If you ever thought Bulbasaur would be better with a cannon strapped to its back, we have the game for you.
Palworld is a monster-collecting game that lets you use guns in battle - and it’s coming to Xbox, Game Pass and PC on January 19 in early access. After all, who needs magic to win skirmishes when you can just shotgun other critters in the face?
As horrific as that sounds, Palworld’s gameplay actually looks as cartoonish and sanitised as the combat in Fortnite. You can wield assault rifles and rocket launchers to take down the game’s wild fauna, which range from ferocious felines to cuddly dinosaurs, and never worry about spilling an ounce of blood.
The game’s open-world is home to 100 unique “pals,” each with its own set of skills. Judging by Palworld’s website, developer Pocket Pair is trying its utmost to avoid a lawsuit. Here, trainers are deemed “tamers” and Poké Balls are called “spheres.”
Clearly, Palworld is trying to differentiate itself from Pokémon. Alongside guns, the game also lets you put your pals to work building bases and farming crops. If mowing them down with an uzi wasn’t bad enough, you also have to put them through hard labour? Somebody, get Peta on the phone.
Seeing as it’s billed as a survival game, you can also eat your own pals if you run out of food. Anyone for panda burgers?
Pocket Pair is promising a lot from the game: There’s also a multiplayer mode where you can team up or take on other players for pals, or just leave your pals to do the fighting.
Ultimately, Palworld could turn out to be an amusing spin on the Pokémon formula or a shallow rip-off. As it showed with its previous game Craftopia, Pocket Pair has a habit of borrowing elements from other, more popular titles to create something bemusingly fun. In that case it was Zelda: Breath of the Wild mixed with cozy games like Harvest Moon. Maybe, it can pull off the same feat twice with Palworld.
