Sorry if this is redundant, I didn’t see another thread focused on reactions to the game itself (just the Pokemon-ripoff news cycle).
I tried it on GamePass thinking, why not - might as well see how overhyped it is. And unexpectedly, I put in about 8 hours this weekend.
Despite some rough edges and some very clear inspiration, I am actually enjoying it. It has a very satisfying gameplay feedback loop and is an overdue (if involuntary) “modernization” of the basic monster-collector format.
almost 50 hours at this point. Its perfect game for having music or videos playing in the other window. Played both Single and Multiplayer. I’m a bit burnt out with whats available, but considering I played Ark back when it first was released, and that game makes me feel like having to go to a job I absolutely hate, Palworld so far has been enjoyable, looking forward to seeing updates.
No.
Hosted a multiplayer world and didn’t have any serious issues, but according to everyone else playing with me it was laggy as shit (and I’m kown for having the best internet in my group)
Despite trying I never got Into pokemon as a kid so my judgment isn’t worth much in that regard, but it’s still very much an unfinished game, as everyone buying it should know in advance.
It was fun but I probably never would have bought it without friends to play it with, and I probably won’t launch it again until it’s far more complete.
Having fun so far. Only reached lv 10 so it’s just tutorial stuff. Can’t wait until I have a regiment of chickens with muskets
Enjoying it a lot, maybe ~12h in or so?
I put about 30h into Valheim and this feels like it will play out a similar way. I’ll have a blast for a concentrated time, maybe play with a friend or two, then find something else. I thought the mishmash of realistic world and cute cartoony monsters would clash but it’s working for me. Just starting to see the loop of automation and what to look for in a second base. It has a charming amount of jank attached to it.
I spent most of my time yesterday rebuilding my base after one of those grass elephants attacked us for no obvious reason, then a bunch of WAY higher level Relaxasaurus raided alongside the elephant and burned my base down.
Oh, crazy on the raiding - I had a few low-level monsters raid, but fought them off pretty easily. Those monsters would kill me instantly. Not surprised if raid balancing is another bug, though.
I haven’t played it, and not trying to squash anyone’s fun, but this is what turns me off to the game entirely. Early Access often feels like a lazy way to get funding and get free QA testing. They get to make a game without really making any kind of solid commitment to the game or the community. Bugs? Who cares! It’s early access, so they can be forgiven!
And based on some of the images where it looks like they just dropped a generic Kalash model they bought from an asset store (for example), it’s a second red flag of possible laziness.
I hope this turns into something amazing for people who are enjoying it, but I’m going to wait to see where development goes before I give it real consideration.
Admittedly, I’m guilty of buying EA because there have been dry periods in the GameDev pipeline and I was desperate for something new, but I’m okay with it for smaller devs that don’t have the budget for the kind of QA that bigger devs do. That said, the fact that some of these games have been in EA for over a decade (putting aside whether or not they’re effectively a functional product at this point) is a pretty egregious abuse of the community goodwill, and bigger developers shouldn’t be using it at all because it’s encouraging the trend of pushing out buggy messes with 60GB day-1 patches that still don’t make a game playable.
