Highlights
- Valheim, a popular Viking-Survival game, has grown in popularity since its early access release in 2021 and has received positive reviews.
- Enshrouded, an upcoming survival title from Keen Games, shares similar features to Valheim, such as a focus on exploration and discovery, with minimal guidance for players.
- Enshrouded incorporates elements from The Legend of Zelda series, offering a fusion of survival and action gameplay, and is set to provide Valheim fans with a fresh take on the genre.
Despite its humble beginnings, developer Iron Gate Studios' Viking-Survival game, Valheim, has grown to be among the most popular titles of 2023. Valheim was released in early access back in 2021 to overwhelmingly positive reviews and has only increased in quality since. The popularity of the survival genre is extremely high, and the last few years have resulted in a massive amount of releases, to varying degrees of success. Two years into Early Access, fans of Valheim may be interested in finding another quality title with which to invest their time. Many Valheim fans may enjoy developer Keen Games' Enshrouded, an upcoming survival title that seemingly channels some of Valheim's best features, along with others from various fan-favorite properties.
Valheim is a multiplayer survival sandbox game that tasks up to 10 players with navigating its procedurally generated world. Soon after release, the title's popularity skyrocketed, as players explored every nook and cranny of its world for secrets while figuring out its core gameplay. One of Valheim's greatest strengths was that it did not provide new layers with much guidance. Fans were tasked with discovering a means of survival on their own, experiencing the title's hardships and dangers as they made themselves known. Those who fell in love with that aspect will find it again in Enshrouded.
Enshrouded and Valheim Were Developed With the Same Core Concepts
Enshrouded is an upcoming survival action RPG from Portal Knights developer Keen Games. The title transports players to a post-apocalyptic world, called Embervale, which has been overtaken by a mysterious and deadly fog. Taking on the role of a group called the Flameborn, players are tasked with dispelling the fog from the world's surface. Enshrouded seeks to provide a similar experience as Valheim, allowing players to explore its massive world and discover a means of survival for themselves.
In a recent roundtable Q&A, Keen Games shared the inspirations for Enshrouded's building and terraforming features, as well as the similarities it shares with Valheim. In particular, Enshrouded's studio seeks to dump players into a world with little guidance, allowing them to destroy and rebuild as they see fit. Like Valheim, the goal is to present them with what they call a "friendly approach" to survival. Despite guidance being minimal, players have the freedom and time to discover its survival mechanics, without the risk of dying from dehydration and hunger in its opening hours. Keen Games had questioned whether this approach would work, as it had been working on the title for nearly 4 years, but the release and subsequent success of Valheim provided some degree of confirmation that this approach would resonate.
Enshrouded's Action Elements Are a Fusion Between Valheim and Zelda
Following the lessons learned from Portal Knights, Keen Games pulled Enshrouded off of the shelf, where it had been placed due to fears of overambition. When the title entered the development cycle once more, the developer wanted to infuse its survival title with elements from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Fans are given a glider early in the title, for use in exploring Enshrouded's surface, and the title's combat is infused with lessons learned from the Zelda series. Interestingly, Enshrouded also features a world above and a world below, much like the depths and surface of Hyrule in the much more recent The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
When Enshrouded is released, it will offer Valheim fans a new and interesting take on the survival genre. Players who preferred a friendly approach to survival, and the opportunity to learn through experience, will find Enshrouded to be a nice change of pace from other survival and action titles. Keen Games is currently preparing to launch a Closed Beta for Enshrouded, which is planned to test its PvP elements. While the title does not yet have an official release date, it is slated to enter Early Access by the end of 2023.