Palworld

Only started playing this because of a Steam Family, and I recommend it, but only very tentatively. 

I've always been wary of "early access" games. More and more developers have been doing that lately and it usually results in a product that is buggy, a product that is never finished, or a finished product that isn't even different from the early access version. With the latter, you have to wonder why even call it early access, and just call it "live service" or something (if there's continuous updates). While I understand its for funding reasons, it's always been a bit of a red flag to me. Palword is set to finally get out of "early access" this year, yet the game doesn't feel like it, and I really worry about their promise of 1.0 having "so many changes."

Palworld fun and addicting, but probably only for the first 15 hours or so. It's one of those games you play non-stop for a week but then never touch again after that. The gameplay is fun, but gets repetitive. The world is visually lackluster, with very sparse architecture, and the architecture that is found usually isn't unique or interesting to look at (a lot of the same-looking huts and stone shambles). The environment is pretty, but so "realistic" that it's boring and looks like every other generic fantasy rpg. 

The NPCs are of mobile-game quality, and Palworld does that thing where interesting lore can be read via long pages you find scattered across the map. This can work, but you have to make the visual environment/characters unique/stimulating enough to motivate players to want to read MORE about them. The game does not do that. Pokemon wins on worldbuilding by a landslide. Palworld has made zero cultural impact for a reason.

The Pals are cute, but I don't think they go well with the environment. Their flat, overly cartoonish features (the human characters also have this) against the very detailed, realistic environment...and guns...just doesn't look right, and people made fun of how palworld looked for a good reason. A more stylized environmental art style would have done wonders for this game, but even then it wouldn't have fixed the fact that there's nothing really to do on the map except fight players of pals, and build and collect stuff. 

It also gets to a point where you kinda just...auto everything? All the pals have all these attacks/skills but you can't actually control them in combat, so I don't really understand the point of them. Maybe later on a deeper combat system is unlocked. But something like that should be available from the start.  

Despite being visually much more similar to Pokemon, I'd say Palworld's mechanics lean a lot more towards the crafting side, and the main gameplay is more similar to Minecraft or Factorio. While I would recommend Palworld to anyone, you'll probably stick with it longer if you're someone who is into base-building/factory games and the type of repetition they have.

Finally, I just don't know if I trust that the devs have truly upgraded Palworld, because they've really given no proof that they have. Once 1.0 comes out I may change my review.