As painful as it is for me to admit it, I was alive during the initial wave of Pokemon fever. I was there on the playground jealously looking at the other kids who had shiny and adorable Pokemon cards carefully protected behind card sleeves in three-ring binders.

I even remember once finding a card someone had dropped in the dirt in the baseball field. It was a Pikachu, no less, so you can bet your bananas I kept it.

There have been games in the past that have tried to emulate the Pokemon experience. Not all of them have been successful. Palworld is one of the newest contenders.

Did it hit the mark? Or is it just another pretender to the throne?

The Quick Menu

Palworld offers a lot to do, but is it unique or fun enough to attract players? Take a quick look at our review before heading to the Steam store.

Rating:	9/10
Pros:	Tons of content Smooth gameplay Adorable Pals Mix of farming sim with monster collector
Cons:	Dedicated servers are a hot mess Unstable multiplayer servers at peak capacity

Palworld – A Brutal World

About two hours into the game, I had my first taste of just how brutal the world of Palworld can be. I watched, helpless, as one of my adorable Lamball sacrificed its own life to save me. And I didn’t deserve its sacrifice.

I had ruthlessly and relentlessly put it, who I affectionately called Larry, to work. He slaved away for hours collecting stones and branches for me. The only breaks he took was to eat some of my humble berry offerings and sleep.

Despite the less-than-luxurious life, when a team of Syndicate Agents raided my base, Larry was the first to roll into battle in my defense. And I mean literally roll because that’s all he could do.

The message was clear. Palworld wasn’t the cute and cuddly world that Pokemon inhabit. Or, rather, it rips the veil from just how such a world likely functions in reality. Animals eat animals, and Pals are no exception.

Palworld is a crafting survival game mixed with a monster collector and tamer. I find it to be a unique blend between Pokemon and Ark: Survival Ascended. There’s even a dash of Genshin Impact in there with how the game uses Pal type to determine weaknesses and strengths.

Developed by Pocket Pair, Palworld is in early access. The team released its loose road map that sees a focus on PVP and arena-style combat with fellow players.

You can play Palworld on the following platforms:

• Xbox One
• Xbox Series X
• PC

Gameplay – Tame Them All But Don’t Get Attached

I have one major problem with Palworld. They made their Pals far too adorable. That’s a real problem because there’s a 100% chance that your Pals can die and die brutally. That’s great news for the dark comedics out there who love to watch cute things burn.

For the rest of us, it makes taking risks in Palworld difficult. As an adventurer, you’re tasked with taming and collecting various Pals across the islands. The Pals are useful for gathering resources and defending you and your base. You can even take some with you as a party to help you safely explore the map.

There are aggressive Pals out there just waiting to destroy you and your adorable friends. They’re not the only ones either. There are NPCs out there also looking to take you down. Syndicate Agents, for example, raided my base just three hours into playing.

And they have guns. But that’s okay because your Pals can carry guns, too. Heck, some can even use rocket launchers to take down your enemies. And this is where Palworld really carves outs its own niche. You can strop machine guns, explosives, etc., to your Pal and use them as a one-man army.

It’s incredible the amount of fun that actually offers. Guns aside, you’ll spend your time building up your base, unlocking technology to build more things, and eventually take the fight to the leaders locked away in their Towers.

Or, you can just focus on unlocking all the information in your Paldeck, which basically acts like a Pokedex. The more creatures you capture with a Pal Sphere, the more information you discover about them. The game rewards you for collecting a lot of the same creature, too.

After capturing 10 of the same creature, your XP receives a nice boost. Leveling is important if you want to start using high-tier equipment and crafting stations.

There’s a lot that the game offers, but the good news is that there’s a helpful tutorial to make sense of it all. Now and then, the steps may lack certain details, but by and large, it does a decent job of telling you how to play the core elements of the game.

As for the deeper elements of the game, that’s up to you to discover.

Narrative – Nothing Deep Here

Honestly, don’t play this game if you’re looking for a compelling story that evolves through choices you make. This isn’t Baldur’s Gate 3. And that’s perfectly fine because Palworld isn’t out to be a narrative-focused game.

It has lore scattered about the map like Ark: Survival Ascended. You can find journal entries that come from a previous adventurer. These entries shed some light on the world and the Pals, themselves. I don’t mind having lore received in this way since it supports something I love doing in any game I play–exploring.

You never quite know what you’re going to discover when you climb a hill or explore a deep ravine. So, discovering journals that expand further on the lore are pleasant items to find.

You’re told right at the beginning of the game, too, that you should pay attention to the Towers and some mystical Tree that harbors all the answers. Clearly, this is the game’s way to steer you toward building up a powerful team of Pals, so you can take on the leaders in the Towers and defeat them.

Maybe there’s an ending to the story when you defeat all the leaders, but I’m far too busy tending to my adorable collection of Pals to even think about risking their lives against Tower fights just yet. The narrative isn’t the focal point in this game, and frankly, I don’t think it needs much, anyway.

Graphics – A Friendly Mix Between Stylized and Cartoon

I’m not a real big stickler when it comes to graphics. Part of that is because I’m frugal when it comes to PC shopping. It’s highly unlikely I’ll ever own a graphics card that’s cutting edge. So, I get what I can get.

That said, the graphics make my PC happy, so they make me happy, too. Which isn’t to say that Palworld isn’t pretty. I actually find it pretty gorgeous.

From the incredible character designs for the Pals (whoever came up with them deserves all the bonuses) to the simplified, but eye-catching, landscape, Palworld is pleasant to look at. The colors are bright, and the art style is a blend between stylized and cartoon. Some of its buildings even manage to provide a bit of realism-cartoon, if you can believe it.

The SFX is another solid win for Pocket Pair. When it comes to launching water cannons, sonic attacks, or even explosions, the developers do it right–they give it their all. Even if your Pal’s attack is weak, the way that the SFX works with the VFX makes it feel like they could take on a mountain.

While Palworld won’t win any awards for innovating art (although they deserve something for their cute Pal designs), I find Palworld to be a pleasant visual experience.

Technical Performance – Smooth As My Adventurer’s Chest

I think a lot of players were worried that Palworld would go the way of The Day Before. So much so that the devs even included a part in their FAQ section stating that the game wasn’t a scam.

I was less worried about another The Day Before and more worried about another Ark: Survival Ascended. For those not in the know, Ark’s latest release has seen a lot of trouble with poor server performance and a number of bugs and glitches that have made the game virtually impossible to play.

Because of its shared similarities with Ark, I was a tad worried that the game might also suffer from the same problems. Pleasantly, I discovered there was nothing to worry about. While playing on single player, I found that the game performed well.

I didn’t encounter any visual glitches, bugs, or holes in the world. At most, I’ve had a few problems with the Sphere missing an intended target when the target performs an animation at the same time, but those have been few and far between.

Now, the single player experience has been pleasant, but the multiplayer experience could use a bit of work. With filled servers, performance tends to drag. There’s lag, which is typically of a multiplayer server. And Palworld has a lot going on in it.

The good news is that Pocket Pair anticipated this problem, and it’s something they’re working on. Again, the game is currently in early access, so the developers have a lot of time to make the adjustments they need to get the servers running smoothly.

If you don’t want to deal with laggy servers, then I suggest hopping onto a single-player server. You have NPCs that raid your bases and can keep you engaged when you’re not taking care of your Pals and base.

Let’s just say I have a lot more faith in Pocket Pair fixing up its servers than I do Wildcard.

Comparisons – Try These Games While You Wait for Palworld to Fully Release

Not everyone likes to take their chances on an early access release, and I respect that. But if you still want to get your hands on taming monsters, here are a few alternatives to consider.

• Stardew Valley – Less taming and more farming, but relaxing all the same.
• Coral Island – You can have a pet in this one, too!
• Ark: Survival Ascended – Less cute Pals and more hungry dinos, mind the servers.
• Conan Exiles – Tame creatures like hyenas and elephants.

Kiss Your Free Time Goodbye

Palworld is a lot of fun. In fact, I’d call it a fun-focused game. This is a game that could have easily followed the (wrong) path of so many others and turned itself into a gacha game. And I applaud the developers for choosing fun over money.

The game is only in early access, too, and if it’s providing this much fun so early on? I can’t wait to see where the game goes from here.

You can pick up your order of Palworld on Steam today.