'Valheim meets Zelda' in new open-world RPG

The new survival-RPG, Enshrouded, awakens for early access on Steam later this year, which the developer has called “Valheim meets Zelda”

Enshrouded is a cooperative survival game that can be played with up to 16 people, dropping players into a vast and intriguing world they can explore at their leisure. The realm is called Embervale, which is broken up into different areas with their own scenery, mysteries and threats for the player to discover and overcome, whether alone or with a couple of friends.

Hunting, cooking, crafting and base building are all key features of the gameplay-loop, and survivors will have to learn and master the basics if they want to defend against the various creatures and monsters they'll be facing.

Judging from the official trailer, the Valheim and The Legend of Zelda inspiration is apparent, as the player’s character even wakes up and emerges from a pod with hardly any clothing like in The Legend of Zelda; Breath of the Wild. It also includes some elements from another smash-hit survival game, Minecraft, as the terrain can be dug through to create tunnels and easy-access to caves or other parts of the world.

Base-building sounds great too, allowing solo and cooperative players to build and expand their home as much as they like, offering protection from the dangers that lurk outside. The developer has also said they’ll be AI characters that’ll need rescuing, who’ll return to your base in order to assist the player.

Skill trees will also be available to the player, allowing them to upgrade and improve their character with new skills and abilities to use in combat and whilst exploring. Alongside this, there’s a variety of classes and weapons to choose from, allowing freedom to pick your own playstyle. Swords, shields, bows, magic and presumably your bare-hands all seem to be viable options for surviving.

Enshrouded is shaping up to be an impressive survival experience, and is currently available for early access on PC for Steam users. The final version of the game is set to drop later this year, with no word on if the game will be making it to Xbox, PlayStation or Nintendo Switch further down the line.