Enshrouded Review: The 1.0 That Early Access Promised
After almost three years in Early Access, Keen Games' co-op survival RPG leaves the fog as one of the best builders in the genre - with a grind that still wants too much of your evening. Score: 8/10.
Luka Perić
Thursday, October 15, 2026
I have restarted Enshrouded more times than I would like to admit. Every big Early Access update pulled me back, every time the end of the map pulled me out again. With version 1.0, which launched today, October 15, 2026, the question is simple: is this finally a game you can buy and finish, not a project you sponsor? It is.
What it is
A co-op survival action RPG from German studio Keen Games. You wake up in Embervale, a kingdom swallowed by a deadly fog called the Shroud, and you rebuild from a single flame altar outwards. Version 1.0 is out on PC (Steam) and PlayStation 5, with PS5 Pro support; an Xbox Series X|S version is planned for spring 2027. On PC you can play solo or with up to 16 players on a server. On PS5 sessions are capped at 8 players, and online play needs PlayStation Plus. Crossplay between PC and PS5 is not part of the launch, so pick your platform with your friends in mind. The one bridge is Adventure Sharing, which lets PC and PS5 players visit each other's uploaded worlds - you can show off your base across platforms, you just can't build it together.
How it plays
The loop is familiar: gather, craft, build, push into the fog, survive on a timer, come back stronger. What separates Enshrouded from the Valheim crowd is the voxel building. Terrain and structures are made of blocks you can carve, reshape and decorate, and it is genuinely one of the most generous building tools I've used in a survival game. My base started as a hut and ended as a cliffside monastery, and the game never fought me on it.
Combat is the action-RPG half, with skill trees that let you lean into warrior, ranger or mage builds. The glider and grappling hook make traversal fun rather than a chore, and the Shroud dives - tense, timed trips into the fog - are still the best set pieces.
What 1.0 brings
Keen has rebalanced boss fights, added new customisation and traversal options and reworked how light behaves in the world, plus a long list of fixes and quality-of-life changes driven by player feedback. Combined with the content added during Early Access - Hollow Halls dungeons, the Blackmire, the water biome with swimming and diving - it finally feels like a complete, coherent world instead of a series of patches.
The lows
The grind is real. Late-game upgrades want piles of materials, and solo players will feel it more than groups. Quests are mostly fetch-and-kill, the story is thin, and NPC companions are more furniture than personality. Melee still lacks weight compared to the best action RPGs. And Keen raised the price ahead of launch, so the Early Access bargain is gone - wait for a sale if you're on the fence.
Who it's for
Builders, co-op groups and anyone who loved Valheim but wanted a bigger, prettier sandbox. If you want a tight story-driven RPG, look elsewhere.
Verdict
Enshrouded 1.0 is the version Early Access promised: a huge, handsome world, a brilliant building system and co-op that makes the grind feel like a shared hobby. It still asks for too many hours of resource farming, but for its target audience it is an easy recommendation.
Score: 8/10
Image: InclusiveGameLab / CC BY-SA 4.0, source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:InclusiveGameLab_Person-with-PS5-Controller_5_CC-BY-SA.jpg
