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For those of you out there who have wanted a new Pokemon-like game, but this time with all sorts of guns and survival elements, that's a pretty specific request. However, shockingly enough, there's a game that fits this oddly complex request almost perfectly.
What to Expect From Palworld 'Pokemon With Guns' in 2024
With Palworld, a game described as 'Pokemon with guns' releasing in early access later this month, fans will finally get to play this bizarre game.
It's a game called Palworld, developed by Pocketpair who are most well-known for developing Craftopia. In Palworld, the collectible monsters of choice are called 'Pals', and there's a whole lot you can do with Pals in Palworld, which leaves players with a whole lot of questions as well. Thankfully, Palworld is launching in Early Access on January 19th, 2024 but for anyone who wants more info as early as possible, let's go over some more burning questions.
Is Palworld Just Another Pokemon Clone?
First up, let's just address the elephant in the room, Palworld has a lot in common with Pokemon. Granted, Creature Collecting is a sub-genre of games at this point that's not at all exclusive to Pokemon or even Digimon. But, both Palworld and the Pokemon games do share a relatively similar aesthetic, art style, and even creature designs. Well, while we can't fully confirm or deny the quality of Palworld (since it's not out at the time of writing this), we can say that the gameplay elements shown by Palworld so far seem very different from Pokemon.
Palworld has guns and boss fights to capture the Pals, first of all, and that's the difference most people will notice first. Besides that, Palworld also has survival elements, base-building, and vast exploration. Plus, the way Pals are used in-game seems very different from Pokemon, as there's a part of the trailer where the player literally fires their penguin-like Pal out of a bazooka.
Is Palworld Open-World?
Yes, Palworld is an open-world game. It has a whole world to explore using Pals to travel by land, sea, or sky. But, it's not just an open-world game, Palworld can also be described as a base-builder, survival game, farming/mining simulator, dungeon crawler, and technically even a hunting game. It seems that like with Craftopia, the developers at Pocketpair are designing Palworld to appeal to all sorts of people who enjoy all sorts of different video game genres.
Is Palworld Going To Be On Game Pass?
A big question that a lot of people have, and one that wasn't really shown in their marketing of Palworld much, is the question of whether Palworld is coming to Xbox Game Pass or not. Thankfully, it is, as Palworld will be a day-one release on Game Pass for PC, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One.
To be more specific, the developers have stated that the Early Access game will be available at 00:00 PST (AKA Midnight Pacific Standard Time) on January 19th, 2024.
How Much Will Palworld Cost?
It's great that Palworld will be a day one launch on Xbox Game Pass, but how much will the game cost players who don't want to use this subscription service? Thankfully, the price point for the game seems pretty reasonable at a solid $29.99 to purchase it during its Early Access phase.
The developers specifically worded the answer to this by using the phrase 'during early access' so this likely also means the price will change when the game fully launches with its 1.0 version.
Is Palworld Coming To PS5 Eventually?
As stated above, Palworld will be coming to both the PC and Xbox platforms at launch. This means people can get it on Steam, on the Xbox/Microsoft Store (for purchase or through Game Pass), on the Xbox Series S, the Xbox Series X, and the Xbox One.
Unfortunately, the developers have stated that there are no plans at this moment for a PS5 version of the game, but they've also said they'll keep considering it.
Is Palworld Multiplayer? How Does Co-Op Work?
Another big aspect of Palworld that has a lot of people interested has to do with the multiplayer. Pokemon games are starting to integrate more and more multiplayer 'features' these days, but not many of them could be described as a true 'co-op experience'.
However, Palworld seems to be designed with multiplayer in mind from the ground up, as people playing it will be able to play in a co-op session with up to four friends at once or join a public (or private) server that can hold up to 32 people. Of course, people can also enjoy the game entirely on their own as well, but it's great to see that all the options are there.
Can Palworld Be Played Offline?
Yes, thankfully, Palworld can be played completely offline in the single-player mode. There seems to be a bit of a trend these days for big releases to not allow for their games to be played offline, so it's very nice to see that Palworld won't be following this example. Of course, people can still play the single-player mode of Palworld while online too.
Will Palworld Have Crossplay On Launch?
Sadly, Palworld will not have crossplay on launch. This means that console players won't be able to enjoy the game with their friends who have it on PC, at least not at launch. However, the developers have made it clear that they plan to work on adding crossplay as soon as they can.
Also, as seems to usually be the case, no crossplay also means that Steam players won't be able to play the game with their Game Pass friends. Hopefully at the very least Pocketpair can figure out a way to let Steam users and Game Pass users play together, as this lack of cross-PC-platform crossplay is by far one of the least enjoyable aspects of Xbox Game Pass as a whole.
Does Pocketpair Have Plans For More Palworld Content After The Release?
And finally, will there be more Palworld content coming in the future? Of course, the game will be launching in Early Access, so it's a given that the developers will be adding to the game over time. However, Pocketpair has also stated they'll be updating the game after the Early Access period. They'll also have a year-one roadmap available for players soon and are open to the idea of expansions to the game down the road depending on the success of the game as a whole.
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