MeinMMO editor Dariusz loves Pokémon, shooters, and the survival game ARK. Now he has tested Palworld, the “Pokémon with guns”, and is having a great time.
I’m honest: I’ve been waiting a long time for the release of Palworld. When I first saw a trailer for the “Pokémon with guns” in 2022, I knew I would like it.
Now I’ve spent the first hours in the game and can confidently say that my assumption about the game has been confirmed. Palworld is absolutely ridiculous and is a huge amount of fun.
From ARK to Pokémon: A successful mix of my favorite games
If a game developer wants to make a game that immediately grabs my interest, they must meet at least one of three criteria.
- It is a shooter with entertaining gunplay and movement
- It is a survival game, ideally with the ability to tame creatures and work with them
- It is Pokémon
Palworld actually succeeds in entertainingly combining all three aspects for me.
I have been a huge Pokémon fan for about 20 years. I have played every game in the main series, collected the cards as a child, and even watched the entire anime. However, I am not fixated on something having to be an original Pokémon game and just enjoy the principle of catching little cute monsters, traveling with them, or battling. For example, I also enjoyed Temtem.
Furthermore, ARK: Survival Evolved is one of my favorite games. However, I am not a dinosaur fan. I just like the game concept. It is a rather challenging survival game where I can tame and breed various creatures to farm resources, engage in boss or PvP battles, or explore the map. I am also a big fan of the building system.
Palworld is so much fun for me because it combines ARK with Pokémon. I can catch different monsters, train them, and use them for battle or work. I really like the designs of the individual Pals. Some are cool, some are cute, and others are just so oddly designed that I wonder what I am actually looking at.
Like ARK, Palworld also has some shooter mechanics. Of course, it can’t be compared to real shooters or survival games like Rust or DayZ, but it is still not poorly implemented. For example, I like shooting with a bow and arrow in Palworld much better than in ARK.
Palworld borrows strong mechanics from Nintendo
Palworld has some really good mechanics that have already worked well in other games. One of them is the glider from Zelda: BotW. More and more new and upcoming games have a glider like this, including LEGO Fortnite and Palworld. Especially in survival games, this is a popular feature because you can glide through the air and avoid fall damage.
Additionally, you can climb stone walls in Palworld. At first, this doesn’t sound special, but in ARK, I often wished I could climb properly – not least to avoid attacks from aggressive dinosaurs.
One of the highlights of Palworld, however, is catching the Pals. This does not take place in turn-based battles, as we know from the main Pokémon games, but is like in Pokémon Legends Arceus.
This means we move freely on the map and manually throw balls at the monster. In doing so, we have to dodge the monster’s attacks with a roll and simultaneously weaken it to increase our chance of capture. To weaken it, we can use our Pals, firearms, or a baseball bat. Yes, the game is really crazy.
Pals are Kelvin in cute
Palworld has also taken some inspiration from the survival game Sons of the Forest, which was released in early access in 2023. In Sons of the Forest, you have an NPC named Kelvin who helps you survive and can, for instance, farm wood. The Pals can also support you and collect stones, operate the workbench, and fulfill any tasks you assign them.
This is not only practical because you have to farm less when you don’t feel like it. It complements the gameplay because it gives you time to catch new Pals or engage in battles.
In addition, the Pals gain experience points when completing tasks and level up. So you don’t have to fight wild monsters for hours and train your companions when you face a too-strong opponent.
Extensive options to adjust difficulty
It was obviously clear to the developers of Palworld that their game would not only attract survival fans or shooter players. There are different difficulty levels that can also provide a fun experience for casual players.
The “normal” difficulty is already easier and more beginner-friendly than, for example, the classic experience of ARK: Survival Evolved. However, if you have never played such a survival game, you can further reduce the difficulty. There is a level that makes the game very easy and allows for uncomplicated progress.
If you are used to games like ARK and are looking for a challenge, you can also increase the difficulty.
However, the custom settings are particularly interesting. Here, you can adjust a series of different parameters. This includes, for example, how quickly a resource respawns.
The performance is okay – it could be worse
In my time playing so far, the game has not crashed, and I have had acceptable FPS on the highest settings. I could certainly get more out of it, but I am satisfied and enjoy the graphics. Visually, Palworld is not a masterpiece, but it’s not ugly either. I like the style.
I’ve only rarely experienced FPS drops. After I set a corresponding FPS limit, they completely disappeared.
I believe there could still be some tweaking to optimization given the graphics, and performance could be improved further. But overall, Palworld is in a playable state and is far from the poor performance that, for instance, ARK: Survival Ascended had at launch.
Conclusion: If you like ARK and Pokémon, it’s a recommendation
The idea of shooting little monsters with firearms and making them work for crafting items is absolutely ridiculous – but I really have a lot of fun with Palworld.
It is an early access game, so not everything is perfect, and there are still some desirable content missing, but that has not worsened my experience with the title so far.
Especially, I find the price of 26 euros on Steam to be really fair – I probably wouldn’t have paid 50 to 60 euros. But this is primarily due to my extreme frugality and lack of trust in survival games in early access – a shoutout to The Day Before – and not because of the quality of Palworld.
So if you love Pokémon like I do and enjoy playing games like ARK, then you probably can’t go wrong with Palworld. If you’re not sure if Palworld is interesting for you, you can also check out a stream on Twitch. The game is currently taking off:
