Palworld is a Multiplayer Survival RPG featuring Pokemon-like creatures called “pals.” Its gameplay is similar to ARK Survival Evolved and newer Pokemon games. Its Early Access was released on January 18, 2024, by Pocketpair. Palworld is playable on Xbox and PC and costs $30, but it is also currently featured on Xbox Game Pass. By many, it has been dubbed “Pokemon with guns.” It also has been the victim of many criticisms due to its alleged plagiarism of Pokemon. Players also have to make decisions about their “pals” work, like what conditions they will be in, whether it will be an unsafe style of labor, or if their “pals” will have a healthy work-life balance.
The “pal” catching mechanics are pretty similar to other Pokemon type games but can get frustrating. It requires players to weaken the “pals” health as low as possible without killing them to increase their chances of successfully catching them. This is just like in Pokemon, except in my experience it is way too easy to outright kill them. Although it does break up the repetition of catching pals. I also am not confident in how accurate the percentage meter is for catching the “pals” as I feel like I end up catching them with low percentages when I feel like I shouldn’t. Otherwise, the catching system is fun with figuring out what arch to put on the “pals” ball throws and the strategy of weakening them is great.
The combat in this game is fun overall, but the combat animations are seriously lacking. The spear only has one animation which is just a waist-height jab and other melee weapons like the bat leave me unimpressed after watching my character repeat left and right swings time after time on my enemy. This disappoints me more than the animation is lacking because certain “pals” have special moves that send enemies flying with satisfying but goofy rag-doll physics. Why couldn’t the developers have incorporated this into some sort of combo system? It’s hard to complain though, when I can pick up my fire-themed fox and use him as a flamethrower or have my chipmunk hop on my head and fire his weapons at my enemies.
Besides the obvious comparisons to Pokemon, the game has base-building mechanics reminiscent of the games ARK or Fortnite, and it could at least use some quality-of-life updates. The main wall types are pretty limited and it could probably use one or two more specialty walls. I have also had a lot of problems with snap points for the roofs. When it does work though it looks pretty good. The big wooden gates for the palisade walls are really glitchy and I’ve found that I can’t ride a “pal” through a gate that has been left open since the last time I played, as it seems to register it as closed. This is easily fixed though by opening and closing the gate. As previously noted, the base building is pretty mediocre but issues like these probably will be fixed later.
Throughout the game, I have found several bugs. For example, I spawned into my base after signing in, and I immediately found myself swimming under the earth! I could have drowned and lost my materials. Luckily though, I had one of my rideable water “pals” with me so I was able to ride over to the shoreline and throw my rideable “pal” through the ground onto the surface. I also have had trouble with human non-player characters (NPCs) running up to attack me and then just aimlessly shooting at the sky and spinning around. Most of this I assume, should get fixed due to it being in early access.
Palworld takes most of its main features from many popular games and meshes them together into one. Other than this, most of the other mechanics work great and most parts of this game are extremely enjoyable. All things considered, I would give Palworld four out of five. It’s a fun game and I wouldn’t discount it for some of the bugs as I expect these to be fixed because it’s in early access.
