A very interesting game just hit the gaming market and it has taken the gaming world by storm. The game in question, Palworld, was released in early access on Steam on January 19th, 2024. Best described as a mix of three genre’s – survival in a similar manner to Minecraft or Rust; creature-based gameplay like Pokémon; and third-person combat and graphics like Fortnite – Palworld has taken a bold step to combine genre’s that have rarely, if ever, need mixed together before. So far, Palworld seems to be a huge success.

However, the mixing of genres is hardly new in gaming. Here is what sets Palworld apart from other genres and puts itself in a genre of its own, Artificial Intelligence (AI). This is the biggest selling point of Palworld – the Pals a player captures can be put to work to automatically collect resources, craft items, engage in combat, and more.

It’s not simple AI like we have seen in other games either (things like auto-play in mobile games), it is very complex. Pals can be told what to do specifically by the player or they can be free to do whatever they want, and they will do just that. They also have moods, for example, if a pal has been doing the same job for a while, they get grumpy and refuse to work for a while; or maybe a player has been feeding them the same food too much, the pals will get depressed and work slower. Just like AI we utilize in the real world though, it does have its issues and does not always work exactly how the player would like – this is why Palworld is still in early access, so these issues can be improved upon.

Finally, let’s get into the actual premise/objective of this game. Players spawn on a massive map but much of the map is unexplored and dark. They must venture into the unknown, capture pals, collect resources, and establish a base so they can continue their exploration. During their exploration, players will encounter increasingly more dangerous pals, some in the form of bosses. They also find other NPC humans that are either friendly or unfriendly in the form of the major enemy of the game, The Syndicate. The end goal of the game is to explore the map completely, quell the anger of the enraged boss pals, and defeat the bosses of the syndicate who reside in large towers scattered throughout the map. The story beyond that is somewhat sparce in regard to why the syndicate is evil and what their end goal is, but that may change as the game progresses with updates and goes from early access status to full release.

In terms of playing the game, it is pretty accessible game for anyone who is interested. It is a $30 purchase on Steam and only requires about 25 GB to download and play. Anyone who is skeptical about buying Palworld should check out the thousands of videos and streams that are playing this game or ask one of the hundreds of thousands of players that are enjoying this game. Of course, there is multiplayer in this game. Players can opt to play solo, with a few friends, and/or on a server with up to 32 players. This player limit may be increased as the early access goes on as well. Personally, I would recommend this game to anyone who likes or has enjoyed Minecraft, Pokémon, Rust, or Fortnite/other third-person shooters at some point in their gaming lives. It is a great game with lots of content to explore and should only get better as the game moves toward being fully released. See you in Palworld!