Palworld Review – Surviving Has Never Been This Charming

It’s been over two years since Palworld released in Early Access, and it didn’t go unnoticed in the gaming space. It broke records on Steam, becoming one of the most played games on the platform when it first released, and now, for its full launch, it almost reached one million concurrent players. Over its time on Early Access, the game got multiple updates and additions, but its 1.0 version transforms this survival-monster-catcher into a monster itself.

Personally, it is difficult for me to try a survival game, not because I don’t like them, but because I like them too much. I get hooked to the extreme in the genre, and the basics alone require a lot of time investment. With Palworld, the temptation won, and while at first the mix of guns and adorable creatures seemed odd for me, I found out that that’s what I most liked about the game, and that surviving is just one of many other layers that make Palworld stand out from both survival and monster-catching games.

What first caught my attention, and I bet everyone else’s, was the Pals themselves. And no, not because of similarities to other franchises; as I said, the combination of cute creatures with weapons and survival mechanics seemed strange to me. I was glad to find out that these creatures are the soul and heart of the game, and Palworld will have you caring for them as if they were your real-life pets. You will need them to fight, survive, craft, but most importantly, to have fun.

First of all, you need to catch these Pals for them to join your ranks. The first thing that stood out for me was the combination of catching animals with action gameplay. The most popular monster-catching games in the genre tend to go for turn-based combat. However, action doesn’t mean no strategy; you will have to keep an eye on the monster’s HP and control the weapons you use so that you don’t eliminate the Pal. Because the lower the HP, the higher the chances you have of capturing that Pal with your throwable catching sphere.

After catching the Pal, you can decide whether you want it helping out in your base, in your combat party, or send it on expeditions to gather resources. Each Pal has its own attacks and perks, so it is up to you to choose where those abilities can be more helpful. Besides catching them with spheres, you can acquire Pals by hatching eggs or building a farm for Pal breeding, giving you different gameplay options for obtaining these Pals.

Palworld excels in base creation and management, with hundreds of items for you to construct. In bases, Pals will bring the required abilities needed for each of these items to work. For example, Sekhmet helps with mining and handiwork, while others can focus on gathering food, lumbering, etc. Pals not only have different abilities, but they also have their own behaviors, even within the same species. Most Pals will keep your base working to the max, but some can be lazy and refuse to work, and others can tend to get sick if you haven’t built up the necessary amenities.

These different types of behaviors, almost like a personality for each Pal, are what keep the game so engaging. Accompanied by adorable animations, it is impossible not to smile at the things these Pals do, which, even after so many hours, will keep surprising you. For example, I brought an injured Pal to my base, and immediately another carried him to a bed to recover. For a survival game, the AI feels very dynamic, almost like those details that go into narrative games.

Yet another surprise for me was that Palworld includes a narrative story with main quests. It is simple storytelling, but for a survival game with so many other elements, it is rare to see. In the main story, you will encounter other Pal Tamers, whom you will have to defeat as bosses in spectacular battles. These are accompanied by cutscenes and dynamic boss fights that keep these main quests engaging.

The open world is also filled with boss-type enemies, which will help you level up and grow your Pals’ arsenal. The world in Palworld is an enormous island that is completely explorable, letting you climb any mountain, fly around riding a Pal, or sail the seas in one. Each region has its own environment, fauna, and Pals that can change with the time of day. In this exploration, however, I discovered some of the few flaws with the game. 

There is barely any music in Palworld, so while exploring, things can get quiet… too quiet, even in the villages and your base. You will find soundtracks only in combat and the Bosses’ cutscenes, and it is a good soundtrack, so I am a bit disappointed that no ambience music was added in 1.0. One can spend hours crafting and managing the base, so background music while doing basekeeping, or a music box item, will be ideal. It also doesn’t help that some of the side quests tend to get repetitive by having the same objective of showing a specific Pal to a Pal Critic. Though seeing how Pocketpair has handled updates and players’ feedback, it is a matter of time before they fix these issues.

If Pocketpair continues its goodwill decisions, they will keep breaking records. These developers have managed to create more than just a survival game; Palworld captures many genres and crafts a unique gaming experience. You wake up with the charismatic Pals by your side, thinking about what you will do on that in-game day. Explore? Build? Quests? Go fishing? Or just relax in your base and have some fun with the Pals and your friends online? Palworld is a rainbow, not only because of its colorful similarities, but because there is no end to it. You can follow its infinite trail wherever you decide to stop, but that itch of learning what’s possible further will stay with you. So, we continue following that path with our Pals by our side because it is a wholesome and fun one.

Walter reviewed Palworld with his own bought copy. This review is based on the version of the game available at the time of writing, and our score will not be changed.