Bizarre ‘Pokémon with guns’ game Palworld is coming to early access on PC and Xbox next week
Also available on Xbox Game Pass on day one
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Creature-collecting open-world survival gamePalworldfinally has an early access release date, and prospective players on PC (Steam) andXbox Series X|S can look forward to diving in from next week.
Specifically,Palworldwill be available to play from Friday, January 19. It’ll be added toXbox Game Passfor Series X|S and PC on day one, and while crossplay won’t be immediately accessible, a newQ&A poston the game’s Steam page reveals that “we are working to make this a possibility as soon as possible!”
Palworld, which is being developed and published by Pocketpair, was first revealed in 2021, and was immediately (unofficially) dubbed by many as “Pokémonwith guns.” It’s not hard to see why the comparison toPokémonwas made given the creature capturing and collection mechanics, but the guns are certainly a large factor settingPalworldapart from the beloved role-playing franchise. In the trailers we’ve seen up to this point, it’s been shown that not only can player characters fight wild creatures (Pals) with guns, but the Pals themselves can also be equipped with them.
Not only that, but players will be able to put their captured Pals to work to help them build bases - something which they don’t seem thrilled about in the footage we’ve seen so far. It’s been shown that if they’re worked too hard, they can actually die, which is genuinely rather harrowing. Oh, and you can eat them too. There’s a lot to unpack here.
For anyone onPlayStation 5, Pocketpair confirmed that although there aren’t any plans as of yet to releasePalworldonSony’s current-gen console, the team “will consider it during development.”
If you love Pokémon, be sure to check out our ranking of thebest Pokémon gamesto see which games are the very best. You can also find more excellent game recommendations on our roundup of thebest RPGs.
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Catherine is a News Writer for TechRadar Gaming. Armed with a journalism degree from The University of Sheffield, she was sucked into the games media industry after spending far too much time on her university newspaper writing about Pokémon and cool indie games, and realising that was a very cool job, actually. She previously spent 19 months working at GAMINGbible as a full-time journalist. She loves all things Nintendo, and will never stop talking about Xenoblade Chronicles.
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