Recent reviews by Vel

The game has potential but as of right now I just don't feel like it's worth its price tag or it's hype...The face customization is great but you have absolutely no customization of the body and the body looks very, very, VERY awkard. One of the things I like the most in survival games is character customization and I feel it lacks that. The clothes have no way of having cosmetic items displayed and you're stuck with whatever the game gives you which often results in an awkward looking appearance.

Character customization aside....

The map system is weird. There did not appear to be any indications on the map where I had built so I had a hard time finding my settlement again. The combat is extremely janky and awkward... The character animations are extremely awkward and janky and overall I feel they're just off.

Not pulling from chest is a big no. Couldn't figure out how to pick stuff up again. Not being able to upgrade your house materials is a big no.

Being forced to play online 24-7 is a big no. That is not how valheim and other similar games work. That's not how enshrouded works. Why the hell do I have to play online when playing SINGLE PLAYER!? What happens if the company goes bankrupt and shuts their servers down? I guess I won't be able to play. Big No.


The good:

Graphics for everything but the character are great. Never seen a game do such a fantastic job at water before...

Overall: The game has potential but it needs work. I wouldn't recommend it at this time. I may come back and update the review later.

I don't think you should make this limited time... or the last one that I apparently missed. It would be great for people to be able to "donate" at all times. I would totally buy the other one, too, had I known it existed. >_>

I want to like this game and I will likely keep it in the hopes that they fix some things and make it more interesting and user friendly...with that said:

I've played about 30 minutes and I had to quit because it's hurting my hands. I have arthritis and other issues in my hands so having to click so much is extremely painful after awhile. The controls are weird as hell. WHY in tarnation do I have to HOLD DOWN a button to confirm a turn in or otherwise accept something? WHY is the back button left mouse click instead of escape? Why can't that be changed, too? I got stuck on the world map because none of the buttons were working including the back button. Why is it that I can't save the game until after a certain point? I have to keep replaying the same bit over and over and over again because the save option is greyed out. The character creation screen is deceptive, too. I went for a tan character and she looked fine on the character select screen but in game she was as pasty white as could be. Why can't you stack items that you sell? Why does the camera not auto follow the character? Why can't you CHANGE the camera positioning manually, either??

TLDR:

Pros:
>> Seems like a cute farm game with some interesting concepts like always having the tools handy and auto switching between them. Art style is nice.

Cons:
>> Weird controls that cannot be changed. Like why do I have to hold down a button to accept or turn something in?
>> Weird naming conventions. "Reedeem" a quest makes it feel like a mobile game and impersonal.
>> No character depth, story is lacking, words like " redeem" make it seem cold, distant, and unalive.
>> Tutorials are very poorly done...Had to google how to do a few things at first because the game just straight up doesn't tell you and expects you to just do it without giving you the info.
>> Market seems weird. Can't stack items you want to sell.
>> Placement in house is weird, grid is too large and decorating seems unfun because you can't get items where you actually want them to be.
>> Camera doesn't follow character & cannot be changed.

Overall: I think the game has potential but it needs work and I don't recommend it for the current price. If it was $20 sure. Get it on sale, basically.

EDIT / UPDATE: I have been playing the game a little and I still hold true to my review and opinion. I will continue to play it though because I like it well-enough, I just would not recommend it to others until the above has all been resolved. I had to buy a controller in order to be able to play it without hand pain. I shouldn't have had to do that for a game that is supposed to be playable on the PC / platform.

I will edit and review this review in a few months if things have changed.

After playing the game and unlocking most of the areas I can say that it has a great foundation, however, in comparison to SR1 there are some things I do not like about it thus far. One of the main things that I do not like is how every gordo that you find is pretty pointless. There aren't as many puzzles and thus far I've not encountered any slime keys like the first game had. The only cool thing you experience from feeding a gordo is that you are able to collect the smaller smiles in bulk, that's it. It's very lack-luster in terms of experience with puzzles and gordos in comparison to SR1. I do like how in this iteration of the game you have to unlock the jet pack and other features, whereas they were just handed to you in one. SR2 seems way too easy in terms of unlocking the continents and areas, and I really wish they would include more and better puzzles. It's entirely possible that they will add more slimes and areas, and more puzzles, later on. I do not remember if the glass desert or moss blanket were included in SR1 when it went into early access. I do fully expect them to add more content though, as in SR1 they added at least 3 areas: Mochi's manor, ogden's retreat, and victor's lab. For right now, it's just that: A foundation. Not much content there yet, not many puzzles yet, not much difficulty yet. If you are a fan of SR1 then I would recommend getting it now, but be aware that the EA title is very much so in effect with this title.

I bought this game on a discount during one of the sales because it looked cute. The style of the pastel world is very nice, but I find most of the other things in the game very bland. The characters, for instance, are forgettable. The furniture I can buy for my cafe - especially for the cats and animals, is useless because they don't use it. My own character frustrated me beyond belief when making - the game has videos and seems to come off claiming excellent character customization but I was unable to change my face shape or eyes, so basically every character looks identical sans the body shape and colors. No matter what I did I had a chubby face, even if the body didn't match. The npcs didn't have chubby faces - only the player character, so why then is the shape of the face and shape of the eyes something not modifiable? Additionally when I did finally start playing after struggling with the character creation I got really annoyed with the clothing. The basic skirt that you can buy clips horrendously when running, walking, or basically doing anything. Some clipping in a game is understandable but clipping when just walking on a clothing piece that is skin tight - I don't think should happen. It makes the game feel unpolished. The quest in the game are very simple, too, and there was no challenge at all with them, they weren't even interesting - I got bored of them.

Overall the game is okay and worth maybe $5-10 but no more then that.

The good:
I really love the crafting system and the life skilling. The world is super beautiful and absolutely lovely to run around in and enjoy. I think if you are looking at this game in terms of can I get $1 worth of enjoyment per hour, then you would definitely be able to get 40 hours worth of enjoyment out of it.

The bad:
The plant life / life skilling stuff to loot is very same-y and generic all throughout the world.
There is no weather system in the game, and no water effect on the players like you get in other mmos like BDO - which bugs me.
It's also a very pvp centric game and I Hear and expect that the pve content will be lacking as a result. I do feel like amazon took ideas from other MMOs that they loved and smashed them all together into one game, which isn't necessarily bad, however, the game needs polish and something 'special' to make it stand out against the rest of the crowd. Right now it doesn't have that.
The character customization was incredibly lacking. I expected way better of a game releasing in 2021. You have preset faces to choose from, and limited amounts of hair that mostly look terrible. Basically, it's about on par with what world of warcrafts character customization is....but wow was released in 2004. Everyone also has the same bodies, which is disappointing. As a rather short woman, I'm pretty irked by the fa ct I have to play a very butch looking AA breast no hips female. Most of the armors don't even have the slighest feminine touch on them so I find that I look like a man most of the time and have a hard time disciphering between the sexes. I'm not saying to over sexualize it like BDO....but c'mon now, can I at least look like a woman?

Consensus: For the amount of money spent I think you WILL get your monies worth out of it, but I do NOT think this is a game that will be played for a long period of time unless they add a ton of content.

They decided to abruptly cancel service and give refunds for anyone who purchased via the nexon website, but not via steam. Anyone who spent money is just purely out of that money now if they got it from steam. Don't even know why it's getting discontinued, it seemed to have a decent player base.

I wanted to play this game, and I wanted to like it because someone bought it for me as a gift. The game states that is friendly to both controller and keyboard & mouse. That's a lie, the game has HORRENDOUS controls unless you are using a controller. Escape doesn't exist menus, spacebar doesn't jump, etc. It's impossible to play without a controll. As a result - I can't even play this game because I don't own a controller. For a game to be released on the PC platform, and to state that it provides support for both - and then not provide that support, that's just bad. I can't recommend this title.

I absolutely love this game and played quite a bit of it...The only thing that I would say it is lacking is content. It needs more content. So I've stopped playing for now to give the developers time to develop more and add more content to the game. Please keep at it!

More buildings. More sea stuff. More everything please!

So apparently if you buy just the base game, you no longer have the option of buying the upgrades for travel package and or explorer's package if you buy through steam. Good information to know... Guess I'll never get the option to buy those packages.