The internet can’t get enough of a new game that looks and plays like Pokemon but is loaded with guns. Called Palworld, it’s already sold over a million copies in early access, and has topped the Steam charts so much that it caused server issues. In just a week it’s become more popular than Fortnite on Xbox and has been called a “game changer” by the media. But, despite its popularity, there’s both more and less to the experience than first meets the eye.
Palworld puts players in the role of an explorer of a vast and untamed world populated by Pals, animal-monster-hybrid creatures that human players can fight, capture, and put to work — with weapons of course. Developer Pocketpair openly acknowledges that Palworld draws inspiration from the 30-year-old Pokemon franchise, along with Dragon Quest, Rust, Ark: Survival Evolved, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and its own previous work, Craftopia.
But while the visuals are gorgeous, playing Palworld can be a bit of a chore, especially in early access where most of the content is still being added to the game. Waking up with a hangover after whacking shaky trees to harvest their wood using a single axe animation and sound, or spending hours lugging heavy rocks uphill over rudimentary climbing animations feels unnecessarily monotonous. And when it comes to combat, which is a huge part of the gameplay, it’s clear that the team needed more time to flesh out the mechanics and make them feel more interesting than simply rehashing Pokemon battles. Buy Palworld
