Palworld has taken the gaming community by storm. Photo: Screenshot
Review - It's got cute creatures, guns and sweatshops. Is it any wonder that new game Palworld sold more than eight million copies in its first six days? Despite little-to-no hype prior to launch last week, it has taken the gaming community by storm.
Unfortunately (but perhaps not surprisingly) Palworld is making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Less than a week after launch it was generating accusations of excessive violence, unethical AI use and inquiries to The Pokémon Company demanding legal action for its similarities to Pokémon.
Like most survival games, in Palworld you wake up, deserted, with nothing in your possession. You gather resources, explore your surroundings, cobble together basic tools to farm for food and survive in a hostile environment, all while building your way up as you speed run through civilisation.
Palworld is full of 'Pals' who you can weaken in a fight, capture in a sort of ball that lets you store them in your pocket, and then use them to fight other Pals. Sound familiar? That's because it's just like Pokémon. But unlike the PG battles in the fantasy land of Pokémon, where you kiss each other to sleep, Palworld has automatic rifles, rocket launchers, sweatshops and cannibalism.
Everything is lovely in Palworld, until the guns come out. Photo: Screenshot
Unfortunately for Palworld, these similarities have been a bit too close for Nintendo's comfort. Last week, Nintendo's Pokémon Company released a statement saying they would "investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to the Pokémon" though it didn't call out Palworld by name. The statement seems to be in response to enquiries made to the company by aggrieved fans.
The boss of Palworld maker Pocketpair has said the game passed legal checks before release, adding that the company has "no intention of infringing upon the intellectual property of other companies". Takuro Mizobe acknowledged the developers referenced Nintendo's franchise as a "great predecessor", but said Palworld was closer to other survival adventure games like 'Ark: Survival Evolved'.
But intellectual property theft hasn't been the only topic of outrage - some users have gone so far as to say the violent actions playable in Palworld edge towards animal cruelty. Even PETA released a statement condemning the game and calling for a vegan guide to playing it.
"It's 'Veganuary' after all, and gamers want to help animals by eating vegan in their game worlds and outside," PETA said.
For every angry fan, there's an equally excited one. Not two days after the game's launch, Australian YouTuber ToastedShoes created a modification that made Palworld look exactly like Pokémon - making it the closest we've ever come to having a Pokémon game on PC. It took very little time before it was taken down by Nintendo and we may never (legally) see it again.
Photo: Screenshot
What's it like to play? Well, as a fan of the survival crafting role-playing game genre, I nearly dismissed it as a gimmicky rip-off. Three hours in, proudly returning to base on my elegant deer-like Pal, riding the high of my rare Pal-hunt, I was irked to find a notification on my screen saying some of my Pals weren't doing so well. This appealed to my obsessive tendencies, and I was hooked.
One of them had become overweight and developed an eating disorder, another felt overworked and refused to do anything. Perplexed, I began to frantically read the in-game survival guide. I'd done everything by the book; they had a place to sleep, food to eat, a hot tub, what more could I have done?
That's when it struck me. It's the complexity of the decision-making that makes this game so enticing. It's like a management simulator - you must make difficult choices at every step. Will you ensure the happiness of every worker at the cost of efficiency? Sacrifice their mental and physical wellbeing because you can't be bothered? Or is it all meaningless?
I swear I've tried everything, and my Pal still refuses to work; it's constantly sick, I've run out of medication leaving me no choice but to shoot it like a horse. When the Pal drops some leather and meat after it dies, and all the other Pals help themselves to it, have I just facilitated cannibalism? And now that I know, will I do it again because it's easier to make a weapon than to make medicine?
For a game that's had so much of its ethics come into question, it's funny that the morality of decision-making is what is so interesting to me. There's a call to make at every turn. Maybe your fantasy is to ensure that you maintain a plant-based diet in-game and raise your Pals vegan, or maybe it's to simulate running a weapons-manufacturing sweatshop and become supreme leader of Palworld. Despite all the noise, I'm hooked and have played it like it's my second job. It's insane, but it's fun.
Pratik Navani is a seasoned video game enthusiast and lover of all things tech.
