Palworld

Palworld is very much a Jack-of-all-trades type of survival game. It has just about every feature you could want. The catch is, it will do all of things pretty well, but none of them perfectly. The map is both beautiful and massive, but much of it is empty. The pals are diverse and well designed, but with notably clunky AI. Base building is very easy and it refunds 100% of materials used, but the designs are simple and lacking some necessary QoL features. That said, I love Palworld. As a chronically indecisive gamer that bounces between different games every day, having a single game with several fleshed out features has been revitalizing. I feel encouraged, rewarded, and fulfilled logging in every day to play. There is always something for me to be doing, and if I get tired of any one task there are a dozen other things I can be doing. Multiplayer with friends is a lot of fun if you’re trying to progress quickly, but honestly solo has been even more rewarding since I can take it at my own pace. I love how customizable the difficulty is, you can fully control what kind of world you want to play in, which was perfect for fine-tuning my solo experience. After a rough first impression, I think I’ve solidly changed my mind on Palworld, and I think I’m exactly the kind of gamer they are targeting. For someone that wants a more linear experience, a stronger narrative, or a game with more polished features, I can see how this might not be the game for you. But if you can look past a few minor pain points, I think there’s a very good game in here for just about anyone who likes survival games.