Palworld is all about the survival-crafting genre: you find yourself stranded in an unfamiliar world where everything from animals to plants to minerals can be dismantled and repurposed into raw materials, so that you can construct weapons, bases, and facilities.
The twist in Palworld is that the animals are swapped out for wild anime companions, which you can either exploit or brutalize as you wish.
Instead of progressing from stone axes to diamond axes, your weaponry evolves from basic tools to pump-action shotguns and ground-to-air artillery.
While creating the character, there is a thrust into a familiar yet strange setting of a forested island dotted with ancient glowing towers. The first will be to locate the promised machine gun, a focal point in Palworld’s marketing.
But the game starts traditionally, leaving you with nothing but your underpants and instructing you to gather materials by punching trees and rocks. Your initial goal is to build a base, miner’s pick, woodcutter’s axe, campfire, and crafting bench.
This setup felt all too familiar, and you will be eager to upgrade the rudimentary stick to something more formidable with an extended magazine and laser sights.
Sadly, a glimpse at the tech tree revealed that crafting even a basic sidearm wouldn’t be possible until reaching level 25. You will only manage to reach level 6, after spending an entire afternoon.
The promise of advanced weaponry, such as assault rifles, requires near-max level commitment. Despite this, catching “Pals” begins quickly. The process involves weakening them with a baseball bat and then capturing them using legally distinct Pal Spheres.
Palworld mixes a recognizable survival-crafting system with a real-time Pokemon-like element, achieving different degrees of success. Typical excursions involve setting out with Pal Spheres, basic supplies, and leftover weaponry, aiming to explore the map.
Along the way, you use a mix of ammunition and strategic combat to catch new Pals and fight hostile humans. There are strong trainers, settlements, and boss Pals scattered throughout, although the narrative context for your adventure is limited.
Overall, Palworld isn’t vastly different from other survival-crafting games, except for its Pokemon-inspired twist. This aspect is sometimes automated, which doesn’t always support the game or the player.
Once released from their Spheres, Pals act independently, following broad instructions but often making bad decisions or destroying your efforts. They might kill something you’re trying to catch or fall into danger.
As a result, the most combat encounters lack tactical depth. You typically send out a Pal and move to a safe distance, occasionally joining the fray if you’re feeling brave. Combat means basic melee or ranged attacks interspersed with stamina-draining moves, offering limited engagement.
The automation proves more important when organizing captured Pals to work in your base. This extensive system allows them to perform different tasks, from tilling fields to chopping wood to cooking eggs.
With enough Pals having diverse skills, they become self-sufficient, operating like a community from Animal Farm as found by 4Kids. This frees you to explore without constant micromanagement.
Palworld makes you feel that the developers envisioned a game about feral monsters but ended up with Tamagotchi-like creatures. NPC humans in the game refer to Pals as terrifying beasts, despite their cute character, and speak of the horrors they have.
Sanity mechanics come into play if you overwork your Pals, and the in-game glossary describes their atrocities. These lovely creatures die easily, and you can even roast their bodies and feed them to other Pals, a grim aspect the game presents without judgment. Even as a non-vegetarian, the thought of feeding a lamb to another lamb is bad.
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