Palworld mixes things from other games that makes for something initially interesting, and the intentional dissonance within the presentation clearly made for a compelling way of selling the game.
However, after playing I feel the game is very barebones. The novelty wore off quick and ended up feeling uninspired, boring and ugly: The games Palworld borrows/steals from are far better at what they do, and Palworld does very little to feel truly unique while focusing on too many things, both in terms of gameplay and visuals.

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To be more specific:
I gave this a shot, and unfortunately this falls in the category of game where it takes a lot of hours to formulate a proper opinion. I would ask for a refund if I had the opportunity.

That said, I try to keep an open mind for Early Access titles. The game runs fine despite the bugs and very clearly unfinished parts. And I have to mention I played single player and thus would assume the experience may be quite different in multiplayer.
What does worry me is that the company's previous game, Craftopia, has been in Early Access for years, with seemingly little movement forward. It does seem that this title may suffer a similar fate, despite the massive initial success as far as numbers go.

Even if the game does keep active development going, I do not see how it will find success in the long term. It simply started to remind me of games that satisfy the multiple itches Palworld tries to unsuccessfully sate.

At it's core Palworld blocks your progress through a few ways. You need to level up your base(s), you need to level up your character, and you need to collect and improve Pals to achieve both effectively. The technology tree is directly tied to your own level, which is tied to your actions, especially collecting Pals, and Pals have their effectiveness tied to your character level as well. In practice this means even if you find a way to capture powerful Pals, they're brought down to your level so they do not boost your progress in any meaningful way, further meaning you'll be bouncing back and forth between core playstyles with minimal progress that constantly tells you quantity trumps quality. All the while you're trickled with small victories that keep you oblivious of how little you're moving forward. A staple in games that focus on developing a base as a core feature.

Gameplay itself is pretty bog standard in all aspects, with frustrations sprinkled about in what ever you might focus on, followed by a control scheme that is unintuitive, inconsistent and inadequate in options for customization.
Base building and resource gathering feels clumsy and unrewarding, and the Pals you rely on to automate parts of your work have pretty terrible pathfinding which causes them to get stuck or leave them spinning in an apparent existential crisis. Getting to the point where Pals are effective requires a lot of work, since you are limited on how many Pals you can assign in a base depending on the base's level. Leveling the base requires specific buildings that you may not want to build in the first place, and those buildings are unlocked through technologies that you have to be high enough level for. This aspect just made me want to pick up Valheim or Factorio again, where base building and expansion is directly limited by your resources and tech availability.

The training of Pals is also similarly slowed down through your progress. A Pal in your team cannot effectively have a higher level than your character. Even then, while there is variety to Pals through abilities they can learn and traits that give bonuses and penalties, it doesn't feel like there's that much meaning to how you approach this area. Pals either help you with fights, material gathering or managing your base largely automatically, leaving incredibly little control in your hands. For monster catching and management if you don't dig pokemon, something like Temtem or Casette Beasts do far better in that department than Palworld does.

Of course the above might be something you want to mix with active combat and adventuring, where both you and your Pals are direct participants. Regardless of what weapons you use, the combat on your side is incredibly repetitive as Pal abilities and movesets are limited. Dodge about and you'll quickly find the gaps where to act if the opponent does not oneshot you and doesn't have an absurd health pool, and if your weapons do not break (since maintaining gear is also a feature in Palworld). You have practically no control over the Pals in your team during fights beyond a support ability and the ability to switch between them. Adventuring at this point feels like a more tedious iteration of Breath of the Wild with the terrain being largely empty and without challenge. Your travel focus tends to be on grabbing fast travel points and scattered upgrade items, so exploration via your Fortnite glider and BotW climbing takes a backseat for the most part.

Then the visuals, kind of the armed elephant in the room. Even though it's not as badly optimized as most games of similar vibes (that is to say there is some optimization present), but it is spoiled by how much of a mess the direction is. You could say the realistic weapons are intentionally in contrast to the cute Pals and the environment is supposed to have a grandeur fitting for exploration, but regardless of what you think of asset flips and minimally changing designs from other franchises, the vision for how the game looks is very messy and doesn't feel cohesive. Clearly it has made for compelling marketing, taking this edgy teen approach to pokemon. But the novelty wears off very quickly, and the cracks begin to show themselves fast when you take a moment to observe. Overall ugly to look at.

All this sprinkled with the red flags of previous titles like Craftopia and the company/ceo being very into NFTs and AI generated content leaves me doubting that Palworld will become good, or even finished.

Overall, not worth it in my opinion. Everything Palworld tries to do has been done better by other games years ago. Specific games rather than genres, as Palworld does not so much borrow as it directly copies these concepts without much thought on improving any system that has been implemented. Mixing them into one game with an edgy twist is not really enough when the game overstays it's welcome. Early Access is what it is, but I personally do not have high hopes. Remains to be seen if I am proven wrong.

Palworld mixes things from other games that makes for something initially interesting, and the intentional dissonance within the presentation clearly made for a compelling way of selling the game. However, after playing I feel the game is very barebones. The novelty wore off quick and ended up feeling uninspired, boring and ugly: The games Palworld borrows/steals from are far better at what they do, and Palworld does very little to feel truly unique while focusing on too many things, both in terms of gameplay and visuals. ---------- To be more specific: I gave this a shot, and unfortunately this falls in the category of game where it takes a lot of hours to formulate a proper opinion. I would ask for a refund if I had the opportunity. That said, I try to keep an open mind for Early Access titles. The game runs fine despite the bugs and very clearly unfinished parts. And I have to mention I played single player and thus would assume the experience may be quite different in multiplayer. What does worry me is that the company's previous game, Craftopia, has been in Early Access for years, with seemingly little movement forward. It does seem that this title may suffer a similar fate, despite the massive initial success as far as numbers go. Even if the game does keep active development going, I do not see how it will find success in the long term. It simply started to remind me of games that satisfy the multiple itches Palworld tries to unsuccessfully sate. At it's core Palworld blocks your progress through a few ways. You need to level up your base(s), you need to level up your character, and you need to collect and improve Pals to achieve both effectively. The technology tree is directly tied to your own level, which is tied to your actions, especially collecting Pals, and Pals have their effectiveness tied to your character level as well. In practice this means even if you find a way to capture powerful Pals, they're brought down to your level so they do not boost your progress in any meaningful way, further meaning you'll be bouncing back and forth between core playstyles with minimal progress that constantly tells you quantity trumps quality. All the while you're trickled with small victories that keep you oblivious of how little you're moving forward. A staple in games that focus on developing a base as a core feature. Gameplay itself is pretty bog standard in all aspects, with frustrations sprinkled about in what ever you might focus on, followed by a control scheme that is unintuitive, inconsistent and inadequate in options for customization. Base building and resource gathering feels clumsy and unrewarding, and the Pals you rely on to automate parts of your work have pretty terrible pathfinding which causes them to get stuck or leave them spinning in an apparent existential crisis. Getting to the point where Pals are effective requires a lot of work, since you are limited on how many Pals you can assign in a base depending on the base's level. Leveling the base requires specific buildings that you may not want to build in the first place, and those buildings are unlocked through technologies that you have to be high enough level for. This aspect just made me want to pick up Valheim or Factorio again, where base building and expansion is directly limited by your resources and tech availability. The training of Pals is also similarly slowed down through your progress. A Pal in your team cannot effectively have a higher level than your character. Even then, while there is variety to Pals through abilities they can learn and traits that give bonuses and penalties, it doesn't feel like there's that much meaning to how you approach this area. Pals either help you with fights, material gathering or managing your base largely automatically, leaving incredibly little control in your hands. For monster catching and management if you don't dig pokemon, something like Temtem or Casette Beasts do far better in that department than Palworld does. Of course the above might be something you want to mix with active combat and adventuring, where both you and your Pals are direct participants. Regardless of what weapons you use, the combat on your side is incredibly repetitive as Pal abilities and movesets are limited. Dodge about and you'll quickly find the gaps where to act if the opponent does not oneshot you and doesn't have an absurd health pool, and if your weapons do not break (since maintaining gear is also a feature in Palworld). You have practically no control over the Pals in your team during fights beyond a support ability and the ability to switch between them. Adventuring at this point feels like a more tedious iteration of Breath of the Wild with the terrain being largely empty and without challenge. Your travel focus tends to be on grabbing fast travel points and scattered upgrade items, so exploration via your Fortnite glider and BotW climbing takes a backseat for the most part. Then the visuals, kind of the armed elephant in the room. Even though it's not as badly optimized as most games of similar vibes (that is to say there is some optimization present), but it is spoiled by how much of a mess the direction is. You could say the realistic weapons are intentionally in contrast to the cute Pals and the environment is supposed to have a grandeur fitting for exploration, but regardless of what you think of asset flips and minimally changing designs from other franchises, the vision for how the game looks is very messy and doesn't feel cohesive. Clearly it has made for compelling marketing, taking this edgy teen approach to pokemon. But the novelty wears off very quickly, and the cracks begin to show themselves fast when you take a moment to observe. Overall ugly to look at. All this sprinkled with the red flags of previous titles like Craftopia and the company/ceo being very into NFTs and AI generated content leaves me doubting that Palworld will become good, or even finished. Overall, not worth it in my opinion. Everything Palworld tries to do has been done better by other games years ago. Specific games rather than genres, as Palworld does not so much borrow as it directly copies these concepts without much thought on improving any system that has been implemented. Mixing them into one game with an edgy twist is not really enough when the game overstays it's welcome. Early Access is what it is, but I personally do not have high hopes. Remains to be seen if I am proven wrong.