Palworld's monumental success is in my opinion a testament to how starved of Pokémon-like games those outside of Nintendo's ecosystem are, and is perhaps an indictment of Nintendo and Game Freaks own ineptitude to capitalize on this: both through a lack of any meaningful ports to other systems and also a lack of innovation in their own general game structure.
Palworld is a highly derivative and sometimes even a blatant copycat of other games in the survival-builder genre. Mixing and mashing various different survival games functions from games like Ark, various Minecraft mods, Valheim; taking the well known Monster Collector theme from Pokémon alongside it's anime/cartoon-like aesthetic with cutesy monsters many of which are incredibly similar to their Nintendo counterparts; and even adding a few of their own concepts here and there to really bring it all together.
I've played the game for a little over 5 hours with friends and I have to say, despite any criticisms I might have over concepts like 'originality' or 'shamelessness', the fact of it all is that this game is damn fun and it's a breath of fresh air over what has been a pretty dead genre for me. I mean Pokémon sweatshops? How could I resist?
While Palworld isn't quite the co-op Pokémon I've always dreamt of (if anything Poke-MMO is more down that alley) this definitely scratches that Pixelmon itch -but without all the disorganized bloat that generally comes along with Minecraft mod-packs.
Rather than an Open-World Co-Op Pokémon, I see Palworld as more of a refined Pixelmon. A game that focuses more on the survival builder aspects -with Monster Collecting as a bonus on top of that. That's fine and it's more than fun, but I have to say Palworld leaves me wanting a more 'Pokémon but on PC' experience that Palworld doesn't quite itch.
I hope that Nintendo sees the success of this and instead of focusing on trying to destroy and bring down the success of other games, focuses on properly innovating their own. Pokémon as an IP has so much more potential than Nintendo seems to realize, and people are hungry for more.
Overall though I've been pretty impressed by Palworld. For an early access game I've had remarkably few issues with it and there is plenty of content to explore. I would like more purpose and direction, but I think that there is a lot here to enjoy already.
I probably won't play for a long time, survival games don't have a long lifespan for someone like me. But I think that there is a lot to enjoy here and Palworld has been one of the better survival games I've played -maybe due in part to my desire for Pokémon-like games.
3/5
Palworld is a highly derivative and sometimes even a blatant copycat of other games in the survival-builder genre. Mixing and mashing various different survival games functions from games like Ark, various Minecraft mods, Valheim; taking the well known Monster Collector theme from Pokémon alongside it's anime/cartoon-like aesthetic with cutesy monsters many of which are incredibly similar to their Nintendo counterparts; and even adding a few of their own concepts here and there to really bring it all together.
I've played the game for a little over 5 hours with friends and I have to say, despite any criticisms I might have over concepts like 'originality' or 'shamelessness', the fact of it all is that this game is damn fun and it's a breath of fresh air over what has been a pretty dead genre for me. I mean Pokémon sweatshops? How could I resist?
While Palworld isn't quite the co-op Pokémon I've always dreamt of (if anything Poke-MMO is more down that alley) this definitely scratches that Pixelmon itch -but without all the disorganized bloat that generally comes along with Minecraft mod-packs.
Rather than an Open-World Co-Op Pokémon, I see Palworld as more of a refined Pixelmon. A game that focuses more on the survival builder aspects -with Monster Collecting as a bonus on top of that. That's fine and it's more than fun, but I have to say Palworld leaves me wanting a more 'Pokémon but on PC' experience that Palworld doesn't quite itch.
I hope that Nintendo sees the success of this and instead of focusing on trying to destroy and bring down the success of other games, focuses on properly innovating their own. Pokémon as an IP has so much more potential than Nintendo seems to realize, and people are hungry for more.
Overall though I've been pretty impressed by Palworld. For an early access game I've had remarkably few issues with it and there is plenty of content to explore. I would like more purpose and direction, but I think that there is a lot here to enjoy already.
I probably won't play for a long time, survival games don't have a long lifespan for someone like me. But I think that there is a lot to enjoy here and Palworld has been one of the better survival games I've played -maybe due in part to my desire for Pokémon-like games.
3/5