When the next survival simulator or sandbox in early access is announced, many immediately imagine an unfinished and crooked game that still needs to be patched and patched. Moreover, it is far from a fact that everything will get better after the release. This is not surprising, because reviews of similar projects have also been published on our website more than once. A new product from the Pocketpair studio called Palworld stands out among all this crowd in that it already works and plays perfectly. In general, you don’t even have to wait for the full release and start playing at this stage. However, I’m already getting ahead of myself, so let’s talk about everything in order.
Palworld greets us with a character editor that doesn’t shine with sophistication, but allows you to create a completely charismatic hero or heroine. Graphically, the game is executed “Hurray!” — the picture is bright and pleasant, and the animations are quite smooth. Compared to the studio’s previous game, Craftopia, this is a significant step forward.
At first, the gameplay isn’t much different from other sandboxes, but that feeling quickly wears off once you catch your first Pal. This is what they call creatures that resemble Pokemon. They not only help in battle, but also do all the most boring work, saving you from routine. Although Craftopia also had something similar in later stages, here it is almost the most important part of the content. It’s not for nothing that the game was named after the Palovs.
Catching local “Pokémon” is quite simple – first you need to reduce Pal’s health to a minimum level, trying not to kill him. Then press Q and throw a pal-sphere (the local equivalent of a Pokeball) to add the animal to your collection. The less health he has left, the higher the chance of capturing him. Capture skill is also increased by green figurines found in the open world. They are clearly visible from afar, thanks to the bright light, so it’s not difficult to look for them. Also, as you progress, new pal-spheres will open up for you, making it easier to catch.
There are no universal Pals – each of them is capable of performing only certain tasks. Those who are able to hold something in their front paws will help you in crafting items, extracting resources or constructing machines. Water creatures will water the beds. Shaggy animals will share their fur with you. Fiery ones will be able to cook food over a fire or melt minerals to create ingots. There are tons of examples! By increasing the level of the base, you will have the opportunity to force even more Pals to work, thereby automating more processes. Surprisingly, the developers managed to make one of the boring, repetitive sandbox mechanics really interesting and sophisticated.
Of course, just making Pals work is not enough, because they are living beings with their own feelings and needs that should be taken into account. They need to eat and sleep, they get tired, and they may be stressed. They may even occasionally take time off from work, which will be notified to you via a notification on the right side of the screen. They also sometimes get sick, so they have to be treated with medication. Again, this “feature” is implemented so that it is not annoying or time-consuming. Although this can be applied to almost every aspect of the game.
The game offers a huge map where you can travel from the very beginning without restrictions. However, you will not want to do this, since in some places there will be Palas that are much stronger than you. Moreover, sometimes they are distributed unevenly – a level 30 creature may be running right next to your first base, and after going a little further you can stumble upon level 5 poachers. Not far from the level 25 dungeon there can be a level 12 dungeon. It sounds like an ill-thought-out distribution of difficulty, but it’s not. The game doesn’t feel unfair to the player, because you always have the option to choose another place to explore and return when you become stronger. Although, in general, the principle “The further into the forest, the more firewood” still applies, so it is better not to look into the most remote places without proper preparation.
You can “carry” up to five Pals with you, but you are only allowed to use one at a time. He will help you in battle or give you a certain bonus. For example, some can be used as mounts to move around the world faster, while others literally become weapons in your hands. There are also those who provide passive improvements, such as increased drops and increased damage. There are a huge number of them in the game, and each is able to offer something of their own.
A character can be upgraded by increasing its level. Experience is given both for killing enemies and for performing various actions, such as crafting and gathering. Passively, a little experience is awarded for what your Pals do at the base. “Level-up” allows you to pump up one of six characteristics: health, endurance, attack, defense, speed and weight. In addition, this opens up access to new technologies, which make it possible to build a new workbench, craft better weapons, and so on.
The standard difficulty of Palworld seemed quite balanced to me – the game is not too hardcore, but not so casual either. However, if you do not agree with this statement, you can change almost every parameter at any time, including after creating the world. There are really a lot of settings, including the length of day and night, the ratio of damage dealt and received by the player or Palami, health regeneration, the number of trophies, penalties for death and much more. In general, almost anything can be changed.
Perhaps the most important advantage of Palworld, compared to other sandboxes, is that it is simply a pleasure to play. It does not cause feelings of frustration; everything here is done as much as possible so that you have a pleasant time. At the same time, the gameplay does not slide into some Cozy Adventure, such as Stardew Valley. I came across bugs extremely rarely, and even those were minor, and the optimization for the current stage is beyond praise. Even Craftopia from the same developers, which was released three years ago and has received many patches since then, still looks more crooked and unfinished. Although, of course, it also has its own charm.
Palworld is a great open-world sandbox that cleverly combines the mechanics of the well-known Pokemon. Right out of the gate in Early Access, the game feels like a lot of fun, and there’s enough content to keep you engaged for hours. This is a rare case when I will not recommend waiting for a full release, since now the project feels more than worthy. In the future, I want to believe, everything will only get better.
