PS5 open-world RPG lands rave 9/10 score, as game praised as the next Minecraft

Enshrouded has finally departed its early access period on PC, simultaneously arriving on PlayStation 5 - and to rave reviews at that.

Keen Games’ survival action RPG holds a very respectable score of 89 on Metacritic and a near perfect score of 4.81 stars on the PlayStation Store.

To say that the game’s 1.0 launch has gone well would be an understatement, especially considering players are deeming it the next “evolution of Minecraft’s voxel world”.

If this is the first you’re hearing of Enshrouded, it’s a game that can be enjoyed solo or with friends via co-op.

It places you within a world where you must “conquer the Shroud”, a corrupting fog that is devouring the kingdom of Embervale.

Enshrouded features an enormous terraforamble map, albeit one that is handcrafted, full of quests, secrets, and discoveries.

You’re one of Embervale’s final hopes; level up as you venture out, unlocking new skills and weapons, traversing various biomes, building a base, and acquiring enough resources to survive.

Just about every aspect of Enshrouded offers a key sense of variety.

When it comes to combat, you can select your preferred play style, whether that’s traditional melee or a ranged mage.

In the open world, players will travel through forests, deserts, snow-capped peaks, and more.

A Metacritic score of 89 makes Enshrouded one of the year’s highest rated games

Keen Games

Awarding Enshrouded a perfect score of 100, Try Hard Guides said, “Enshrouded is an exemplary entry into its genre, seamlessly combining survival crafting mechanics with ARPG exploration and progression and, in my humble opinion, delivering the best of both.”

It continued, “While you can absolutely play the game solo, it’s even more fun with friends, scaling the adventure to your group rather than becoming too easy or outright demanding the extra hands on deck as some other survival-crafting titles do.”

GamingBolt awarded a score of 90, writing, “Enshrouded has benefited immensely from two years in Early Access, emerging as one of the best survival crafting games in the business.”

Fans of Minecraft should get a kick out of what Enshrouded offers

While, aesthetically, Enshrouded is a very different beast to Minecraft, it does share several similarities, namely when it comes to the blend of survival mechanics and a terraformable world.

It’s for this reason that players are hailing Enshourded as somewhat of a Minecraft successor, not that Mojang’s behemoth is ever going to fade away.

“Enshrouded is easily the best game when it comes to an evolution of Minecraft’s voxel world,” noted PlayStation and Reddit user HockeyMike24.

“Ever since Minecraft came out years ago, I've always thought about what the future would hold for voxel worlds (where anything and everything can change). But games just copied Minecraft for the most part with everything from UI and it's blocky art design.

“Enshrouded feels like a true successor to that classic formula and not just another clone. It's so refreshing but also a familiar feeling while playing.”

It’s an interesting point as many rivals have this far opted for similar art styles, although I won’t point the finger at examples.

READ MORE: Minecraft considers ditching PlayStation and Nintendo as Xbox goes all-in on exclusives

Enshrouded is clearly off to a positive start with that 4.81 rating on the PlayStation Store. A whopping 92% of gamers have awarded it a perfect score of five.

I can’t help but feel that Enshrouded’s 1.0 launch has slipped under the radar, though, amid the pre-launch hysteria for GTA VI.

However, I have a feeling that this could be a word of mouth hit, with player numbers only growing as more PlayStation and PC users give in to the temptation to try this reasonably priced RPG.