Catching Them Is Only The Beginning
After several years in early access, Palworld has finally launched with its 1.0 update across all major platforms.
For those unfamiliar, Palworld sees players capturing Pals, a colourful array of creatures that inhabit a large geographically diverse island, to fight and work alongside the player as they explore. While frequently compared to Pokémon, Palworld makes some significant changes to the formula.
For starters, Palworld is an open-world survival, base-building game. There is a main storyline that can be followed that focuses on the state of the island, but that can also be largely ignored. The game takes place on the Palpagos Islands, which is a fantastic name, inhabited by Pals, and both friendly and hostile humans.
The main story helps guide people along to interact with the many different groups, and adds context to why they are hostile and what is going on across the Palpagos Islands. But base progression is tied to leveling up and accomplishing tasks around the base, which aren’t influenced by the main story.
More Than A Creature Collector
The other major difference between Palworld and Pokémon is that the Pals aren’t the only ones fighting. While the game starts with players picking up rocks and using clubs and spears to fight and capture Pals, players will eventually find themselves equipped with pistols, rifles, and even explosives to fight stronger Pals and the leaders of the independent factions across the island.
Palworld does a fantastic job blending these ideas into a fun and addictive game. At the same time, the building system allows players plenty of different options for crafting unique structures, with several decorative and functional items to fill the space.
What makes Palworld more engaging as a survival game, especially when playing solo, is that the base building is centered around using Pals to assist with gathering resources and managing tasks. Garden plots, for example, need Pals to tend to them; one Pal needs to water them, while another will need to harvest them once grown. However, some Pals may be able to water and harvest, so only one will be needed for the task. This is the same with furnaces and cooking stations. You’ll find that fire Pals will stoke the fires and keep resource production underway.
Pals can also be assigned to crafting stations and assembly lines to create resources for you. They unfortunately can’t completely automate the process, as the player still has to assign the recipe and quantity to make, but when you are working around a base, you don’t need to stand at the crafting station to assemble everything yourself.
Even better, Pals will share XP with the player when performing any XP-generating tasks within the base. This also extends to co-op, where players have shared XP when working together.
That said, Pals are supposed to be your friends. I mean, it’s right in the name.
Happy Pals, Happy Base
Every Pal has a sanity meter that needs to be managed. It is possible to overwork them to the point of sickness and exhaustion. Pals can even develop eating disorders if too stressed. This can be managed by building plenty of beds, and hot baths, as well as not toggling the overtime work mode at every opportunity.
Keeping Pals happy improves base efficiency, and by maintaining good relationships with your favorites, they increase their trust, which adds additional stat buffs. And the best Pals can be bred, producing newer, stronger Pals. There are a ton of mechanics centered around Pals that are mechanically deep but still approachable for new players.
A Huge World Worth Exploring
Palworld doesn’t just take place at the base though. The Palpagos islands are large, with plenty to see and do. You can raid hostile bases, free Pals, and explore mini-dungeons that end with fights against stronger Pals. The world has no shortage of things to do.
Players can bring their five favorite Pals with them on adventures. Each Pal will fight alongside the player as needed, but that’s not all they do. Several Pals have saddles that can be unlocked, which allow the player to ride around on them. This makes exploring and getting around the map significantly easier. Other Pals have special combat abilities, like Lifmunk, who can hop on your shoulder and fight enemies with its own rifle. Some Pals have special abilities that reduce the weight of resources and provide other buffs, which make them great companions for different expeditions.
There are playstyles for every kind of survival player, and having Pals along for the ride keeps things fun even in solo lobbies.
Still A Few Rough Edges
There are two main criticisms I have of Palworld. The first is that the defined base areas are fairly small, especially when trying to use larger Pals in a base. The biggest Pals can easily take up huge sections, and trying to accommodate them is an exercise in futility. While it is possible to build structures outside the marked area, those won’t be interacted with by Pals. This means all crafting benches and resource plots need to be placed within that marked area, which can be limiting.
The second issue is that the pathfinding for Pals can be a little hit or miss at times, with them sometimes getting caught on geometry, keeping them from making their way to their assigned areas. When this happened, they still seemed to work away without issue, so it’s not a major problem. But this again is exacerbated when using larger Pals at bases.
A Survival Game That’s Hard To Put Down
Both of these things are manageable, though, and they don’t take away from the fun that is to be had throughout the game. There are over 200 Pals in the game and several dozen Pal variants that bring the total number of Pals to collect up to 287. There are major towers with bosses inside them, as well as mini-bosses and mini-dungeons with stronger Pal variants to fight. You will easily get dozens of hours of entertainment from Palworld, and if you enjoyed the game during the early access period, then the 1.0 update has only improved upon things.
At the end of the day, Palworld is a game that’s easy to recommend, but stupidly hard to put down.
Important Links
Fight, farm, build, work – It’s time to take to Palworld on Game Pass, Xbox and PC – https://www.thexboxhub.com/fight-farm-build-work-its-time-to-take-to-palworld-on-game-pass-xbox-and-pc/
Palworld – Thoughts from the Wild Frontier – https://www.thexboxhub.com/palworld-thoughts-from-the-wild-frontier/
6 things I wish I’d known when I started playing Palworld – https://www.thexboxhub.com/6-things-i-wish-id-known-when-i-started-playing-palworld/
Palworld Grows Up – The Survival Phenomenon Officially Launches – https://www.thexboxhub.com/palworld-grows-up-the-survival-phenomenon-officially-launches/
Download from the Xbox Store, via Game Pass if you like – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/palworld/9NKV34XDW014/0010
