Exploring the Palworld – impressions and thoughts

Palworld, with its combo of semi-comedy what-if-Pokémon-but-guns and the craftathon survival genre, got a bit of traction when it released its first trailers a while ago, but it’s really taken the world by storm since its release. With a staggering peak player count (on Steam alone) of 2,100,000 players, I’m sure the game’s success has come as a surprise even to the developers. It’s certainly surprised me, though I expected it to take off. Strangely enough what’s surprised me even more is that the game is actually well thought-out. As it is, it’s more than enough game to attract the interest of monster-collectors (and particularly survival-crafting fans).

Janky Unity asset-flip survival game this is not; it’s a respectable, solid entry in the genre, that looks genuinely good, runs well and has a solid sense of self despite its ‘inspirations’. It does share a huge amount of DNA with developer Pocketpair’s previous game Craftopia, which was basically Breath of the Wild-but-survival-crafting game, so I imagine that this explains some of the bits that surprised me about the general quality (more on this later). Even my worries about self-indulgent edginess seem to be mostly unfounded, though I think this may be a deal-breaker for some. I’ve cleared the game’s first boss tower, ending the fairly comprehensive tutorial element and felt ready to write up my first impressions.

Heavily-inspired, one might say

‘Original’ is not the word I would use for Palworld, of course. Basically every aspect of the game has been borrowed from somewhere. Pokémon is the most obvious, but Palworld’s well-used photocopier scoops UI and aesthetic notes from Breath of the Wild, as well as being mainly a fairly ‘standard’ version of the survival genre’s codified and well-trodden gameplay standards. Most notably, I think, it’s been looking at ARK: Survival Evolved‘s homework, though I’ve not played that game myself. Palworld is undeniably somewhat creatively bankrupt, even if the execution of all the disparate bits it’s yoinked from various sources is pretty good. How much this matters to you will be a matter of personal preference.

There’s been intense Online Discourse (generally poor-quality, as usual) about whether or not the unique intensity of Palworld‘s mimicry constitutes real-deal plagiarism; the we-have-Pokémon-at-home Pals are extremely close in style to the real thing and some definitely skirt the line. If some of these showed up in an actual Pokémon game you might not think twice, which is a double-edged sword. It’s clearly what they’re going for and they’re achieving it well, but that lack of originality can chafe if the inherent comedy doesn’t quite hit.

Yet Palworld is surprisingly well-planned

Despite being early access, what first struck me is how considered the game’s opening act is. It feels very polished for a game that’s so early in its lifespan, with a lengthy set of tutorial objectives that guide you through everything, a well-laid-out user interface, and decent quality of life. It is a pretty bog-standard craftathon game, but the controls, interface and so on all feel good to interact with, and even combat feels pretty good. Combat is maybe somewhat basic, in the sense that the Pals are intended to work basically autonomously with their stats and preselected skills while you run around whacking or shooting yourself. The exploration and Pal-collection is also very serviceable, reminding me most of Arceus. Lower Pals’ health and they’re easier to capture in your ‘Pal Sphere’ – you know the drill. Capture them and you can then use them in battle or for tasks at your base. Monster-collecting is a well-trod genre by now, and we know it’s satisfying and fun because people keep doing it.

Base-building is quite satisfying, with all the different Pals possessing different skills and being able to autonomously do different things. Some you find will have boosts to parts of their skillset, and as you add more bits to your base you can turn it into its own little autonomous system. I’m sure this genre’s long-time players will find a lot of fun to be had here. I’ve only made it a little into the game so far, but it’s easy to automate the more tedious resource collection bits, and I imagine the game gets nuttier with it over time. Balancing the Pals’ happiness meter (marked as sanity) wasn’t too difficult as long as I built the available amenities (I am not a particularly brutal industrialist). I experienced a few pathfinding issues with Pals getting stuck in the base, but they wiggled out eventually. I might give up before I find out; tends to be that as I discover loads of advanced recipes where I have to get X to make Y to craft eight of Z in order to get a new upgrade I start to zone out.

Is Palworld 2edgy4u? Not really, but maybe for some

One of the elephants in the room is the same thing that’s attracted so many people to the game: the concept. For some the “Pokémon but you can bash them with clubs, give them AK-47s, and put them to work as an industrial labour force” angle might be a step too far in the direction of the crass or juvenile. One thing I will say for Palworld is that it never really pushes this edginess that far; once you get over the initial shock-humour hurdle it’s basically business as usual. In a way the cold mechanical abstraction of the survival-crafting genre subsumes the concept’s edgier components within it. Of course, if you view it as a heinous desecration of some core part of your childhood, you’ll probably never get along with Palworld, and that’s fine. Again that double-edged sword, flying, perhaps, too close to the sun.

If the inherent comedy of the premise lands (as it did a wee bit with me) it takes the literal and figurative edge off. It’s not really a particularly dark-humour game, cartoonish and bloodless, and when defeated the pals comically bounce away waving their arms. There’s no Read Dead-type graphic hunting mechanics. In a way most of this comes from oft-repeated fridge-logic jokes about Gamefreak’s ‘real’ series; Aren’t the Pokémon sort of forced to fight or work? What’s the deal with the occasionally freaky naturalistic descriptions of Pokémon behaviour? Do they eat the little fellas? Depending on your attitude you’ll either process this reflection from Palworld as poking fun or a grave insult: chuckle- or cringe-worthy. (Some of the description text for the Pals is quite funny.)

To summarise: Genuinely enjoyable (if you like this type of game)

I’ve enjoyed my time wandering around the Palworld so far. Like many of its genre it’s an easy game to get lost in. Its aesthetic mimicry is very convincing and in a way this is what a current-gen Pokémon game ‘should’ look like (minus the miniguns). Exploring the game’s BoTW-esque environments is fun, collecting Pals is fun. For an Early Access game it’s got plenty of content already, enough to justify its price (potentially nothing if you’ve got Game Pass). The structure looks to be a bit repetitive (just going after bosses, upgrading your base and so on) and relies heavily on the inherent ‘fun’ of the recursive crafting/catching loop. However, the trappings of the craftathon genre and the monster-catching loop basically speak for themselves as tried-and-tested gameplay mechanics.

Of course, I’m not sure my opinion really matters anyway, considering it’s sold an ungodly number of units in just the first handful of days. But it is a decent game, surprisingly enough, and not just a meme. If you find it inherently repulsive but enjoy the crafting mechanics, don’t worry; I’m sure Palworld will have plenty of imitators soon enough that don’t look quite so precisely like Pokémon. What’s here, though, is a solid experience all round, despite my initial misgivings; though the tone of the game may still be offputting to some potential players that doesn’t seem to have slowed Palworld‘s roll much.

Note: for some reason the Game Pass version, at time of writing, was one patch behind the main branch and to my knowledge still can’t play with Steam users (though it can with Xbox). Worth recognising.

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With the start of 2024 we’re committing to doing more stuff. Check out our recent round-up of the best games we played last year. If you’re into fighting games, look into my review of Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, and if you like miniatures and painting check out George and Nevi’s hobby summary for January.

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