Hello Dazzle! Thanks for coming and hanging out with me today, I’m glad that you are here. Today I want to talk about the game Enshrouded and why I think it is an incredibly sad story. There are spoilers in this game discussion so if you would like to play this game without spoilers then you should come back to this post later.

It’s important to note that this game is in early access and is currently incomplete. That means that there is the possibility that the story and world are going to be expanded. This means that the current impression that the story provides might change as we are given more of the world. That being said, I still feel that this first experience with the game was impactful and worth discussing, regardless of what it later becomes.

There are five NPCs and the game allows for up to six players at a time. This suggests that there are only eleven people who have survived without being corrupted by the Shroud. This isn’t a large enough group to re-establish humanity. Despite that, this small group has been charged with saving the world from the Shroud and they work towards that. But there isn’t any way that they can achieve their objective of restoring humanity to what it was before the Shroud. This is partly because there are enough of them to repopulate the world, but it is also because they aren’t really human anymore.

Every human within this game has been changed and there is no going back to what the world once was. That’s a somber message that slowly reveals itself as you explore the world and the story of this game. Each of the Flameborn have been changed to allow them to survive the Shroud and to use magic. This means that even though they have not been corrupted by the Shroud, they aren’t what they were before the Shroud.

We also see the Scavengers. These were once human. We know this because we are given the story of the Matrons and how they became corrupted by the use of the the Elixir and the Shroud. These humans have been twisted and changed. While they are clearly still human physically, they don’t behave in the ways that we expect humans would. They are more savage and primal. They seem hungry and angry.

There are also those that shuffle through the Shroud. Human forms now adorned with fungal growths. These are humans that have been enveloped and changed by the Shroud. They still have a general humanoid shape and have some cognitive capacity given that they are capable of using tools and weapons, but they aren’t really human any more. They are now a part of this fungal growth.

Every where you go in this world, there are the ruins of human civilization. Time is fuzzy and vague, leaving me unsure how much time has passed since the rise of the Shroud. There are the visible signs that a great deal of time has passed as evidenced by the crumbling of great stone structures. Yet, we are given the stories of the Matrons. In that story line, we learn that they were alive during the rise of the Shroud and became corrupted at that time. Yet, they are still present in the world. Does that mean that they have lived a really long time? Or does it mean that less time has passed then I assumed when seeing the decay of this world?

Given that this is a magical setting, either is possible. There is no reason that the Elixir couldn’t give humanity the ability to magically extend their lives. Nor is there any reason that the Shroud couldn’t be responsible for the extension of their lifespans. If it is the Shroud extending the life of the Matrons, what about those shuffling forms within the Shroud? Are these the same people who fell during the rise of the Shroud or are these their decedents? If they are the decedents, it suggests that humanity has changed in a sustainable way and has now evolved to live with the Shroud.

While you are exploring the ruins of this world, you find the places where the Flameborn were created and stored. There are numerous pods in each of these buildings. Most of these pods are broken and empty. This shows us that the Flameborn were intended to be an army, but instead only a few survived until the time of waking. This is another thing that suggests an extended passage of time. The failure of these pods seems reasonable and expected if centuries have passed since their creation. If it has only been the span of a human life time, why have so many of the pods failed?

When we wake into this world, we are greeted by the Flame and given our mission to save the world. We go about doing this. But soon, the state of the world is revealed and I cannot help but ask what we are fighting for. There is nothing left of the humanity that those who created us were trying to save. There is no bringing back what was lost. Do we continue our efforts because we are programmed to do so and have no choice? Or are our efforts a vain attempt to reclaim something of what we were?

Either way, I am left feeling sad about the emptiness of this world. It presents us with the inevitable fall of humanity as everything in this universe is finite and must come to an end. It raises the question of what we should do when we face that inevitability. There are those who have chosen to sit and face the coming of the Shroud with their loved ones in their arms. Quietly accepting what is coming. There are those who fought to the end and beyond the fall of humanity.

When our time comes, how should we face it? I have not found that Enshrouded offers an answer to this question. Instead it shows us the varied ways that humanity has historically approached their problems and is likely to face their demise. There is anger and wrath that twists us beyond recognition, becoming the Scavengers. There are those that become part of the Shroud and evolve in a manner that allows them to survive. Then there are those that choose to fight, even when there is nothing left to fight for.

The game Enshrouded portrays a bleak world overtaken by the Shroud, leaving only a few survivors who are no longer truly human. It raises questions about the futility of fighting for a lost humanity and the different ways people face their inevitable demise. The game offers no clear answer, leaving a sense of emptiness and inevitability. This is one of the saddest games that I have ever played.

Well, that’s about it for my rambling today. Thanks for coming and spending some time with me. If you like my rambling then click on that like button. It really does help! Until we talk again, you take care of yourselves!