Palworld Early Access Review - Steam Version

As I take my first steps out of a cave, surveying a familiar-looking plateau draped in nothing but a loincloth, I suddenly crash into a bulbous, bleating ball of cotton-wool. Half sheep, half sentient ball of fluff, it lets out a startled meep, curling into a ball and rolling head-first towards me.

I’ve spent the last ten days fully immersed in Palworld. If you are blissfully unaware, Palworld is a survival game that borrows elements from popular survival games like Rust, a little “Souls-like” inspiration, some Breath of the Wild, and, of course, Pokemon. Is the whole more significant than the sum of its parts? Is Palworld worthy of the hype? Well, fortunately, we are here to let you know!

Nexon's medieval fantasy brawler Warhaven is shutting down on April 5, 2024, just six months after it launched on Steam in Early Access.

Open-world survival crafting adventure game Omega Crafter will launch in Early Access for PC via Steam on March 28, developer Preferred Netwroks announced. A limited-time public demo will be available from today until February 13.

Note: This review is specifically for the version of Palworld available on Xbox and through the Microsoft Store on PC . If you haven’t seen our review of the Steam version , go check that out first! Nearly everything we said there still applies to this review, which will instead focus specifically on what’s different with this version.

It’s been a reasonably long time since a game latched onto my innermost sense of childlike wonder – that is, until I lost 30 hours of my week building a fortress town in Enshrouded’s meadows before I even started its main quest. This action-RPG survival sim draws a mish-mash of inspirations from games like Valheim, Minecraft, The Elder Scrolls, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and all those ideas come together in a way that’s already engrossing at its Early Access launch. Its gob-smackingly gorgeous high-fantasy art style, vast open world, intelligent crafting systems, seemingly limitless base building, and satisfying character customization are impressive, but also marred by a few bugs – both literal and figurative – a lackluster story filled with decent-at-best puzzle design, and clunky action combat that’s off to a middling start. And yet, across 62 hours soaking in its rustic fantasy charm, it was easy to forgive those hitches and gleefully get lost in its depths with a friend.

Total sales for the Steam version of open-world survival crafting game Palworld have surpassed eight million units in less than six days after its Early Access launch, developer Pocket Pair announced.

For some time now, fans of survival games have had their eye on Enshrouded, the new game from the makers of Portal Knights that’s a little bit Zelda, and more than a little bit Valheim. Well, following a Steam Next Fest demo, Enshrouded has officially launched via Steam Early Access. You can check out an Early Access launch trailer, below.

Keen Games’ Enshrouded is out now on PC via Steam Early Access. The survival crafting title features base-building and action RPG mechanics as players explore the world of Embervale and attempt to push back against the terrifying Shroud. Check out the release trailer below.

Enshrouded is an interesting title that has been hovering on my radar since it was first announced. The action survival RPG from Keen Games, Enshrouded, aims to slot itself right in amongst others in the survival MMO genre, taking cues from games such as Minecraft, Valheim, and more. It offers enough, though, to shake up the formula and make Enshrouded feel wholly distinct and, at times, even better than some of its predecessors.

Pocketpair has revealed the early access content roadmap for Palworld,confirming what players can expect in future updates.

Total sales for open-world survival crafting game Palworld have surpassed seven million units in only five days after its Early Access launch, developer Pocket Pair announced. (Update 1:40 a.m.: According to Geoff Keighley, Pocket Pair has confirmed that these sales numbers are Steam only, and do not include Xbox, Microsoft Store for PC, or Game Pass numbers.)