By: Norm Corrion
With the release of Palworld on Jan. 19 we can finally find out what a game that combines guns and Pokémon-like creatures would be like.
Palworld boldly mixes elements from many gaming genres: open-world, multiplayer, action role-playing, crafting, survival, and third-person shooter. At the center of it all is a monster catching game, with mechanics that feel like they came straight out of Pokémon.
The monsters of the world, pals, are like Pokémon with different types like fire and ice. The pals also have partner skills which provide a unique way for a pal to be used; some let you ride and fly on pals while others let you use them as a weapon.
In most crafting games, resources, gathering and tasks like making ammo can be tedious, but Palworld lets you automate these tasks with pals. Pals have “work suitability” identifying if the pal is a candidate for different types of work in your base.
This is where Palworld is innovative. Finding the right mix of pals to combine with a base adds a lot to the game. To keep a base productive, players must balance the work and working conditions they provide to pals. Pals have sanity, hunger and medical issues which become issues without the right base environment.
Pals level up getting stronger and learning new abilities. Your character also levels up, giving you points for stats and learning new crafting recipes. New crafting technology is unlocked each level giving you options to learn recipes for the next big thing you want to build.
Crafting technology also lets you build the items required to use partner skills. This includes things like mounts so you can ride pals or a harness to hold your pal while using it as a flamethrower.
Starting out, you are guided by a tutorial that tells you what to do more than how to do it. Following the tutorial will quickly get you understanding the basics of Palworld: base building, crafting, leveling up, and capturing pals.
The multiplayer functionality worked without issue. You can play on hosted private games or find dedicated multiplayer servers that are public. It’s worth noting that a character is specific to a single world, meaning your character and items are only in the world they start in.
As a third-person action role-playing game, the controls and camera feel great. Combat, catching pals and navigating around the world will all feel familiar to gamers.
As with any crafting game, the interface and mechanics take a bit of learning. But, they are more intuitive than most crafting games. While base building is less complex than other crafting games, it is still a big part of the game.
The survival aspects include temperatures and hunger, but both are easily managed. To manage temperatures, you simply require clothing or torches. Once you get a base going hunger is not an issue, as you can automate farming.
The open-world part of the game works well; you can travel as far as you want with temperatures and levels being the limiting factors. Nothing stops you, but it just becomes pointless as you won’t be able to effectively do much in higher level areas.
The purpose of the character in the games feels undefined currently; there is not a guided story or quests to follow. However, there is so much to do in the game. You can work on catching all the different types of pals or building a base. You can explore dungeons, catch wild boss pals and find boss towers to fight.
Palworld is currently labeled as an early access game, meaning it’s still being developed, and the menu states, “You may encounter bugs or crashes.” Palworld is currently on PC and Xbox and this review was based on the PC experience.
A few game crashes have been experienced but not many for 40 hours of play. Enemies occasionally fall into the world when they attack or raid your base.
The biggest issue experienced was related to the AI intelligence of enemies and your pals. Enemies will frequently run into walls in fights letting you easily kill them. Your pals working at bases can suffer from similar issues, ending up in weird places and not able to reach their food source or do tasks.
Overall, Palworld feels like a masterpiece in the making. It combines so many game genres to make something that feels new and addictive. After 40 hours of play, I would recommend this game and expect to spend hundreds of hours in Palworld.
