Introduction
So I saw this game on steam and thought I check it out and this is my experience with it:
Retreat to Enen is a zen like open world PVE survival game where you focus on surviving the harsh world of Enen which from what I have gathered is a massive island in the middle of nowhere.
The island has many creatures both neutral and hostile but mostly neutral for the majority of your time within the game.
The game was released on the 1st August 2022 with developer “Head West” and publisher “Freedom Games”.
Controls
The Controls are fluid to a certain degree while most games are controlled by the WASD, x/c to shift-click and spacebar to jump while using the mouse to look around, this game uses the same mechanic except that you now have a quantum control which replaces the pickaxes/ axes in most open world survival games this mechanic is used to gather up meat or resources like gemstone or clay.
This mechanic also lets you destroy built structures with minimum resources gathered back so watch where you build your little shelter.
The controls and other settings can be altered to your preference within the settings GUI.
Gameplay
The Gameplay is easy to understand if you have played open world survival games before but if you haven’t then here is a quick run down.
What is a survival game, is it like stranded deep, sea of thieves or something like green hell well in Retreat to Enen the survival mechanics are what you need to survive the hardcore world of Enen.
In the bottom right-hand corner is some stats, this is what you need to look out for every time you explore the island of Enen, if the health bar drops to zero then you are DEAD and have to either restart from scratch or load up a previous save point to learn to survive your game with more efficiency.
Then you have the Hunger stat which is self explanatory where you have to feed yourself when you get low, ignoring this will slowly drain your health down to zero.
Then you have your thirst stat which is the same as the hunger except that you have find fresh water or some type of safe to eat liquid to not let your health go to zero, this can be done numerous of ways either by drinking fresh water from the island or crafting an potion or drinking from a rain collector, I highly recommend crafting several rain collectors when you first start out as this can help save on your resources.
And lastly you have your spirit stat which is what you use to gather resources or sprint, if this bar drops to zero, overtime very slowly your health will go down their are some bad diseases in this game, I only came across two in my 4 hour play through of this game and that is Pathergon when you drink too much fresh island water and toxic venom, when bitten by a snake or then little spiky planks thing.
I don’t know what they are called but it’s the same plant you can find in “Stranded Deep” that can poison you when you step on it.
Apart from the stats, the game is beautiful and amazing to take in, the ray tracing in the sun shining through the thick lustful jungle is amazing and the night cycle is top notch where you can hardly see anything in the game when you’re in pitch darkness.
The animals and plants/ food are everywhere with great detail and design although I wish it was more pointed to survival then meditating which I will come back to later in the video.
Apart from that the game is amazing to play just a bit underrated.
Progression
Now in order to progress in this game you must find ancient ruins where you can meditate for a long time to progress your spirit to become whole which in return rewards you with levels and more you level up the more content you will unlock, from what I got told in the game as tips can’t be disabled that if you level up to level 3 you can fast travel back to your home base which can be handy in a pinch but what is the cost of that, do you lose stats or is it just a free gesture from the devs.
Game Mechanics
The game mechanics do need a little bit more polishing as they are very tedious when placing it on the ground, in my first 2 hours I didn’t know how to rotate the item in question making it look super rushed but quickly found out on the next play season that the middle scroll button is how you rotate an item, my only concern is new players will not know this and will find it hard to learn to play this game but every open world survival game does come with a trial and error style of gameplay so the more I play the more I will learn to play with efficiency.
My thoughts
That said, this game is fun to play, although I just wish I could play with friends as that would make the world less conflicted with hardly any content or time to play.
2 hours of just grinding is very boring for me but if I have a goal in mind then that is enough for me to play for hours.
There are some tiny issues I find in this game to be annoying and that is the recipe gui where you can lock it with a keybind, wish there a way to keep that lock their when backing out of a menu as every now and then it just cancels on me for no reason which is annoying and can be time inducing if I am struggling to survive.
If you’re looking for a survival game that has open world mechanics then check our Return to Enen which is a fun and interesting game.