Enshrouded vs Palworld – which one is worth playing?

Enshrouded vs Palworld, which one is better? 2024 has started with a bang for the survival crafting genre, gifting us not one, but two heavy hitters that have made headlines for legitimate and controversial reasons – Palworld and Enshrouded. Both have flirted with the top of the Steam charts since release, attracting millions of players eager to fill the gaming gap in what has otherwise been a pretty dry year so far for quality releases.

While you could conceivably play both, time and money mean most players have to make a choice. We’ll walk you through an Enshrouded vs Palworld head-to-head to help you make a choice. If you opt for Enshrouded, check out how to get Twigs and how to get Metal Scraps, both vital early-game resources. And, if you go down the Palworld route, get some useful tips and tricks in our Palworld beginner’s guide.

Enshrouded vs Palworld – which is better?

Enshrouded and Palworld both fall into the survival crafting genre, which means you’ll need to survive in an inhospitable open world teeming with enemies by farming resources and crafting increasingly better gear and weapons. They also have a heavy emphasis on base building. But these basics are where the similarities end with both games taking a different approach in tone, polish, and overall quality.

Enshrouded adheres to a more classic survival crafting formula in the same vein as Valheim; visually thanks to its voxel world design and because of the darker, mediaeval mood where you fight with magic, bows, and melee weapons. It’s less forgiving with a higher difficulty level, mainly due to its souls-like inspired combat and tough enemies. It’s also leans into being an RPG with a robust skill tree, levelling, and various builds such as tank or mage that you can work towards.

Palworld, on the other hand, is a much brighter, sillier, and forgiving experience, with the highlight being, of course, the Pokemon-inspired monsters and critters that you can catch, ride, fight with, put to work in your base, and breed. It’s very much a mix of Pokemon, Ark, and Monster Hunter in that sense. The addition of guns that both you and your Pals can use adds another unique dimension to the game as well.

Gameplay loop

The minute-to-minute gameplay in Enshrouded is defined by gathering, mining, or chopping for resources and materials, combat, crafting, quests, dungeons, boss fights, talking to NPCs, and in-depth base building. There’s a lot of farming involved and much of the player’s time is spent grinding resources to craft better gear and weapons to explore further and further away from the starting base. Surviving is challenging.

In Palworld, staying alive is a much simpler experience. You’ll build a base, go out to gather resources and catch Pals, then return to your base where you can build better structures and automate tasks by assigning Pals to your base. There are also boss fights and basic dungeons, but there’s hardly any story to speak of and very few NPCs to help with world building or setting up a defined narrative theme. It’s very much a sandbox.

World

Enshrouded’s open world is distinctive in that it features the eponymous Shroud zones. A deadly fog covers these areas, only allowing players to spend a set amount of time there. Inside, the enemies are different, more aggressive and deadlier, which makes exploring the Shroud both challenging and thrilling. Aside from the Shroud, the open-world is a sprawling amalgamation of valleys, mountains, settlements, ruins, and forests that seamlessly blend into one another, begging to be explored.

Palworld’s open world is larger than Enshrouded, but feels less intentional with recycled assets and what appears to be very little thought put into placement. It features different biomes – snow, forest, desert, coastal, etc. – but they don’t feel as lived in or purposeful as Enshrouded’s hand-crafted world. Palworld’s open world often feels quite empty.

Thanks to its voxel-based design, Enshrouded offers terraforming so you can shape the environment in whatever way you want – pretty much every part of the world can be mined, axed, or destroyed. Palworld adheres to a more classic design where many of its world’s features are fixed and immovable.

Both games have a fast travel mechanic, though Palworld is more generous with its fast travel spots than Enshrouded, though this is by design, to prompt exploration and a meaningful sense of progression.

Graphics

Palworld offers players a colourful world to explore with decent, though somewhat stock assets and textures. The Pals themselves lean heavily into being cute and are very reminiscent of Pokemon’s monsters. The overall aesthetic is very cartoon-ish and childish. Palworld is also prone to bugs and glitches, and feels much less polished.

Enshrouded is visually a lot more mature with darker tones and a gritty feel from the design of its enemies to many of the camps and settlements you’ll come across. In our opinion, Enshrouded has a much more distinct visual identity and you’ll often marvel at just how great it looks, especially when cresting a hill and seeing a sweeping vista for the first time. Despite being in early access, Enshrouded runs very smoothly with very few bugs souring the experience.

Story

Palworld has virtually no story to speak of other than a brief starting hint that there are mysterious towers spread across the map. Beyond that, you’ll pick up the occasional diary entry but they offer very little in terms of setting up a meaningful story. You’re essentially dumped into a world full of Pals and left to do what you want.

Enshrouded, on the other hand, has a clearer, driving narrative arc that’s supplemented by conversations with NPCs, written lore, meaty quests, and, of course, the Shroud itself, a central part of both the gameplay and the story underpinning its rich world.

Should you play Enshrouded or Palworld?

Personal preference and taste differ so much between players that it’s difficult to say whether you’ll enjoy Enshrouded or Palworld more. But, objectively, Enshrouded is a much more engaging, thoughtful, and well-designed game than Palworld’s almost cynical design. The Pokemon-with-guns gimmick wears off pretty quickly. In our opinion, people will be playing Enshrouded for years to come while interest in Palworld will drop off rapidly once the initial hype dies down.

If you’re on the fence on the question of Enshrouded vs Palworld, we recommend playing Enshrouded rather than Palworld. If you do, check out how to get Resin, how to get Clay, how to get Flintstone, how to get Amber, and how to get Shroud Cores in Enshrouded.