Palworld 1.0 was released on July 10th and the reception that game had is beyond amazing. There are 400k+ players currently playing it and it peaked at 825k in just a few days since release.
I’ve played it in early access since day one and have invested hundreds of hours into it since. I’d also love to add that I’ve played it properly. I took my sweet time exploring, catching pals, discovering new areas and building a self-sustainable base. Even with all those efforts I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface. But after a few months of playing early access version, I kind of took an extended break from it. Until now, that is.
A few months ago they released a video where John “Bucky” Buckley said they were going to cut back on updates so they can focus on finishing 1.0 and I was ecstatic. It took some time for them to deliver but after reading patch notes, I’m glad they did.
As someone who is trying to run a gaming blog, I’ve played a lot of games on launch day and almost all of them have something in common. They all release during the nighttime, when I’m sleeping or it’s a time reserved for family. Real unfortunate but I’ve made my peace with it. One time when I got blessed with a proper release time frame, a huge thunderstorm happened and internet speed went back to 2005. Thanks anyways Pocketpair.
What Changed Since Launch?
Returning to Palworld after 2 years felt like reconnecting with a friend from a high school. Everything looked familiar, at least enough to bring back those memories of the first time booting the game up and playing it while the first snow fell outside. I was genuinely excited to play Palworld again. So much so that I completely forgot to write about my first day back. And the day after that. And the day after that. I got completely lost in the sauce.
It didn’t take long to realise that the game has changed majorly since I last played it. Compared to my previous experience, it feels like I haven’t even completed 10% of the game. Pocketpair expanded the game with new islands/areas to explore, introduced numerous Pals to collect, deepened the story, added new side quests, and refined nearly every major system.
Base building offers more flexibility and options, so much that I, as someone who’s devoid of any sense of decoration, started building a “cool” base. Also, combat has been rebalanced with new weapons, armors and abilities that look futuristic and cool.
On top of everything, there’re countless quality-of-life improvements that make everything feel so much smoother. Combined with numerous bug fixes and optimizations, version 1.0 feels less like an updated Early Access game and more like the complete survival adventure Pocketpair originally envisioned. The best 26,09€ I’ve spent that year.
Even after reading those long patch notes, I had no clue where to start first or what to check out first. To be completely honest with you, I still don’t. I’m kinda winging it and going with the flow. In case you’re someone like me who hasn’t touched Palworld since early access, I highly recommend starting a new character and going from there. You’ll avoid all the confusion I have to deal with.
Gameplay
When it comes to Palworld gameplay, I feel like I could write a book about it and still have something left for the second part. In order to keep it short and simple, I won’t go into too much detail. Also, before I continue: my Palworld 1.0 experience isn’t the same as someone who played it every day for the past 2 years nor someone who played it less than that. My experience doesn’t only include things from 1.0 but also many things that were added since the last time I played and all of the juicy things I’ve missed while playing.
Exploration
When you look at the map of Palworld now, it’s more than obvious that it changed so much. There are new regions that I haven’t seen before, new islands that I haven’t been to, and places that look too scary to visit at my level. Like I’ve said at the start, I took my sweet time in early access and getting to new places took time and a lot of effort.
Now these past few days, I’ve been zooming everywhere. Teleport to a desired location, fly to point A, finish objectives, fly to point B, pick what I need and teleport back. While it does seem like everything got sorta faster, also it’s worth noting that there’s so much more to see and collect. It only makes sense that they would make traversing a lot more convenient for everyday players.
Catching Pals
The main reason that Palworld was such a success is that they offered something that we wished Nintendo had done with their Pokemon franchise (which they still don’t intend to do). Which is a realistic and exciting gameplay tied to catching Pokemons. Oops, I mean catching Pals.
No matter how interesting the concept was back then, now it is 10 times better. They added 78 Pals across the Early Access updates but also 72 Pals added in the 1.0 update itself (47 brand-new species and 25 variants). That’s more than double since the beginning.
Not only that but they added new spheres and spheres modules that make catching them more fun and way more addictive. They’ve added something called “Pal Expedition Station”, a place where you can send Pals to collect various premium items.
The problem is that I need to have a certain power in order to reach 100% success rate. So, besides exploring new content, I’ve been on a Pals catch and breeding craze. Hopefully I’ll finish that soon and be able to focus on other stuff.
My current obsession is getting the hang of using the Slider Sphere Module. It throws a pokeball in a weird curved angle and my success rate with it is embarrassingly low. I’ve wasted so many spheres so far but it’s so fun.
Combat
Hear me out, fighting a legendary or large group of Pals feels like an utter disaster. To be more precise, I feel like the rainbow is puking all over my screen. I don’t know what’s happening or where to look.
With that said, they’ve added a lot of new cool weapons like light sabers, laser/plasma rifles, launchers, and they even added drones. Options are there but unlocking and crafting them will take you some time.
With new added Pals, comes new abilities and you already know what I think about them. Fighting the regular Pals represents no challenge, as for the more advanced version, you’ll need to think about your approach, farm proper armor, weapon and Pall skill if you’re even going to think about trying them.
Base Building & Automation
Base building still remains one of Palworld’s stronger attributes and easily where I’ve put the most of the time. While building a beautiful castle is a satisfaction on its own, the more satisfying is building a well oiled farming machine into self-sufficient operation. Assigning pals to mine, farm, transport, and finish other tasks will help you progress immensely and in the process you’ll have more time to focus on things you find more enjoyable.
Version 1.0 builds on that foundation with additional building pieces, improved automation, and quality-of-life changes that make managing a base far less frustrating than it was at launch. And expanded building options give you more freedom to create the bases you want. Recently a short popped up with the best bases in Palworld and man, are some people talented. I’ve seen huge castles, cities, and I’ve even seen a huge Star Destroyer from Star Wars. All I’ve built is a 10×10 glass box and for a good moment there, I was impressed by my work.
Of course, not everything is perfect. There’re still moments where Pals get distracted, take a walk to Neverland, or simply refuse to move. Sometimes I have a feeling like once I log off, they all stop working and go on a vacation. Honestly, it might be that I’m overworking them or this needs to be addressed in the next patch.
Story
Let’s be honest, Palworld’s selling point was never its story, and that hasn’t changed with 1.0. I respect them for not trying to make it into something it obviously isn’t. With that out the way, I feel like they tried to make a thing that serves as a thing that’s there to guide you to the next place. They’ve added a good amount of cool looking characters, a lil bit of lore, and few side quests but they don’t take the spotlight from things that Palworld is known for. It’s definitely a huge improvement from the last time I played it in early access.
Performance
While the overall art style stayed similar, it feels like Pocketpair has improved a lot from early access. The quality of older Pals seemed to be improved and the design of new ones looks interesting enough, to say the least. Same goes for the new and old areas.
I’ve turned all the settings to the max and I must admit that I had zero issues with it. There were no delays when loading, no FPS loss or any unwelcomed bugs that interrupted my gameplay. Not that it had any major issues in early access either.
I’ve even taken a liberty to test it out on my older PC. Once I cleaned all the dust from years of sitting and found the right cables, I downloaded Palworld. While I didn’t dare to try on max settings, the game was working perfectly and smoothly. And if it worked on my old outdated PC, it will work on your PC guaranteed.
What I Loved About Palworld 1.0
I can’t put it in words how obsessed I was with Palworld back then when it was early access. While I didn’t have as much excitement, I must admit that this version I enjoyed so much more. I absolutely loved exploring new areas, discovering new content, new pals, and especially loved improving my base.
It just feels like Palworld offers way more freedom than it ever did. In some other universe this could have been bigger than Minecraft. I’m still playing it and my next goal is to improve my expedition station, improve my weapon set, and ultimately attempt to build a base in PlaynForge style.
What Still Needs Work
Palworld might have been fully released but it still needs a few final tweaks and polishes. Most importantly the Pal behaviour in bases. Whenever I put something to be finished, I have a feeling they would do anything but that. Even when I put them strictly on one job, they would rather chill in a random corner than finish it. And last would be the clutter when fighting larger groups of Pals or legendary ones. Although, maybe I can fix that by lowering a few settings.
Final Verdict
Palworld 1.0 brought a lot of changes like new areas, buildings, weapons, armors, Pals, and so much more. Returning to it felt nostalgic and yet so refreshing. Now I can positively confirm that this is a game that I hoped it would turn out to be when I first bought it. Money well spent.
Whether you’re completely new to Palworld or, like me, haven’t touched it since launch, version 1.0 is easy to recommend. Pocketpair has kept its promises from early launch and delivered a survival game that I can happily recommend to anyone.
