Many people are looking forward to Diablo 4, Assassin’s Creed, and more. But the game that our author Mark Sellner is probably looking forward to the most this year is called Palworld (Steam, Xbox One, Xbox Series). It thrives on the fact that you capture (Pokémon-like) monsters, arm them, and make them work for you.
What makes Palworld special? What is cooler than Pikachu? If your answer to this question is also simply “Pikachu with a machine gun,” then Palworld could be your game of the year 2023 as well. But let’s start from the beginning.
Palworld is an open-world survival game that aims to pick up and refine the virtues of Pokémon. Essentially, you roam through the brightly designed world and capture the so-called Pals.
It works like the spiritual predecessor, where you first weaken them in battle and then throw a “Sphere.” This wobbles three times, and the Pokémon Pal is captured. The battles themselves, however, do not take place in rounds or instances, but simply in real-time in the open world.
To actually fight, you can use other Pals, but also fists, baseball bats, bows and arrows, pistols, assault rifles, rocket launchers, and much more. It becomes clear at this point: Palworld wants to be more than just a Pokémon clone.
In an initial tutorial, the developers also show you in the video how to capture the little monsters:
Really many gameplay opportunities
What are the core features? Apart from the unusual way of capturing the little companions, you can do a lot with them in Palworld. The game offers you practical options, such as riding and flying on different Pals, but also macabre ideas.
For instance, you can arm your buddies and make them fight for you, send them to work in mines and factories, cross them to create new Pals, or even, if it comes to the worst, eat them.
According to the developers, “slaughtering” Pals, capturing endangered Pals, or other malevolent methods are prohibited by in-game law. However, they say just a few sentences later: “It’s not illegal if no one sees it,” presumably to tease your moral gray area a bit.
In gameplay, this all boils down to 9 core features, which are as follows:
- Survival – In the world of Palworld, there are malicious Pals, nasty people, and harsh conditions. Weather and hunger, among other things, will cause you trouble. Here, the mechanic comes into play that you can eat your Pals in case of emergency.
- Exploration – By utilizing the abilities of various Pals, you can fly, swim, ride, and even dig underground.
- Base building – Palworld is said to come with a comprehensive building system where you can create all sorts of different constructions. Your cute critters will work hard on your construction site. The developers kindly point out that there are no labor protection laws for Pals.
- Life – Overall, your long-term goal should be to lead a quiet life with your Pals and make yourself comfortable.
- Farming – Yes, here you can build your own farm. Various Pals are said to have abilities like sowing seeds or watering flowers. Some of the colleagues should even be able to clone themselves when you plant them.
- Automation – Once your base, along with farms and factories, is established, you can start automating workflows. To do this, you simply place Pals in your facilities. According to the developers, “they will work forever as long as you feed them.”
- Dungeons – Dungeons are expected to become a staple, and one of the places where you can expect challenging battles. Diverse boss enemies will also await you, demanding a lot from you and your Pals.
- Breeding and Crossing – In a dedicated menu, similar to Pokémon, you can hatch Pals. However, in Palworld, you can mix all sorts of different monsters to create the strongest Pals.
- Poaching and Crime – In the world of Palworld, there are protected zones where endangered Pals live. It is illegal to catch them here. However, if you don’t care and don’t get caught, you can make a lot of money from it.
By the way, you can do all this together with your friends, because Palworld can be played entirely in multiplayer. However, how many people can travel together is currently still unknown.
Current trailer for Palworld:
The bad Pokémon is partly to blame for my love of Palworld
Why will Palworld be my game of the year? “As a fan of Scarlet and Violet, that just hurts,” said our Pokémon expert Max Handwerk when I presented him with the first in-game trailer for Palworld. And he is right. Because with the obvious template that Palworld draws from, it already makes clear what it can do better.
While Palworld is not tied to a Switch and will be released for PC and Xbox, it plays in a completely different league in terms of graphics and performance. The world feels alive, colorful, and authentic. None of this I could feel in the last Pokémon attempts, which is of course sad on one hand, but it also gets me incredibly excited about Palworld. But that is certainly not all.
I like the step that Palworld takes further than its spiritual predecessor. The game offers me so many possibilities to do exciting things and does not end when I have caught all Pals and defeated all gyms. Instead, I can build my base, automate it, and continue to tinker in many areas.
I believe it will be really good because Palworld is not from completely unknown developers. The project is backed by the Japanese developer studio Pocket Pair. They have been active since 2015 and have released the successful multiplayer survival game Craftopia, among others.
Craftopia combined Zelda with Diablo and worked excellently. It was released in September 2020 in early access, where it remains to this day. Nevertheless, 82% of the over 14,000 Steam reviews are positive and show that Pocket Pair knows how to do open world, crafting, and base building right.
I am looking forward to Palworld because it is something completely different. The game does not reinvent any of its game mechanics and has certainly borrowed most of its ideas from somewhere, but it mixes them together so well that something entirely new emerges. Something that definitely has the potential to be my game of the year.
By the way, Palworld does not have a release date yet. Steam only notes that the game is expected to be released in 2023. MeinMMO will keep you updated on this, of course.
What do you think of Palworld? Do you celebrate the concept behind the game as much as I do, or do you find the wild foray into your moral gray area a bit too tasteless? Feel free to let us know in the comments.
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