It didn’t take long for Palworld to conquer the Steam charts, but it’s not the only game of its genre making a splash on the platform right now thanks to newcomer Enshrouded. Although half of Palworld‘s appeal lies in the basic premise of a Pokémon alternative (with the crude but effective tactic of adding guns), its survival crafting mechanics are part of what seems to be keeping players hooked as they progress within its world. For anyone looking to scratch more of that itch and leave the focus on creature collection behind, a new option has arisen that’s quickly built a sizable playerbase.
Survival crafting games are nothing new in the PC market, with the enormous success of Rust accelerating interest in a genre that’s only continued to grow. An unfortunately large percentage of titles end up feeling rudimentary and flavorless or simply failing under the weight of bugs, however, with standouts like Valheim being comparatively few and far between. Whenever something with meat on its bones does come along, it’s worth paying attention to, even if Palworld is currently overshadowing all of its competitors in overall buzz and sales.
Palworld Preview: “For All Its Faults, It Teeters on the Edge of Early Greatness”
Palworld wears its many inspirations on both sleeves, but this monster-catching open-world survival sim could have some serious legs.
Enshrouded Is An Interesting Survival Crafting RPG
The best new alternative to Palworld might just be Enshrouded, a Steam early access title that also boasts a mix of RPG mechanics and survival crafting standards. The most obvious difference comes in the flavor, which is much less Pokémon-adjacent and much more classically fantasy. The name immediately invokes Obsidian Entertainment’s upcoming RPG Avowed, while the story of a protagonist referred to as Flameborn navigating a corrupted world and fighting challenging bosses also brings genre icons like Dark Souls to mind.
Impressively, even in the midst of Palworld dominating the conversation, Enshrouded has already attracted over a million players according to a tweet from the official account of developer Keen Games. For an early access title, this kind of early growth is an important milestone, as failing to attract many initial sales typically makes it hard for developers to continue funding work on the game. Market success still isn’t a guarantee that an early access game will end up becoming everything that it’s capable of being, but it’s always a good sign.
One major aspect that might help to make Enshrouded an easy sell is its voxel-based world, which makes resource gathering, building, and destruction more organic and deeply customizable. It’s also committed to its fantasy aesthetic in a way that’s likely to attract RPG fans, with spell casting, dungeon crawling, extensive weapon crafting, and more. The enormous success of Baldur’s Gate 3 showed that the appeal of classic fantasy games hasn’t diminished in the years since games like Skyrim and The Witcher 3 made a splash, and Enshrouded is the first title of 2024 to majorly capitalize on that market.
Why Enshrouded Is A Great Palworld Alternative
Although there are plenty of reasons that Palworld can be an attractive gaming prospect, there are also a lot of areas where the experience currently falls short. The most obvious point of criticism is the game’s lack of individual identity, as most of its aesthetic and mechanic elements are transparently cobbled together from other popular titles in a way that fails to cohere into a unique identity. Palworld‘s environments can also feel somewhat empty in certain regards, with the settlements that are scattered across the game proving underwhelming compared to the towns and buildings that some competitors have to offer.
Is Palworld A Pokémon Rip-Off?
The new monster-catching game Palworld has some similarities to Pokémon, which have caused some to call it a rip-off. The reality is more complicated.
Enshrouded also bears some of its inspirations on its sleeve, but the overall effect is definitely more cohesive than Palworld by a significant margin, with a fantasy world and style that feels like it’s consistently working toward one goal. The overall content currently available is more complete in most respects, with a variety of quests, locations, and NPCs that are more than basic copy-paste elements. Building is an area where Enshrouded especially outstrips Palworld, with the rich tools to build interesting forts or mansions making the comparatively rudimentary base construction options of Palworld pale by comparison.
The main advantage that Palworld retains is obvious – Enshrouded lacks a plethora of unique beasts to battle, collect, and breed, so anyone intent on replicating the Pokémon experience will be out of luck. Building up a camp of NPC followers is a reasonable consolation prize, but it obviously lacks the adorable quality (and, conversely, Palworld‘s awkwardly edgy mean streak when it comes to forcing Pals to do the player character’s will). For anyone who enjoys Ark: Survival Ascended, Palworld generally delivers more on that style of gameplay, while Enshrouded is more directly analogous to Valheim.
Where Enshrouded Could Go From Here
Like just about any early access game, Enshrouded could still use a lot of work, as its strong points are held back somewhat by various problems and limitations. The difficulty is somewhat underwhelming at the moment, and instances of lost progress that have impacted some players can be exceptionally frustrating. Keen Games hasn’t been sitting back idly, deploying a number of hotfixes since its launch and working on others to address yet-unresolved critical issues, but buying Enshrouded comes with the understanding that the game has a ways to go before any potential greatness.
Palworld Roadmap: All Confirmed Updates & Early Access Plans (So Far)
While it has no concrete timeline, developer Pocketpair has given out a list of features it plans to add to Palworld during its early access period.
The most interesting aspect of Enshrouded‘s development plans is a vote-based feedback board available on the Feature Upvote website, which helps clarify which changes and features players would most like to see. Athough Enshrouded doesn’t have a specific roadmap at the moment, this board and other avenues of community feedback are likely to play a big part in shaping what it will be. The future of Enshrouded isn’t yet clear, but it’s obvious that the current Steam release of the game is interesting enough to draw plenty of players, and its differences from Palworld might just be its golden ticket.
- Platform(s)
- PC , Xbox One , Xbox Series X/S
- Released
- January 19, 2024
- Developer(s)
- Pocket Pair Inc.
- Publisher(s)
- Pocket Pair Inc.
- Genre(s)
- Crafting , Open-World , RPG , Survival
- ESRB
- T
