Image credit:Keen Games GmbH

After almost three years of early access, Enshrouded has hit 1.0 with a complete story, bigger map, and way too much more to mention

Seriously, the patch notes are lengthy

· Rock Paper Shotgun

The increasing number of early access games always throws me off, because one day you're seeing an announcement of a game releasing, and then a while (normally years) later, you see another announcement for said game releasing. Feels like I'm in a constant Groundhog Day situation, probably not good for my sense of the passage of time. Anyway! Existentialism aside, after launching into early access almost three years ago, Enshrouded is now out in 1.0.

Lots to get through with this release! For starters, the map is now completely finished, meaning you can explore all of what Emberval has to offer, with the main quest directing you towards the locales you won't have visited yet. Speaking of the story, that's all wrapped up too, "for now," anyway, so say developer Keen Games GmBH in the update's changelog (no word on when you can expect to see future story updates, but it certainly sounds like they're coming).

Progression has been bumped a touch too, with your character now able to go up to level 50, and any gear you have to level 55. Any bits of lore you may find through letters, notes or books and the like are fully voice acted in English, German and Mandarin Chinese now too. This update also brings with it advanced adventure sharing; "Players can now create their own gameplay in their worlds using the new logic system called 'Sparkworks'. The possibilities range from simple interactions like light switches over dungeons with traps, puzzles, and even enemy encounters, to… well, we think the sky’s the limit."

Everything should now also look prettier thanks to some new rendering tech, with each biome supposedly feeling "more different and unique," all of which have their own specific lighting. There's a whole bunch of new spells, spells and combat have seen some improvements, and your characters themselves should look better as well with some added animations. It's a big update! And you can read about all the rest of what's come with it through the game's patch notes.