Recent reviews by formerghostie

This game has such a cute style, pretty engaging game play, and doesn't feel too much like an early access game. It is a little empty as far as interactable world elements, but you would only notice that if you were actively comparing it to other similar games. I would reccommend it to others who like Stardew Valley / Dave the Diver type games. I love them and have been craving more games like this. So this was perfect for that! With that said, I do have 2 things that really took me out of the game.

1. The characters feel like self/friend inserts. Which to be clear, I don't have a problem with except here it felt like someone went to their friend and said "tell me the 3 most important things about you" and assumed 3 facts was enough to write a compelling character. It's not. So the characters felt very one dimensional even though their designs were so unique and special. Even if the dialogue was different, the characters were basically always talking about the same thing. I hope the characters get a more thoughtful and rich backstory, with more engaging dialogue that doesn't just sound like you asked a friend for their catch phrase.

2. Omg why is everyone in this ton obsessed with kids and having kids? People can be parents and not have their entire personality become just talking about their kids. The parent NPCs only ever talked about their kids or being parents or the joys of being a parent. The NPCs without kids also kept talking about having kids some day and then multiple NPCs asked me if I wanted kids which was kinda out of place in the overall storyline. That's not something you ask someone you just met who randomly walked up to you on the beach. It felt so weird. It just weirded me out that towards the end of the game, the only conversations I had with NPCs were about their kids, about them being parents, about how they want kids some day, or about if I want kids some day. I'm a chef in your town... wanna ask me about food? lol

I first opened up this game in Jan of 2025 after playing (and loving) games like Enshrouded and Subnautica. I also loved BOTW and I was itching for another crafting open world game. When I started playing this, I hated it. I thought about getting a refund. So many bugs, poor tutorial and guidance, xbox controller support didn't work, and it crashed multiple times.

Something in my gut said to give it time- so this month I picked it back up and I'm SO happy I did! So many quality of life improvements, such a rich story, such a fun world. Yes, controller support still needs some work and yes, it still crashes from time to time. Those things don't bother me because it's an early release game. There will be growing pains. If that is frustrating to you, don't buy an early release game.

What I love most: the game really makes you think about your resource collecting with the amity scale. It really helps me not get lost in the grinding and to progress the story line too. The world is so rich with unique animals and creatures, I love just looking around and finding things. Everything is a great distance apart so while It might be a challenge to get from one portal to another, it doesn't push you to frustration. That's so helpful at encouraging exploration and not just fast travel.

It sounds silly but sure this game is crafting / exploring game but it forces you to be a better player of these types of games by reducing the need to grind a bit. This game is literally telling me to stop grinding and touch grass lol. It's a good reminder in both the video game world and real life.

This is my first review on steam. And I am so excited to write it.

I am a cozy gamer- I'm talking animal crossing, stardew valley, overcooked, stray, etc. I love the zelda games, especially breath of the wild but I spent HOURS climbing mountains just to avoid enemies and bosses. So a survival game was the last thing I thought I might like but Enshrouded has won me over. It feels like the natural progression for me from Stardew and Zelda.

I absolutely loved that I could really customize the gameplay (even before the most recent update that allowed for difficulty settings) to what I enjoyed the most. So many quests are essentially optional or can be delayed, so I could wait to do a really hard one until I felt comfortable because I got plenty of XP from mining or exploring. I love the base building, and the fact that we can reused already existing buildings! Blue Goblet tavern, anyone? Honestly this has so many elements in a game that I didn't know I wanted but now I don't wanna play a game without them.

There's so much I love. But I'm going to share some things I hope they address in the future:
- The other survivors. They feel very flat. I'd love it if they had some preferences or maybe things they'd like for me to do for them aside from finding their things. Maybe they want their room to have a better bed, or a side table, etc. We all live in this space together, they can have an opinion too.
- Wtf is up with how this game was developed that I have to run this game on Performance graphics even tho I run BG3 on High/Ultra???? The lower quality visuals didn't bother me, but like seriously wtf this game is not more taxing than BG3?? I'm so confused on this.
- The hallow halls messaging says you should have friends to do it with you, which I don't have friends who play this game so I got scared that since I'm bad at combat, I wouldn't do well. So I put it off until I was way overpowered. So I feel like the messaging could be adjusted to give a level recommendation. Or maybe I'm just the only big baby who is scared of combat who would play this lol.


Last request: please keep the storyline going! I've learned so much about the world, but what about my place in it? What am I doing? Why am I clearing the shroud roots if they just re-appear? I know it's early access but I love the game so much I am dying to see what else happens in the world. I'm sold on the story, I want the next chapter :)

I just 'finished' this week and saw the new update and I am so excited to start from the beginning and experience this new update. I just wish I had friends who also played this game and wanted to do it with me.