Send Lawyers, Guns, and Money

Around a year ago, Palworld appeared. "Pokemon with guns" was the instant cry and it was thought this would simply be a janky meme game.

Come release and, Palworld has so far survived the Big N (for now) and done incredibly well, pulling in numbers that would make most AAA studios consider sacrificing their loved ones for.

And of course, cynicism dictates that the meme has carried it and it's just the "flavour of the month" and while those are valid points, there is another one to consider. The game is good. Very good.

There is charm to the whole thing, a sort of cheeky, vibrant energy. Yes the meme is real but this is also a legit game with solid gameplay, a "one more hour" vibe to it as you work towards getting new stuff to build. Adding the capturing Pals just adds to the gameplay. And while the Pals design maybe a case of copying someone's homework, they still look pretty good visually.

It does have the usual survival genre issues in that gathering resources can be monotone, hunger is a bit too constant, the world design could be better and there's really no true goals. And keep in mind its Early Access (more so on Xbox/PC Game Pass due to how it operates, meaning updates will be behind the steam version). Which means we can witness such jankyness such as Pals pathfinding becoming wonky, lack of information input, UI being a bit of a drag to navigate and not much to do.

But, again providing it does survive in the long run, there is a foundation here that is very solid and can be built upon and have players return again and again, with the core gameplay loop being oddly a lot of fun and addictive that its enough to carry it.

We're no longer laughing at Palworld. We're laughing with it.

Rating 7/10