Second Wind [Intro Music] Palworld is a lot of things, but for
the most part it's a survival crafting monster catcher combo platter with its
biggest portions giving Ark and then Pokemon. There's an unmistakable hint of Elden Ring
sprinkled in, a field boss in front of a ruinous church here, average ails, a giant tree
is your final destination there, and the plate it's all being served on feels
an awful lot like Breath of the Wild. It's 30 bucks on Steam and available on
Game Pass, it's also a game I anticipated would take over the spring and summer of its
release, but even I was not expecting it to be the highest selling game on Steam and
crack 8 million sold copies in 6 days. I'll go over the raw impressions of my
first 2 hours, whether I think that's enough time to consider a refund, and then
I'll crack open the rest of the review. Played around 50-60 hours across
multiple saves, finished the game, and most of my time was in single player
offline mode so keep that in mind. The first thing that catches my eye is the
size of Palworld’s balls. It’s made it this far without a cease and desist from Nintendo,
so it’s gotta be legit. But what sticks out to me more than the legally distinct Electabuzz with
a gatling gun is this game can be played offline– or “Not Logined(sic)” as the game likes to put
it. This is a big deal because to my mind there’s And there's three distinct flavors of
early access survival crafters, and Palworld's trying to blend two in
a way I haven't seen before. Some are bare bones at the start and
rely heavily on player versus player action. Rust and Ark for example. Mandatory online multiplayer and beating
each other with sticks is the game's default state while the developers
finish making the rest of the game. You have to host a private server to get
away from the online hooligans who want to destroy your base and wear your skin, but then
there's nothing to distract you from how unfinished the game is. Other early access survival crafters
lean more the way of story and solo experiences like Subnautica and the Long Dark. And others prefer to sell themselves as
a friends versus environment experience like Grounded or the Forest. They all eventually flesh out in full
release, but primarily start as one of these three. Seems everyone gets their own island
with adjustable settings in PalWorld, so it's going more of the cooperative survivor
route by default, and also has the option to raid and pillage in
perpetually online multiplayer servers. As far as character creators
go, this seems alright enough for me. But considering you can mold the shape
of your dong in games nowadays, this is probably the bare room with only a TV and a
chair equivalent of customization options. I'm not pressed when it comes to the
finer details because most games don't show off my hard work. I settle for the usual, all sliders to
the right, die so thick my hands clip through. I wake up in the morning feeling nothing
like P Diddy, awakened by a chicken, a sheep, and a pink Meowth. Shipwrecked. Buried in the sand in
front of me is the last Wii U. The towers are the key. The tree holds the truth. It dies, but the back remains lit. I take it with me in case I craft a
Best Buy later where I can buy a charger. Stepping through a stone doorway, I
immediately see the game is not shy about showing how big it is from the start. And it's got texture. That's a big tree. Buttes, mountains, metal towers, and
migrating pride rocks layer the environment until only their silhouettes remain, jagging the horizon. Near me there's smoke, and where
there's smoke, there's someone heating up a can of beans. Not the chattiest of NPCs, but they give me wood. Ah, now comes the traditional game loop. Wood makes a crafting bench, which then
makes an axe, a pick, and my first melee weapon. Never use tropes to some, but to me
it's the napkin and cutlery at the dinner table of the genre. The starting ritual that
locks me in before I indulge. The first appetizer is a NOT pokeball,
used to catch wild, legally distinct mons after I've tenderized them enough to comply. If I have one complaint right now, it's
that these creatures are almost too adorable to interrogate. I'm of the mind that pixels are pixels,
but here I can kinda see where PETA was coming from. The level up effects drown out the
echoes of the screams in my head, and the tutorial distracts me with Pal management. Up to five can be kept on my
person to be summoned and gain experience. Others can work at the base while I'm
away, and the rest sit in a dark box for spare parts. I stay near the base and work on
upgrades, but it isn't long before my productivity becomes dependent on Pal's with specific skills. Mining to gather rocks, lodging to cut
down trees, kindling to fire up the furnace. Pal's are the way of the
future, and I need to get with the times. The first I should make a
bed to sleep through the night. Come morning I only see cats, chicken, and sheep. If I'm going to commit war crimes, I'd
rather be something less distinct than a farm animal. I head down the hillside until I see...Pip-lup? Sorry, I mistook you for someone else. I spot a giant grass
mammoth with a boss fight health bar. Never have my balls felt more inadequate. At the bottom of the hill
there's a statue that unlocks fast travel. A path runs through the ruins of a stone
church that hides between a divide and the rocks. Another stone archway frames one of the
metal monoliths the beach-washed Wii U mentioned at the start. The towers are the key. Right around here is where the two hour
timer runs out if you want to refund the game. If you're still on the fence I can safely
say that two hours is not enough time to witness a whole gameplay loop. Probably won't get into real combat be
it inside the first dungeon, the first enemy AI camp, or the first boss tower. And I highly doubt you'll have acquired
your first flying mount that opens up the game's exploration. Around there is where I say you've closed a loop. Crafting and gathering are about half of
a loop, which leads to combat, which is about a quarter, and then that leads to
exploration, which is the other quarter. After two hours you'll set about
evicting the bosses squatting inside five metal towers to find out what's in the big tree. You can knock on the front door in any
order, but each neighborhood is more hostile than the last with creatures growing less and
less impressed with you and your measly balls. Your pals can help you make
better gear and balls through automation. Admittedly, I've never been the best
when it comes to stringing processes together to the point where I can walk away
confidently knowing nothing will die. But I don't think the body
count was all my fault this time officer. The pals get stuck a lot as it is and
elbow room becomes even more scarce as you acquire better but chunkier pals. Often they won't even detect work to be
done even if you pick them up and throw them down in front of their chores. The game just says no
work detected, I detect lies. At times it's completely random which
role a pal will fulfill if they specialize in more than one thing, which many do. My Penking refuses to stop mining no
matter how much I throw him at the assembly line. There is a pulpit to force pals to overwork,
but nothing I can find to assign specific duties. The one time I did turn on the sweatshop
setting everyone stopped working in a manner of minutes. If you're looking for heavy endgame
automation to make the factories of the future then it doesn't feel like it's quite there yet. Everything I've assembled so far feels
like I set labor laws back about a hundred years. But again I'd recommend asking
someone who's better at those kind of games. In the meantime you can select five pals
to stay strapped until you get a strap of your own. You may have heard the game described as
Pokemon with guns, but it's more like Ark with Pokemon instead of dinos. You can't just craft a Walmart and walk
out with a gun the same day, the American way. You have to work your
way through the technology tree. Starting with a bow to a crossbow to a
musket to shoddily crafted firearms before you get enough levels to play Scarface. By comparison you can unlock a little
friend for the chipmunk and monkeymons as early as level 11 and 12. But pal levels and elemental rock paper
scissors play a more noticeable role in combat until late game. I don't believe bullets are considered
in elements, so pals with fire powers are more dominant than pals with firepower. Aside from special cases only one party
member can be deployed at a time and some pals may not be the best in battles but might
offer more utility like flying or gathering ore. So carefully selecting your crew based
on immediate needs and forecasted threats has you feeling like Nick Fury forming the Avengers. Speaking of, the third person system is
a marvel to behold when combined with Pokemon style battles. I don't know if I want to call it an
exploit, but I love these moments when I recall my pal just in time to avoid a massive
attack and then resummon it or swap for another one on the fly. I also found that if you mount a pal
and use their moves then hop off, they'll use their moves again without
needing to recover the cooldown. Yes, I want to be the quarterback
leading my team on the field or even as live bait kiting the enemy around instead of the
coach yelling on the sidelines in between turns. Pal World is for people who do that
sexy thing of only assigning attack moves instead of stat boosts, with the added benefit
of letting me roll up my sleeves and say fine I'll do it myself. The boss fights aren't too intense
aside from a handful that will run you down, but it's interesting that the tower fights
have a 10 minute time limit on them, meaning you at some point do need to invest time in
finding, breeding or genetically altering stronger pals and figuring out how to mass
produce your own munitions instead of running around in circles until attrition wins
out, like you can with the field bosses. Once I acquire enough bullets
there will be two raid bosses in this tower. Now for the world, I'm used to early
access survival environments being shallow, delivering the basic outline of a map with dead
ends and signs pointing out future renovations. Pelapagos island rivals
even some full release game maps. You turn a corner and
it's not just another corner. They can be another
biome with different creatures. Another set of enemies holding pals hostage. A pal sanctuary. A black market dealer in a cave
selling or buying illegally obtained pals. Another page of lord of reed, another
statue to raise the power of your balls, another egg to incubate a fruit tree
that teaches new abilities to your pals. You never more than a few meters away
from something, and it doesn't have a sense of being haphazardly
spawned in, it feels deliberate. There's extra encouragement to get to
the top of a cliff, follow a worn down trail or look for holes in the walls. Not just for your own sense of wonder,
but because there is likely a reward for your curiosity instead of an IOU. The game doesn't seem to want to get in
your way of exploring either as the survival elements aren't constantly nagging you
to hydrate, sleep, or stop masturbating and most creatures are only
provoked if you get too close. Hardcore survivalists might
find this game on the softer side. You can add a little spice with the
setting sliders at any time, but it's mostly changing the numbers so it might not
feel like a well thought out challenge. In that sense, Pal World is more of a
vessel for creature collecting than roughing it in the woods. You're on safari, looking for one of
every animal, comparing the stats of your catches and hunting down the elusive
sparkly, shiny, I forgot what it's called. You can even catch man,
the most dangerous game of all. Just be careful because forcing humans
into your balls is considered a crime and can set off the island police. A sense the developers are planning a
bigger storyline than lore sticky notes with you having to choose
between lawful and unlawful actions. The characters in the game even talk as if
they're offering you quest, but there's nothing to turn in unless it's a merchant. One thing that does break the illusion
of a lived in world at times is its inhabitants. Sometimes you'll spot opposing factions
fighting it out and other times the bots get stuck on themselves, spin in
circles or stare at nothing. This is probably a me thing, but a poor
semblance of a human throws me off a little in a West World kind of way. Makes the world feel
lonelier than if it was deserted. But this game is in early access after
all and you can invite real humans to play with you. Which brings us to the
question that looms over every purchase. Is PalWorld worth it? I've answered half of that
question by telling you what Palworld is. The other half of that
question depends on what you want. The biggest reason not to buy this
game currently is if you want an ending. I've beaten all the bosses and made it
to the tree just like the Wii U said only for a giant red wall to
prevent me from going further. And the developers themselves
have confirmed there is no ending. I understand some people want a game
that offers a reason to get moving and a concrete finish line to end on that's not here yet. If you want a game that provides loose
goals but ultimately you choose the direction your fun takes until the game is
finished then there's plenty going on as it is. I'm here because I want survival
crafters and I like the idea of monster collectors. The real Pokemon, TemTem, Cassette
Beasts and any other creature catchers with a turn based system don't make me
feel as involved as I would like. Aside from Pokemon Ranger because you had
to draw circles around mons with the DS stylus. And I 100% want more games that feel
like other games I love with careful attention being paid to how the pieces connect. That's PalWorld strength right now. Some will undoubtedly be horrified by
Frankenstein's monster no matter how nice the stitching might be or how attractive the
original body part owners were. I think that's a little dramatic. To me it feels more like dating a girl
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