Action · 2026 · Pocketpair · online
Palworld
Catch creatures, build a base, run a factory — and the creatures work in the factory.
What it is about
Creatures called Pals wander an open island. You can catch them, and then you choose: send them into battle, breed them, or put them to work at a bench. That is the joke of the game and its engine at once — every Pal has work aptitudes, and distributing those well eventually gives you a base that runs without you.
Alongside sits a conventional survival game: hunger, building materials, weather, bosses. Every slider for all of it can be changed in the world settings, from considerably harder to nearly harmless.
With two, you share a world and a progression but largely play alongside each other. Play is online only, though it does work between PC and Xbox. There is no split screen.
Our verdict for couples
The appeal is the sheer nerve with which it throws Pokémon, Ark and a production line together: you catch adorable creatures and then put them on the workbench, where they shovel coal until they drop. With two, it divides itself up after an hour — one extends the base and sorts the pals by what work they are good at, one heads out and brings back new ones. Because you share a world without ever needing to be in the same place, it also works when one of you only has half an hour. Every slider for damage, hunger and pace can be set freely, so you can agree on a shared level rather than the more practised one's. The one thing you cannot do is sit on the sofa together: there is no split screen, not even on console.
Pros
- Every difficulty slider adjustable
- The world carries on when only one of you is there
- Cross-play between PC and Xbox
Cons
- No local co-op
- Still does not run smoothly everywhere
- No German voice acting
Suitable from
Casual–Hobby
- Conflict potential
- Harmonious
- Cosiness
- Mixed
- When you can stop
- Any time
- How long it lasts
- No ending
What other co-op fans say
The tone is unanimous: solo works, together is clearly better. The same mash-up gets described over and over — Pokémon meets Ark meets Minecraft — and the surprise that this nonsense works at all. Marriage and spouses come up strikingly often, usually as a joke about the lost hours. The recurring objection is not about the game but its condition: crashes and stuttering are still reported regularly even after the 1.0 release.
- “Hours of fun, solo or with others. Think open world pokemon with survival, base building/upgrading, and machine guns.”
- “Fun game and great with friends! It's destroying my marriage!”
- “I actually love the game, however, optimization is kinda ass. Frequent lags even on lower settings, which sometimes make the game unplayable.”
Summarised by machine from 60 Steam reviews, not written by our editors. The quotes appear verbatim in those reviews.
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