By: Kemar Noel
Palworld is a fresh take on the creature collection and survival game genre that showcases the success you would get if you combined Pokemon with America.
This game came to Steam in January and dominated the charts overnight with a rapidly increasing player base.
Japanese indie developer PocketPair masterfully crafted Palworld and in less than a month has amassed an astounding 19 million player count in this short period of time.
This isn’t the only game this indie company has produced, though the company has had its hand in a few indie projects prior like Craftopia and Overdungeon. While they are decently playable games, you could combine the numbers from them both and they still haven’t reached the height that Palworld has made in this short time frame.
Palworld’s focus on survival proved to be the right way to take the game because of the overwhelmingly positive feedback and the fun players seem to have when creating new and intricate compounds. The building mechanics aren’t too complex either making the game easily accessible to newer players who may be interested.
The game starts with a very easily digestible explanation of the world and what the game is by showing players some of the different pals that can be collected in dungeons and the freedom given to players.
Over time, the game becomes more fun with its progression system and minutes can easily turn into hours with how engrossed you can become with this game.
The pals collected in the game not only help you with adventuring and dungeon clearing but also plays a major role in the building aspect of the game as well.
The surprising number of pals that can be deployed to help construct your base is something that makes this game more fun since it takes out some of the fluff that you’d have to deal with in other survival games.
The building aspect is something to give praise to because of the sheer amount of freedom given to be able to make some really amazing structures. Players are able to be creative and build a range of impressive and aesthetically pleasing compounds with their pals. The compounds players have made range from cottages to castles or even modernized structures and with a few more defining updates the truly ambitious architects in-game will be able to have a field day.
While the game has an astounding amount of positive feedback, there have been some controversies because of the similarities this game has to the multibillion-dollar franchise “Pokemon.” The designs of the pals are very similar design to the designs of some fan-favorite Pokemon like Lucario, Piplup, Eevee, and more. The story is also very lacking and leans towards players making their own stories. Some areas can feel a bit bland due to the lack of points of interest and there are once again some minor bugs that need tweaking.
This game is only in early access though and will only continue to evolve and become better over time, despite its controversies and its being called a “Pokemon clone,” fans seem to not care because of all the positives that can be highlighted throughout the game.
There are too many games trying to bring the Among Us craze back that bring only momentary joy and happiness throughout the gameplay, but this game is different. Palworld doesn’t take itself seriously and allows players to have fun and do wacky things with the system given.
I would highly recommend playing this game’s early access and rating this game a solid 8/10.