded With a Greater Emphasis on Exploration

The main appeal of Nightingale is its unique take on exploration, as players can essentially create one-of-a-kind procedurally generated "realms" using Realm Cards that combine modifiers like biome and type/danger to craft a new realm. While Enshrouded certainly rewards players for exploring, Nightingale's gameplay loop primarily revolves around getting from one realm to the next. Even the story itself is constantly motioning players to the next realm, regardless of how much time they may want to spend in their current realm. Thus, Nightingale's exploration emphasis makes it a bit more casual than Enshrouded in some ways.

This doesn't mean that Nightingale is easy by any means, however, as it often proves to be a little more hardcore on the survival aspect of the genre than even Enshrouded does. Not only does Nightingale require players to keep a constant eye on their hunger levels, as most survival games do, but they must also ensure their character remains rested at all times, or they risk losing valuable stamina. Additionally, harsh hail storms often happen in Nightingale, which can damage the player and make them "wet," which also reduces and inhibits stamina.

Despite being two of the biggest survival games of 2024, and two of the most alike, Nightingale and Enshrouded still have their differences. Namely, Enshrouded tends to feel more like an action RPG, whereas Nightingale relies on typical survival mechanics and a greater emphasis on exploration. Regardless, both games have their merits and will likely continue to improve throughout their early access periods.