If you're looking for a brand-new early access survival game to play this week, but can't stomach Palworld's particular blend of cartoon color, animal cruelty, and Steam domination, then I'm here to remind you about Enshrouded.
The smash-hit of October's Steam Next Fest, Enshrouded takes the mysterious, folkloric open world that catapulted Valheim to massive success in 2021, and throws in some proper Dark Souls-style combat. Those two don't necessarily feel like a classic combo, but to watch Enshrouded's trailers, there's no question that that's what the devs have gone for - on the one hand you'll chop trees and roast hunted meat over an open fire, but on the other you'll be dodge-rolling past skeletal enemies and taking on towering bosses.
That combination seemed to capture the community's imagination during Next Fest, where it was the biggest game by pretty much any metric Valve could throw at us. Since then, it also skirted the top ten on Steam's wishlist charts, contending with the likes of Hades 2, Frostpunk 2, Nightingale, and Hollow Knight: Silksong. There seems to be a bit of a multiplayer snafu affecting co-op play at time of writing, and that's dragging the user reviews down a bit, but that's not likely to detract from the experience for too long.
Enshrouded is unlikely to hit the same dizzying heights as Palworld or Valheim - I don't know about you, but I only have time for one all-consuming survival game in my life at a time. But it's certainly well-positioned to have a long lifetime, with a good amount of hype behind it and some positive early impressions. If you're looking for a grittier survival game experience to round out the winter with, this could be it.
With two genre smash-hits in a week, maybe our list of the best survival games needs an update.
