Palworld tosses a lot of mechanics into one package, but one core feature feels underdeveloped in a way that can make the entire experience disappointing. The game’s storm of hype was largely kickstarted by obvious Pokémon comparisons, but Palworld draws a lot of its core gameplay elements from survival crafting games like Ark: Survival Ascended and Valheim. Regardless of how much fun can be found in collecting, breeding, and battling with the diverse creatures known as Pals, any failure to implement the core tenets of survival crafting well ultimately lets Palworld down.
Although it can take a while to get a good set-up going in Palworld, making progress on a base quickly becomes a core that many aspects of the game revolve around. Captured Pals can do much more than idle in storage, helping with work around bases (in a way that can feel exploitative, to say the least), and turning a basic encampment into a proper stronghold is arguably one of Palworld‘s more rewarding elements. Comparing Palworld to survival crafting alternatives reveals where this aspect falls short, however, and it doesn’t always take long to butt up against its limitations in-game.
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Palworld Limits Players To Building Three Bases
A key restriction of Palworld is that the game places an overall limit on the number of bases that any individual is allowed to build, which starts out at a single base and ultimately maxes out at 3. The ability to build a second base in Palworld is unlocked at Level 10, and the third becomes accessible at Level 15. Although incremental progress is always a big part of survival crafting games, locking down base-building in such an arbitrary way feels like a huge mistake that limits the creativity and organic progression of players.
Although Palworld clearly took inspiration from major titles for many of its elements, the base-building restriction isn’t something it lifted from any of the titans of the survival crafting genre. Whether talking about decade-old games like Rust or recent forays into the genre like The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria and LEGO Fortnite, allowing bases to be created at will is the common standard to be found. The feature doesn’t necessarily have to stay, as Palworld is still in the process of early access evolution, but it’s confusing that it was even included in the first place.
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Palworld’s Base Limits Apply To Guilds In Multiplayer
The base limitation in Palworld becomes even more painful in multiplayer, as asking multiple players to share three bases is significantly more restrictive than when the limit is applied to a single person. Although it’s possible to have more than three bases in one server or world, breaking that limit is dependent on players not allying in a Guild. Guilds provide the main mechanic for working together in Palworld, pooling resources, experience, and unlocks to form a powerful partnership that highlights the social aspect of the game, but joining one can also be a cause for concern.
Anyone working together will find that the base limit applies to the entire Guild, which can be one of the most frustrating discoveries in the game. This arbitration makes the prospect of cooperation one that comes with unnecessary downsides, and it can prevent newcomers from exercising their own creativity if they want to join up with friends. Palworld has gotten some praise for having more polish than many titles do when they first hit early access, but baffling decisions like this one can hamper an experience more than any array of bugs (of which the game is still fairly well-equipped).
Luckily, playing with friends in separate guilds is still a viable approach to Palworld, as the Guild mechanics aren’t necessary for any basic interactions. It’s still possible to take on dungeons with other players who don’t operate in the same Guild, and there are plenty of ways to help out or trade resources and Pals without directly sharing things. The Guild concept could become more important when PvP is added to Palworld, however, which is something that developer PocketPair has confirmed to be in the works.
Exploring The World Is Worse With Fewer Palworld Bases
One saving grace for Palworld‘s base limit is that the map isn’t unnecessarily huge, and its size pales in comparison to the procedurally-generated worlds of many other survival crafting games. Consequently, it doesn’t feel like bases have to be left exceptionally far behind when going on journeys, somewhat alleviating the itch to build extra. It’s still a substantial chunk of land, however, with a size that compares to mid-sized open-world games like Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain.
With the three-base limit, it basically becomes impossible to really experiment with bases and locations in Palworld, forcing each one to be employed for maximum utility. Resources are scattered about the world, and having reasonable accessibility to key resources from bases can save a lot of time and effort. This discouragement of creativity makes it harder to make a real mark on the map, which can dull the overall sense of progress and make the gameplay start to feel more repetitive as it goes on.
One Clever Palworld Trick Makes Traveling So Much Easier
One hidden building trick in Palworld enables people to launch from their bases. It isn’t a glitch either; it’s built within the game physics.
The limit on the number of bases isn’t the only way in which the mechanic feels restrictive in Palworld, as it also offers less robust options for building any given base than many of its competitors. This may not be an essential part of the game for everyone, but it’s one of the areas that could add a lot of interest if properly addressed, making the need for some essential updates feel especially keen. Building great bases should be one of the ultimate triumphs of Palworld, but thanks to some arbitrary limitations, a lot of potential is currently going untapped.
- Platform(s)
- PC , Xbox One , Xbox Series X/S
- Released
- January 19, 2024
- Developer(s)
- Pocket Pair Inc.
- Publisher(s)
- Pocket Pair Inc.
- Genre(s)
- Crafting , Open-World , RPG , Survival
- ESRB
- T
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