Palworld is an open-world, monster-taming, creature-collecting, action-adventure, crafting/survival game by Pocket Pair. It has already achieved significant success since launching just last week. In five days, the game sold over 7 million copes, and on Steam, Palworld had over 2 million concurrent players — making history as the second highest number of all time, right behind PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS with 3.2 million. Now let's talk about what I love, and what I hate, about the game!

Things I Love

The Graphics

It’s not the best looking game around, but dang does Palworld look crisp. The game runs on Unreal Engine 4, and smoothly at that. Palworld doesn’t look as cartoony as Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom, yet it is not as realistic as Ark or Rust. It strikes a nice balance. So much so that even the Pals themselves blend together nicely against the environment while still sticking out.

The Sound Effects

In my opinion, the game with the best sound effects is New World. In comparison to that though, Palworld checks out. Every Pal has a unique cry, akin to Pokémon, and they all sound good. The same goes for the clink and crumble when you’re mining a rock, or the smack and crash when you’re chopping down a tree. It doesn't necessarily excel in the sound department, but I appreciate how the effects just align real well with everything that’s going on when you’re playing.

The Pal Designs

For your information, I have a Pokémon tattoo. Yeah, I love the franchise a whole lot. That being said, some Pokémon designs are ugly as sin, and not in a good way (See: Garbodor). Then you have “Fakémon,” which are Pokémon fan creations of brand new monsters. Most of those suck, too. Now, enter Palworld. Are any of the Pal designs revolutionary? No. Are many eerily similar to Pokémon? Yes, so much so that speculation on originality has already started. The game just nailed it when it comes to how these creatures look. Some are cool, some are cute. Others are weird, or funny. They’re all just fine, overall, and that works well for Palworld.

The Simplicity

Palworld is like Pokémon meets Ark meets Fortnite meets Grand Theft Auto. The list goes on and on. This is not a "truly" unique game at all. But guess what? It’s very fun. And that is all video games need to be sometimes. People like the aforementioned massively popular games because it’s fun to live in a fantasy world where your pet breathes fire and you can get other pets that also breathe fire and also fart electricity and you can build yourself a base from scratch that eventually becomes a castle and guns but no blood, so it’s like silly instead of violent.

Things I Hate

The Music

You know what really grinds my gears? The music in Palworld. Or rather, the lack thereof. There’s no music, just birds and crickets chirping. The only time music plays is when you’re in combat. On one hand, I can appreciate no music in a crafting/survival game. On the other hand, no I can’t. Just add peaceful tunes when nothing is happening and I am just chilling with my Pals. It feels weird otherwise.

The Pal Catching Mechanics

Once you venture out into the world, Pals get tougher to catch past the low-level ones nearby where you first spawn. You will be doing everything you can to get their health as low as possible before tossing a Pal Sphere. Still, the percentage that the capture succeeds will be extremely low. We’re talking under 20%, and often it's like 5%.

These odds increase dramatically later on in the game when you unlock better quality Pal Spheres. However, the mechanics remain the same. If you didn’t catch the Pal on the first try, you just throw another ball. Over and over until you prevail. The chances don’t even increase with each Pal Sphere used, like in Pokémon with Pokéballs. Not even a little. This isn’t good gameplay, if you ask me.

The Melee Combat

You know what’s awesome in Palworld? Guns. You know what’s not awesome in Palworld? Every other kind of weapon. The ranged weapons feel fantastic. It’s incredibly enjoyable to run around shooting Pals with a bow or firearm. It’s just not that interesting to walk up to them and smack them with a club, baton, spear, etc. I think it has something to do with how close you have to be to make contact with a Pal when using a melee weapon. There’s no skills when it comes to combat, so you’re just spamming the regular attack over and over…occasionally moving or dodging out of the way for incoming attacks. Anytime I must engage in the melee combat, I groan.

The World

At first glance, I love the game’s world. It looks nice. After you play Palworld for some time, however, you realize how empty the island feels. There’s Pals everywhere, and a decent amount of variety in terms of the environment, but nothing else really. Sometimes you find a dungeon, or an enemy camp, or a chest, or a special resource, or a tower. The gameplay loop doesn’t get boring because the core concept is so interesting. Don’t get me wrong, Palworld is hella fun. However, I wish there was more to do in this world. It should be/feel more alive beyond just an island filled with fantastical animals.

Right now the team is understandable focused on stability. That hasn't stopped them from releasing a roadmap, though. While New Islans certainly hits my list of things I don't like, other features like raid bosses, PvP, and more are very much welcome!

What about you? Is there something in particular you love about Palworld? And do you hate anything about the game?