Palworld — now available in Early Access on Steam and on Game Pass — was a game that I added to my Wishlist aaaaages ago. I randomly saw it on the Steam store and was amused by the concept of "Pokemon but with guns!"
A couple of days ago, I received an email from Steam alerting me to the fact that Palworld was now available in early access...
The entire store page makes me laugh. It pokes fun at itself and at certain other popular monster catcher games that start with 'P' and truly entices you to buy it with its wording. A true effective advertisement.
I recommend you go and check it out and have a laugh yourself. It's fantastic!
You all know my opinion of early access. I've been bitten a lot by early access titles that are still in early access a decade later and have learnt to stay away, for the most part. Occasionally a game appears and I have no choice. I must grab it. Palworld is one I stayed away from for a whole 24 hours before I succumbed.
The character creator has enough options to make me happy. Well, not "happy" but content. There were plenty of hairstyles, a colour wheel to change the colour of hair and eyes and skin, but faces are lacking.
I was sorely tempted to give my lady a Chad face, but I restrained myself. xD
In the beginning, it seems that you've washed ashore from a shipwreck. You're now on an unknown island, filled with Pal creatures, hidden treasures, and resources aplenty.
The first thing I see is a statue. Investigating it, it turns into a fast travel point. Huzzah! Fast travel!
The graphics are beautiful and I rather like the appearance of the water. It's so sparkly!
Gameplay, straight off the bat, feels like Minecraft/Valheim. We punch trees and stone piles to gather initial resources. Then follow the lengthy tutorial on how to build, what to build, how to capture your first Pal, and how to put your Pals to work like the slavedriver you're destined to be.
At night the temperature drops. I haven't crafted any proper clothing yet so must hover by a campfire. You didn't build a campfire? You're gonna slowly freeze to death.
Nice.
I caught myself a Lamball and immediately transformed from Ruthless Future Slavedriver to Pal Lover. Look how adorable she is! Giving her pets and a little loveheart appears above her head. Adorable. I love it.
I rename her to Lambie and check out her stat sheet. Apparently she's good at Handiwork, Transporting, and Farming. And I quickly learn how good the Lamball species at handiwork as I start building things.
I caught a bunch of them for wool to make new clothes, and then made them build their own ranch with their Handiwork skill. xD
Pretty soon, a fiery fox creature caught my eye and I had to catch it. He now serves as my lightsource as we roam around at night. I then crafted a harness for him so I could use his special ability if need be.
Huggy Fire.
With his harness on I can pick him up, hug him to my chest, and activate FLAMETHROWER at incoming enemies.
He also cooks food for me! xD
I transform from Pal Lover back to Ruthless Slavedriver. I had my lambs build a logging site, mining site, and crusher... then set some new Pals to work logging and mining.
I also had a statue built that can apparently enhance my character and my Pals. You can find shiny blue and shiny green statuettes around, and you offer them to this state to enhance things.
I enhanced my character by one to make her a better Pal catcher... but I'm not sure I want to enhance any Pals yet.
There are shiny ones with special abilities, and you can breed them for better stats and things, so I think I should save the Pal Enhancing for when I have a decent Pal.
I briefly joined a friend's multiplayer server and joined his guild, and I don't think I should have.
Multiplayer is good and all, but once you join a guild... everything you do is for the guild and not for yourself. You can't even build your own base and have to keep going back to the guild base. And if you can't build your own base, you don't get to slavedrive your own Pals.
I almost want to ask him to refresh the server and start anew, this time not bothering with the guild thing. But for now I'll just keep pottering away in single player.
I haven't even scratched the surface of this game yet, but I love it. It is a mix of Valheim, Pokemon (and Satisfactory from what I've seen of the more established screenshots) and from my initial first impressions this is the perfect monster catching game.
This is basically what I've always wanted in a Pokemon game. Open world, crafting, catching. I'm looking forward to progressing further and seeing what else this game offers.
There are dungeons I haven't experienced, there is an evil poaching syndicate that you can fight, towns with NPCs to visit, I still need to find my first ever Shiny. My partner found a Shiny "Daedream" Pal last night and I've been hunting for my own ever since. I really want a Shiny Fiery Fox creature.
Either way. There is still so much I haven't touched, but these are my very first impressions of the game and I love it.
I hope to write a more indepth review later as I get further into it! 😊 But from my first impressions, I feel if you like monster catching games and open world survivalcraft games, you'll love this too!
All screenshots in this post are courtesy of me, 
