Grand Theft Auto 6

Rockstar’s upcoming return to Vice City is easily the biggest open-world release on the horizon, and the perfect candidate to start off the list. Grand Theft Auto 6 promises a living, breathing world packed with dynamic NPC routines, reactive law enforcement, and an unprecedented level of environmental detail. The dual protagonists inspired by the adventures of Bonnie and Clyde look to be a promising storyline filled with several emotional moments. Of course, missions, side activities, and emergent mayhem are also important pillars of the experience – so we are definitely looking forward to this one.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl

Developer GSC Game World brought the S.T.A.L.K.E.R series back into the limelight with the recently released Heart of Chornobyl, which undoubtedly represents the peak of the series. It takes what worked in prior entries, and creates something that’s bigger and better in almost every way. It blends a modern gameplay framework with the brutal survival mechanics of past entries, and that culminates in an experience that’s sure to stay with you long after the credits roll.

30. Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden

Don’t Nod’s second major action RPG, Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden was released early last year, and it turned out to be a way better experience than Vampyr. Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden was an excellent action role playing game with plenty to do with story being its main focus. Throughout the game’s narrative, players would have to make tough decisions which can result in any of the five endings.

The building system has also seen numerous improvements, including a first-person camera, full rotation control on decorative furniture, overgrowth editing, building block decay, and more. There are also over 70 new props, from large statues and braziers to room decorations and new building materials.

The world has also seen numerous locations updated, with the Springlands having new enshrouded ruins and a farm location. Players can look forward to improved encounters in Blackmire and the Albaneve Summits (which also got a new Event Honor Hall). Check out some of the patch notes below and full details here.

Changelog for Update #5 v.0.8.0.0

Highlights

Social Features

• Many of you have asked for better ways to communicate with friends and strangers, so for this update we’ve added a range of new social features.

Text Chat

• Enshrouded now supports in-game text chat in multiplayer sessions, no more spelling out your discord name in blocks to make new friends!
• Hosts or server admins can toggle the feature on or off in the server settings as needed. The feature is set as “off” by default on dedicated servers, so make sure to enable it.
• Players can individually select other players and mute their messages.
• Profanity filter settings can be modified through players’ Steam Settings under Friends & Chat > Chat Filtering. They are on by default on all Steam accounts.
• A chat log is available on a new “Social” menu page.

Voice Chat

• Voice chat can now be enabled by hosts or server admins. The feature is set as “off” by default, so make sure to enable it. When enabled, there are two modes available: proximity voice chat or global, server-wide voice chat.
• In the new Social menu page, players can mute other players and adjust their volume. They can also toggle their own microphone on or off. You know who you’ll need it for.
• In the sound settings, players can mute their microphone, use ‘push-to-talk’ or ‘open microphone’. Additionally, they can adjust their microphone input volume.

Social Hub

• As mentioned above, a new tab has been added to the in-game menu called “Social”.
• The Social menu displays all players currently playing in the game world, and players can adjust audio and text settings.
• It is also possible to see everyone’s server permissions and locate their position on the world map. No more endlessly searching for Steve.

Emotes

• A new emote wheel offers emote animations. The wheel is opened by the key or button that was previously mapped to the sitting action (by default, X on keyboard and d-pad down on a controller) which is now integrated into the emote wheel.

Building Improvements

• We continue to be stunned by the creativity of our community, so we thought it would be a good idea to enhance our building tools a bit with some shiny new features.

First-person camera for building

• When using the Construction Hammer, selecting a prop for placement, or equipping one of the new building tools, the camera can now be toggled to 1st person view for an improved building experience, especially in tight spaces. Now you only have yourself to blame for that misplaced chair.

Full rotation control for props

• Props can now be rotated in all axes instead of just the vertical axis. Please note this new functionality is only available for decorative furniture and similar props. Furniture and interactive props like the Flame Altar, beds, benches, chairs, thrones, toilets, and similar can only be rotated around the vertical axis as previously. Building blocks and building shapes can only be rotated by 90° as before.

New tool: Overgrowth editing

• A new building tool has been added to the crafting progression. When equipped, it allows adding and removing various overgrowth materials (such as ivy) to and from building blocks.
• The new overgrowth tool can be crafted at the farmer NPC with materials from the Revelwood area.

New tool: Building block decay

• A new building tool allows adding or removing ruined block visuals at the edges of building walls.
• The new decay tool can be crafted at the collector NPC with materials from the Nomad Highlands.

Food, drinks and potions placement

• A new type of prop consisting of plates, boards, and coasters allows the decorative placement of a vast selection of food, drink, and potion items. Finally, dinner tables can have dinner on them!
• They can be crafted at the farmer NPC when wood planks are unlocked.

New props and materials

• More than 70 new or previously unavailable props are now accessible for crafting and placing into the player base. This is the perfect time to try out the new placement rotation option! Among others, the new props include:
• A set of elegant leather sofas.
• Various large statues.
• A new set of sturdy doors, including a massive vault door.
• New sets of braziers and lamps.
• Numerous home decor props such as baskets, pots, and buckets.
• New types of room decorations such as room dividers and sigils as wall decor.
• Two new building materials are available: a yellow variation of the stained-glass building blocks and a new stone wall terrain material.
• A quest introduces a new trader for vanity items and decorative props while we celebrate the Lunar New Year. The trader will also stay as a permanent villager for the player base if invited by the Flameborn.

Gameplay Improvements

• Skills can now be individually reset in the skill tree.
• Visual parry indications have been added to enemies that didn’t show the parry opportunity before. But we all know some will probably still mess up the timing.
• A visual parry opportunity indicator has been added to enemy projectiles that can be parried.
• A new farming animal can now be tamed in the Kindlewastes. Get ready for the Dune Armadillo and its offspring to become friends on the farm!
• Several bugs and glitches have been addressed for pathfinding and behavioral issues for villagers and farm animals during their daily routine. We will continue to work on improving pathfinding and behavior in upcoming updates as needed.
• Dodge and blink can now be activated earlier during wand attacks to align the availability of defensive moves with the timings of melee weapons.

Gameworld Updates

Several settlements and points of interest have been reworked and expanded significantly. Among others, the following locations have been updated:

• Moth’s Grove
• Saline Quarry
• Netherton
• Fox Chase
• Rookmore
• Fenrig’s Farm
• Morwenna
• Roostnook
• Cloverbrook Farm
• Mistbury Catacombs
• In the Springlands, several new settlements have been added:
• The enshrouded ruins “Midhollow”
• A new farm location, “Wistful Fields”
• Various new camp locations
• Several topology improvements have been added to the Springlands biome.
• The visuals of the Shroud overgrowth material have been updated.
• Many locations in the Blackmire region have improved combat encounters.
• Many locations in the Albaneve Summits have improved combat encounters.
• A new location called “Event Honor Hall” has been added to the Albaneve Summits. The location is added to the world map when visiting the Ancient Spire of this region. It houses the names of the winners of the Halloween Building Contest 2024.

On top of ongoing improvements for combat, performance, the skill tree, building, lighting, and the world, the developer has tons of new content and features on the way. These include new weather events, Hollow Halls in the mountain and water biomes, new weapon types, improved night mechanics, auto collect, and much more.

Many listed items are already in the current patch, so there may be more updates to the roadmap as the months progress. Keen Games is aiming for Spring 2026 for Version 1.0 to coincide with the game’s launch on consoles, Creative Mode and additional features for user-generated content.

Stay tuned for more details in the coming months. You can also check out our early access review for Enshrouded here.

While next year looks even more jam-packed with incredible adventures, what are some of the best role-playing games from 2024 that deserve your attention? Join us as we sift through the dozens of choices and present the 20 best RPGs of the year that must be experienced.

Path of Exile 2

For all the complaints against its rewards, end-game, map layouts, etc., Path of Exile 2 is still an incredible action RPG, even in early access. Each class and their Ascendancies presented multiple new options; the Skills are impressive while combat feels visceral; and the bosses present some of the best encounters in the genre. The fact that such a sizable end-game is available right now, complete with pinnacle bosses, is also incredible. Yes, there are plenty of things to improve, but Path of Exile 2 is proving just as addictive as its predecessor and will receive double the amount of content before early access ends.

1. Path of Exile 2

If there’s one game on this list that could’ve fooled us into thinking it was already a complete package, it’s Path of Exile 2. It’s not an exaggeration to say that Path of Exile 2 stands as the best action RPGs available right now, and it’s still early days with the full launch a year away. Between the intricate build customization, varied macabre environments, and story oozing with rich lore, we’re looking forward to just how much more jam-packed with content Path of Exile 2 will get with its full launch sometime in the coming year.

2. Hades 2

The first sequel from the beloved indie dev, Supergiant, is already amazing and it’s still only in early access. Hades 2 takes the brilliant roguelike structure of the first game and adds a whole lot of magic (literally) and added polish to the mix. The sequel expands upon the well-written Greek pantheon featured in the prequel, introducing a new protagonist in Melinoe, the sister of Hades 1’s hero. Hades 2 aims to outdo Hades in every respect, which is already evident by the sheer number of new locations and the plethora of content present in its early access state.

3. Wild Woods

This four-player co-op indie game tasks players to defend a wagon going through some dangerous woods. Sounds rather simple, right? Well, it shares some very creative elements from Kunitsu-Gami, another game that has you gathering resources during daytime to prepare for night combat. The four-player cooperation elements serve as a good foundation for added maps and challenges leading up to its full release. Though, since Wild Woods just became available for early access on December 9^th, odds are that it has a ways to go until its complete launch.

4. Palworld

With well over eight million units sold and record-breaking Steam player counts, Pocket Pair’s Palworld is doing well for itself despite the looming Nintendo lawsuit. Palworld drew in a substantial number of players disillusioned by Pokemon’s latest offerings. The base building and gun-toting Pal battles are great fun, and with the Feybreak update coming December 23^rd, players have a lot more content to look forward to.

5. Enshrouded

Enshrouded may be yet another survival crafting game, but it executes each of its components well above most of the competition. The combat is rather satisfying with its action RPG mechanics and parry-laden fights. If you’re struggling to make ends meet in this hostile open world, there are 15 other players who can help (or hinder) you in your journey. Enshrouded is notable for meeting a majority of its roadmap goals as it inches ever closer to its full 2025 release.

6. Manor Lords

What really sets Manor Lords apart from other city builder strategy games is its unwavering attention to medieval historical accuracy. There’s a laudable amount of detail regarding town expansion and resource management with historical systems like burgage plot structuring all in play. These intricate town management systems raise the stakes of the real-time strategy battles tenfold, adding a level of immersion and urgency to the genre. We’re looking forward to seeing how this one-man passion project turns out with its official launch.

7. Astrometica

This survival crafting game just released in early access on December 10^th and I’m already invested in what it offers. Unlike other endless space exploration games (like Starfield), the variety of ships within Astrometica are actually used to explore various anomalies and secrets. There’s even asteroid belts to navigate your ship through. You’ll need to settle down in a base to survive the cold hostility of space, though, and Astrometica delivers with its compelling tech tree and outpost crafting.

8. The Rogue Prince of Persia

Made by the studio that put out the acclaimed Dead Cells DLCs, this roguelite Prince of Persia title is in a quite the polished state half a year after its early access debut. As the title suggests, The Rogue Prince of Persia features procedurally generated levels filled with the kind of acrobatic platforming and action that the genre has been known for. Players who enjoyed Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown or classic 2D platforming titles will find a lot to love with The Rogue Prince of Persia.

9. Rogue Command

Rogue Command is another roguelike game on this list, yet in the form of a classic RTS title. I don’t know if I’ve seen a classic RTS in this roguelike format before. It’s an intriguing gameplay conceit to have entirely different builds and units with every run, but Rogue Command does a good job keeping runs approachable and fun thanks to convenience features like a 10% time slow-down. Despite its early access status, there’s quite a lot of content here already, including 100s of units and over 20 map types.

10. Finnish Cottage Simulator

Consider me surprised to see Finnish Cottage Sim achieving an overwhelmingly positive rating on Steam with thousands of reviews as of its November 15^th early access launch. The charming graphics and quant atmosphere help it stand out among the more budget-minded ‘simulator’ games. But it’s really the variety of quests and dynamic 6-player multiplayer that have hooked players into this fun and relaxing take on cottage living.

11. Dunjungle

If you like The Rogue Prince of Persia, Dunjungle is another early access title worth checking out. This fast-paced action platformer roguelite distinguishes itself with customizable equipment and classes to exploit enemy weaknesses with. The gameplay loop is more frenetic and punishing than something like The Rogue Prince of Persia with its lack of checkpoints, but thankfully there’s plenty of equipment and progress that stays with you between runs. Dunjungle is one of the most instantly gratifying early access games on the list thanks to its poppy drop-in, drop-out gameplay loop.

12. Cataclismo

Strategy players with a love for Legos need to try out Cataclismo. The game’s combination of real time strategy battles with brick-built base building forms a rather unique experience. Structures are effortless to construct thanks to the clear piece-by-piece process of building them. Seriously, if you like stacking bricks together, Cataclismo satisfies with a bevy of architectural pieces to get creative with and RTS combat to test your structures against.

13. Aska

Aska isn’t just another survival game; besides careful resource management and fights against wildlife and scavengers, the game asks you to manage your own tribe. This management wrinkle really adds a lot to the game. Take the unique way you add villagers to your village; you essentially craft villagers into existence out of resources, how cool is that? This fresh perspective on the survival genre further personalizes the village management aspect of the game, making survival that much more interesting and engaging.

14. New Arc Line

This early access game is for the classic role-playing fans. New Arc Line is set in a dystopian magi-tech setting where you begin as a penny-less immigrant aboard a steam ship to ‘the new world’. Between the range of NPC companions that you can recruit and build relationships with and the blend of mechanical and magic-based combat styles, New Arc Line has been an early access favorite for those who love choice-heavy RPGs.

15. ATLYSS

ATLYSS is one of those comfy and casual online RPGs that hits the sweet spot for those pining for some old-school nostalgia. The open world is rewarding to explore and quest through and the colorful PS2-stylized graphics really make it stand out. Players will have no trouble finding others to adventure with, considering the high concurrent player counts, though ATLYSS is unique in that none of the content is locked to multiplayer and can be experienced solo.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

These features, along with quality-of-life options like improved loot UI, server gameplay settings, and server user rights, will be coming to Enshrouded over the next few updates. More features are planned for later in the year, including instanced dungeons, more biomes, world events, and even water.

While there are no solid release dates for when any of these new features will be coming to Enshrouded, the studio has revealed that the first of these updates is slated for release this month. In the meantime, the game will be available at a discount during the Steam Spring Sale, which kicks off today and will go on until March 21.

Enshrouded is available on PC as an early access title, with plans for a PS5 and Xbox Series X/S release later. For more details, check out our review.

There are a few core strings that tie just about every game in the genre together, ranging from aspects like freeform base-building, an emphasis on wilderness survival skills, dealing with things like hunger or thirst, and in some games, even having to get your hands on bespoke equipment to deal with different kinds of weather. With the exception of that last one, Enshrouded includes just about every feature from the genre you can think of, and adds its own unique flavor to this particular style of game.

"While there’s plenty of story to go around in Enshrouded, however, the quest themselves act more like guidelines for exploration."

A fresh playthrough of Enshrouded will be familiar to just about anyone that has even looked at a game like Minecraft. You’re going to be punching several trees and rocks in order to get some material that you can then use to craft proper tools to cut down trees and mine out rocks. Along the way, you’ll also have to figure out what kind of shelter you’ll be making, be it a simple hut made of four walls, a roof and a door, to something more elaborate, like maybe a castle. Typically the driving force behind survival crafting games tend to revolve around this single loop—get better equipment in order to find better raw materials, and along the way, survive against enemies and the elements. Within this simple loop, however, Enshrouded shows you what it’s really about.

In what is ostensibly a rarity for the genre, Enshrouded actually has a story that you can reasonably follow. Along with the use of environmental storytelling, the main plot of Enshrouded is told through an opening cutscene, notes and diaries you might find around the world, and most importantly of all, quests that you can follow. While there’s plenty of story to go around in Enshrouded, however, the quest themselves act more like guidelines for exploration. This is especially obvious with the earlier quests, which act as more of a tutorial, teaching you how you can unlock more crafting options by rescuing NPCs, and giving you hints for where you can go to get your hands on some early crafting materials.

When it comes to its base-building aspects, Enshrouded is a surprisingly stingy game. While base-building materials can be fairly basic and plentiful—especially if you’re using stone or wood—the cost for each individual part of your structure can get rather exorbitant. This means that, even if you devote enough wood and stone to create thousands of building blocks, the cost of a simple wall or even just flooring can easily eat up all of your wood and stone reserves. This is a bit of a shame, since the building mechanics themselves are quite intuitive, and base-building is an important part of the game.

"Enshrouded is a surprisingly stingy game."

Aside from the general survival and crafting trappings, the core feature of Enshrouded is its world, setting, and action-oriented gameplay. The world of Enshrouded is an interesting one—named Embervale, it is a fantasy setting that has come under siege by a mysterious magical force known only as the Shroud. This Shroud essentially acts as a signifier for which zones in the world are going to be more combat oriented, dangerous and inhospitable. Aside from the Shroud itself, there isn’t anything particularly unique about the setting of Enshrouded, and the game tends to lean pretty hard on its high-fantasy setting.

Throughout your time with Enshrouded, you’re going to be encouraged to set out into the wilds in the hunt for rare materials, NPCs to rescue, and bosses to fight. More often than not, this will mean going either into, or through a Shrouded area. This means that sooner rather than later, you’re going to find yourself going toe-to-toe against stronger and more powerful enemies. The combat system in Enshrouded isn’t particularly deep, with the most basic options being attacking or blocking. A player’s moveset does, however, get expanded quite a bit over time thanks to different skills that can be unlocked. An example of one such skill is the ability to essentially one-shot a standard enemy after having stunned them with a flurry of attacks or parrying at the right time.

Moving out of the realm of melee combat does expand combat options by quite a bit; there’s an entire magic system that revolves around what kind of wands and staves you’re able to find or craft, and there’s also the classic bow and arrow if you’re inclined to go for more of a ranger play style. Ultimately, however, the combat in Enshrouded never really gets too fancy, and more often than not, you’re going to be spamming your light attack against enemies, regardless of how deep you get into the game. Enemies also tend to have different weaknesses, both physical (slashing or blunt), and magical (elemental and status effects), and while they can be fun to exploit, outside of some of the game’s tougher enemies, they never really feel necessary.

"The combat in Enshrouded never really gets too fancy"

It is worth noting, however, that the survival mechanics in Enshrouded do tie in quite nicely with the game’s combat. Rather than penalizing you for traveling and hunting on an empty stomach, the game instead provides buffs for eating right. This incentivizes finding and cooking the right kind of food. There are a lot of different types of food in Enshrouded, and experimentation is very much encouraged in this regard.

When it comes to survival crafting games, Enshrouded doesn’t really feel like it needs the Early Access label. While the game could certainly use some extra polish, especially when it comes to its combat and how much building things can end up costing. Otherwise, however, Enshrouded feels like it might be fairly close to completion. This ties in quite well with the studio’s own goal of leaving Early Access after around a year, indicating that the game only lacks content that you would find through post-game updates anyway, including planned new biomes and enemies.

As far as survival crafting games where you start off by punching trees go, Enshrouded is far from the most original one. Its emphasis on purely cooperative gameplay and combat, however, might put it in a closer league with games like Valheim, especially since it already has a fair bit of content, and epic boss fights that players can work towards finding and fighting. While its world feels like a fairly standard high-fantasy setting, the many stories Enshrouded tells through the use of its environments and different lore-related notes you can pick up do a lot to fill in the blanks of what might have been one of the more interesting fantasy worlds out there.

This game was reviewed on PC.

Enshrouded’s early access version offers a “complete experience” in the core gameplay, as per the developer. Players will build a base, save different NPCs, craft better equipment, and then venture to Elixir Wells to destroy Shroud Roots.

As for the future, Keen Games is looking to add more features based on community feedback while expanding the world, adding new biomes, enemies, location types, resources, recipes and higher tiers of equipment and weapons. Additional skills will also open up, and there are plans for new building materials, furniture and decorations.

The current goal is to leave early access within a year, though, as always, it will depend on player feedback. “We firmly believe that by then, we can offer a game worthy of your time and money and will bring you fun for years to come.” Stay tuned for more details on Enshrouded in the coming months.