Palworld was announced back in June of 2021 and received a lot of hype around the sheer idea of the game. But since then not a lot has been said on the game and it seems to have slipped the mind of many people. With the release date of Palworld coming soon, it seems as though the game is coming back into people’s feeds and causing a lot of confusion about where and what this game is since the trailers give off the vibe of a Pokemon game, right up to the point you see the sheep using a mounted LMG.
For anyone who has never heard of Palworld before, it is the latest release from PocketPair. Their previously released game is a little title called Craftopia, which seems to be a Breath of the Wild type game that features similar realistic elements making it seem a bit more jarring. Similar to what they seem to be doing with Palworld.
Shock-Factor Juxtaposition a Big Draw for Palworld
The big draw for Palworld is the shock factor of it all. If this was just another open-world survival game that featured cute little creatures, most people wouldn’t pay any attention to the game. But when you suddenly throw an image of the cute grass-type monkey running around with an AK-47, people will be a lot more interested. While this was all the information we had about the game for a while, it makes sense that everyone stopped caring.
But as the launch of the game draws closer, we now know a lot more about what Palworld is bringing to the table and it is a lot more than most people expected. While many may have written this game off as a meme game, the devs at PocketPair have been hard at work stretching the idea of realistic Pokemon. These Pals, as they are called, have much more use outside of just being used for battling with the other Pals in the world.
More Than a Meme Game
You can have the water-type Pals water your crops for you while you are away and the grass-types harvest and replant the seeds. You use the fire-type Pals to fuel your furnaces and the electric types to power your machines to manufacture goods for yourself. It adds this realistic twist to the cute nature of Pokemon’s world where everything is perfect and Pokemon run free.
Of course, Palworld does borrow the core gameplay elements from Pokemon games by letting battle and train your Pals against other Pals. You can also take on Raid bosses with you Pals and other players in order to get some of the strongest and legendary Pals that are available.
You will also have to deal with other tribes of humans that inhabit the world as they will regularly raid your base which you must defend if you don’t want to be sent back to the Stone Age. While you can fight on the frontlines yourself, you can also set up defenses for your Pals to assist in defending the base. Make them strong enough and your Pals will be able to defend your base all by themselves.
Melting Pot of Game Mechanics
Top this all off with base building and survival elements and you have yourself quite the melting pot of game mechanics and a solid basis for a survival game. Which I think is more than anyone expected out of the game.
If any of this sounds interesting to you, Palworld will be releasing into early access on Steam this Friday as well as onto Xbox Game Pass for both PC and Xbox consoles. While hearing a title going into early access can spark fear into many people’s hearts, the ability to try the game out with Game Pass first is a huge plus.