We’ve all seen Early Access games build hype only to fail miserably; Palworld; however, has delivered on the hype and even surpassed it.
Developed by Pocket Pair, an independent development company based in Shinagawa, Tokyo, and founded by Takuro Mizobe in April of 2015. This is their second Early Access game, the first being Craftopia, which was released on Steam in 2020. Palworld was revealed in 2021, with an initial release date of 2022, but as the size of the project grew. It became clear that the release date had to be slightly delayed, and considering that Pocket Pair had to hire more staff to complete the game, it was a good decision not to rush the game into release.
When Palworld was first revealed in June 2021, most people thought of it as Pokemon with guns, and although there is that element, there is also so much more to the game. With inspiration taken from Ark, Rust and Dragon Quest, it’s not fair on the game to just label it as a Pokémon rip-off. Sales on Steam reached over one million copies in the first 8 hours after release, which climbed to two million copies in 24 hours; Palworld ended up selling six million copies in the first four days of early access.
It also had 1.8 million concurrent gamers on Steam, even causing servers to crash. With those figures, Palworld is the second-highest -played game of all time on Steam. Palworld feels a bit like Ark, which is initially what Pocket Pair wanted the game to resemble, but they changed that up, and, honestly, it works. The game begins with your character washed up on the shore of the Palpagos Island with a tablet-like device showing the words “The towers are the key… the tree holds the truth.”
There are over 100 different pals roaming freely on the island, and there are also different variations; Alpha Pals are big and have a large health pool, Lucky Pals are to Palworld what Shiny’s are to Pokémon and are more difficult to find. To capture pals, you’ll need to craft Pal Spheres, which are very similar to a Poke’ball. To catch a pal, you’ll first need to weaken it. You can use weapons or even your own pals to do that. Once the pal is weakened, you can throw a Pal Sphere at it and watch the catch rate increase, hoping it stays in the sphere.
The Paldeck is an encyclopedia that holds information on the different species of pals. You can learn what habitat you’re most likely to find a certain pal in; it also lists the pal’s partner skills, which are the skills you can use with your pal, their work traits, and even how much food they will eat. There is also pal breeding and some pals can only be created by breeding two specific species and a pal black market that you can use to buy pals from.
Another interesting thing about Palworld is that you can capture humans in a Pal Sphere; it’s a little twisted but just adds another different aspect to the game. The crafting mechanic of Palworld is a simple, tried, and tested method- gather needed supplies, have the right quantity, and then craft your item at your workbench. Items can either be crafted by the workbench or from your build menu. You’ll unlock more recipes as you level up.
While you work towards those goals, you’ll also be up against the elements; depending on the area you are in, you’ll need to either keep yourself warm or cool. You’ll also need to set up farms to keep you and your pals fed, but don’t worry; your pals will be your workforce. Each type of pal can do different jobs, from planting and gathering to cooking and crafting, but you must make sure you keep them happy. Pals have a stat called SAN, short for sanity, and you want to keep that stat high, so make sure your pals have beds, food, and a hot tub; yes, you read that right, to keep them happy and sane.
Building is straightforward, though there is room for you to be creative with your base designs. One issue I ran into was that some structures just wouldn’t build my roofs; for instance, no matter how I placed them, they would just not build. It kept bugging out, and eventually, I just gave up in frustration.
When you explore the map, you’ll unlock fast travel points, which will help you travel around the 16 square kilometer map. It’s a useful way to get back to your base quickly. The game also offers multiplayer; you can join your friends, become a part of their guild and take on the adventure of the Palpagos Island together. Hosting a multiplayer game means four players can play together; however, if you host a dedicated server, then up to 32 players can join.
From time to time, you’ll be in situations where your base will get raided, either by other pals or humans. Your pals, though, aren’t there just to work; when needed, they will take up arms and defend the base. The game’s combat is unique, to say the least. You can go the old-fashioned route and use a spear, bow, and arrow, or as you advance, you can craft guns. The unique part is that you can use pals as weapons. Some can be equipped with Gatling guns; others use a flamethrower, and even a fluffy sheep has a use as a shield.
Palworld’s combat is easy to learn. You have your primary attack and a dodge/roll. When you’re in a fight, you can tell your pal to attack the same target as you, attack anything aggressively, or not attack at all. If you’re riding on a pal, you will also have some unique attacks available. For example, if you’re riding Eikthrydeer you will be able to attack enemies with the antlers. This makes for a fun and engaging way to battle.
Palworld bosses are scattered around the map, and you will need to fight them in their towers and defeat them within a set time limit, so damage output is vital. You’ll have to make sure that you and your pal team are ready to take on the challenge. There are also Alpha bosses that you can find roaming the island or lurking in their dungeons.
These bosses aren’t as difficult to defeat as the main bosses, but they are worth the effort as they drop Ancient Civilization Parts. You can use these parts to unlock other crafting recipes that can’t otherwise be obtained. The Alpha bosses’ levels range from 11 all the way up to 50, so it’ll keep you busy for a while.
Other antagonists in Palworld include different factions like a crime syndicate, an island defense force, and a Pal liberation movement. Occasionally, there will also be random NPCs that spawn and are hostile to your character, but be careful. If you assault a human, then you’ll receive a wanted level, and the defense force will be dispatched to take you out. Your wanted level will end when you have either evaded your pursuers, or you have been killed by them.
Personally, I really like the combat in the game. It’s easy to learn, and you don’t have to struggle to remember multiple buttons to perform special attacks. It’s usually refreshing to play a game that has a simple combat style. Currently, I haven’t found any bugs or glitches during my fights, which is impressive considering the game is only thought to be only around 60% complete.
There is still a grind element to Palworld and different XPs to work on, one being your personal XP, which gives you stat points to enhance your character. You can spend those points on building strength, health, stamina, and more. Pals level up by either battling, working at the base, or being in your party. This helps make sure that you are ready to fight those big boss battles. Even the bases you build have an XP mechanism; completing different objectives will give your base upgrades, like allowing you to have more pals working.
Fortunately, gaining XP doesn’t feel too repetitive. There are enough things to do and see in the game that you level up without even trying at times, and with over 100 pals to capture, five main bosses, and 42 alpha bosses to defeat; you are going to be kept busy. Initially, Palworld was built on the Unity Engine, then was moved to Unreal Engine 4.
And finally the developers to Unreal Engine 5 as the developers realized that it was more suited for this open-world game. The design of the world and landscape is stunning. From the towering cliffs to the sandy beaches, so much thought has been put into the different areas of the map. And you don’t feel like you are seeing the same landscape the whole time.
The pals themselves are beautifully designed, having taken inspiration from various influences, including different mythologies and legends to, more obviously, Pokémon. However, Pocket Pair has tried to distance themselves from those comparisons. Pocket Pair has already announced plans for future updates, including PvP modes, Pal trading, Raid Bosses, Guild Raids, and even plans for new islands. They also plan to add more to character customization, which means that I’ll end up spending way too much time creating my character.
There are so many fun and exciting things to do in the game. Palworld can be comical and random at times, but it’s also charming and visually beautiful, something you would expect from an AA title and not some independent studio. Pocket Pair has really blown it out of the water with this game. Some gamers are already saying this could be Game of the Year. Personally, I think, considering we’re only in January, and it’s a bit early to say that, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Palworld is a contender for the title. But we’ll see where the game stands once Pocket Pair finishes the game’s remaining 40% works.
If you’re looking for a new style in survival games, or you enjoy monster hunter-type games, then Palworld will be worth your time and even if you’re completely new to the survival genre, Palword is a great place to start as it’s very noob friendly. Palworld’s success came as a bit of a surprise, but it deserves all the praise it is receiving at the moment, and if Pocket Pair follows through on their plans, then I see this game continuing to be extremely popular. As for me, well, I still need to go catch ‘em all and become a Pal master.
