Okay then, I think after putting 53.8 hours into this game, I can make a statement as to my enjoyment of Palworld.
Just to preface this, I have been on a steady hype train for Palworld for the last couple of years since the first set of trailers released for it. Mostly for the novelty of the premise that the devs put forth, and also because at that point I have become more or less disillusioned/disinterested in my primary monster franchise of Pokemon up to that point, having not really played meaningfully since the first Black & White games.
Even from just the trailers, you could tell the game was almost certainly going to have some level of jank to it, and I was prepared to write the game off as just another piece of shovelware that was trying to tap into the monster cash cow. But I was hoping against hope that perhaps that if the game was modicum good, it would satisfy that little itch that Pokemon never has been able to scratch since the switch to 3D.
When the game launched, I bit the bullet and took the $30 plunge, and got started.
I am happy to report thus far, I am satisfied with the game.
That being said however, there is still room for improvement. A lot of room to be frank.
With my last survival game being Valheim, it doesn't take long to spot the imperfections that tarnishes the game's exterior, but that's to be expected for an early access game of this nature. Due to my frugal purchasing habits, unlike others in the thread that have burned hot and hard on the genre, I don't find myself minding these flaws, even going into the tedious midgame. Even knowing the reputation of the devs with regards to not finishing off Craftopia, at $30, I can't really complain to much, especially seeing as games double or more that price come out in an abysmal state of being, whereas Palworld in contrast plays decently enough.
Performance however is... Questionable. My rig isn't the most powerful out there, but the game chugs at medium settings, and on the highest becomes noticeably irritating to play with, often dropping into the 20s to 15s, sometimes even worse. For the sake of the game, I am going to assume this is due to shit optimization, and hopefully will be addressed come the next few patches, or failing that, *someone* getting a good mod fix in.
Going back to the Valheim comparisons, my most recent construction project in the game has met with some difficulty. While it ultimately completed to my satisfaction, the devs need to put into some work regarding both the construction set for building stuff, and dealing with AI pathfinding for your pals.
To be frank, you *need* to plan your base with the poor AI pathfinding in mind, lest you find your pals getting themselves stuck in a feedback loop and starving themselves to death by getting stuck on some geometry. The bigger pals suffer this the most, being apparent when building up my second base in the game somewhere south west of the map where all those ores are located at. It isn't uncommon sight to see my digitoise stuck on top of the ores, or on other pieces of geometry within the base itself. Often this calls for either recalling said mons and spawning them back in, or removing the offending piece of geometry to address the issue.
Again, it's early days, so hopefully either a patch or modfix will come and help remedy the issue.
Moving on to the construction set, it's fairly basic. Nothing to write home about. There's a couple funky issues as echoed by others in the thread, most notably when building angled rooftops. I often find I need to build up a floor below it in order to get it placed correctly, otherwise it does not register.
And then there are these corner spots that quite frankly, could have been solved with the angle piece that you can find easily in Valheim.
This building took me around thirty to forty minutes to construct, being around three floors high and about 8-10 pieces at its widest. Were this to be done in Valheim, I could have probably been done in half that time.
It's a little irritating, but nothing to write home about otherwise.
As for the monster hunting itself, I found it fun and fairly challenging, even with some hiccups due to issues not of my own.
Again, the geometry and AI for your buddies comes into play here. More than once I have been fucked over by a pillar that was *supposed* to block a projectile attack, only for a projectile to phase through and utterly dumpster me. I have since learned to compensate for this, but it's still an irritation when the terrain does not function the way you want it to.
Regarding your friendly AI, my most recent boss hunt on the water with jormuntide ended with my pals floudering about doing fuckall both on land and in the water, even with my dedicated water mons. Even on land, something with the AI was acting funky, but I managed to preveil in the end.
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Overall, I say despite all these difficulties, I found the main gameplay loop to be enjoyable enough, if only to scratch that itch Pokemon likely never will. The designs, despite many of them being blatant ripoffs, are also enjoyable enough, and the little things such as your pals relaxing in the hotsprings are nice enough to look at. It's nice, seeing your pals doing their work, or just taking a nice hot break in the springs that you have constructed for them, such as with this wixen here.
Or this pussycat.
Or your reliable dinos doing the good work that needs to be done to keep the base heated and fed. I find these dinossoms, plus their quadruped cousins in the game to be an improvement loosely based on the meganium they are based on, even if the former apes more the goodra line than anything else.
(No baldies here. They have a very swish and stylish head flower, thank you very much.)
I don't have a GIF on me, but just seeing these two relax in the springs enjoying themselves is a nice sight to behold.
Also, I got very lucky in the early-mid game and scored myself a fire serpent dragon.
Well, when he isn't burning down the boxes of course, but otherwise dependable.
As far as my first week impressions go, the game definitely needs work. But if the devs keep at it, there could have something quite good on their hands. There are other recent releases, such as the Enshrouded which appear to be more polished and probably would have won this month's indie darling award were it not for the media frenzy current going on with Palword right now, but I am content with what I have right now. As far as taking out my early access virgintiy is concerned, there are far worse games I could have spent it on.
Tl;dr, the game needs work, but what it has right now sets up for a promising future if the devs play their cards right and aren't compelete malicous, incompetent dipshits. If nothing else, I hope it lights a fire under Gamefreak's and the Pokemon Company's asses to actually improve and iterate worth a damn on their games and monster designs. Lord knows I really don't care for what they've been putting out from Aloha forward, seeing as Palworld at least has the excuse of not having lore to justify their designs and aesthetics one way or the other.
And hopefully, as far as the inevitable fandom for this game is concerned, beyond the furrybait and porn that has already come and more to come, I hope just as with Pokemon, there will be some decent fan stuff to keep my occupied going forward.
Give me your fan art. Give me your fanfiction. Give me your passion however it may come, I just hope the creative kiwis in this thread are not opposed to sharing the wonders of their heart's imagination. Best I can do on my end is post some wholesome screenshot here and there.
