Respawn Monday #7: Palworld 1.0, and the Black Flag Open Seas
Last week was mostly focused on Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, but I was able to squeeze in some time to check out Palworld 1.0 over the weekend. Some thoughts.
Black Flag remake was fantastic, but…
You can read my full thoughts on the Black Flag remake here, as I gave it a 4/5, but why not a perfect score despite the game nailing the objective of giving a modern spin to a beloved title? Bugs and missing polish aside, the remake exposes the weakest point of the earlier games: combat.
The Ezio trilogy was a fantastic open world game overall, Black Flag had naval combat, and the first Assassin's Creed game was something we'd never experienced before at the time. But the combat was always the pain point that ruined it for me in the earlier games. The first two games were okay, but as you watch the series try to refine and change combat with each release, the results rarely land. I never had a great time when I was caught and forced to engage with enemies, and the Black Flag remake (even Mirage) reminded me of this.
In the Black Flag remake, they simplified combat so that perfectly timed parries become the turning point in a fight. But in reality, you're just spamming the attack button until the enemy dies. When they attack, press parry to deflect, or time it right to expose them for a takedown. This shift made combat dull, and the lack of enemy variety didn't help.
The move to a more action-RPG approach starting with Assassin's Creed Origins did improve things. Those titles had their own set of problems, but at least combat was a better experience.
This made me appreciate the Ghost of Tsushima series, whose combat system made each encounter something I actually wanted to engage in. Both games in that series capture a satisfying combat system that makes you think. Stances in the first game counter specific enemy types, and the different weapons in the second game work similarly: a rock-paper-scissors system that requires you to cycle through playstyles to succeed.
The Black Flag remake is already a huge success, having reached over 2 million units sold. That makes another remake project very likely to get greenlit. If it does, I hope they take a risk and experiment with the combat system, not just enhance it, but completely rework it for the better.
Palworld 1.0 doesn't disappoint
For the weekend, I opted for a more relaxed gaming session, one without embargo dates or worries about meta builds, so I revisited Palworld as it left early access last week with its 1.0 update.
I'm not much of a survival-building player, but the idea of catching monsters that can fight alongside you and also handle the chores needed to keep you fed and stocked on materials caught my attention when it was first revealed years ago. Setting up a base that operates automatically, churning out key materials while you're out exploring, is a satisfying concept, and Palworld pulls it off well. There's real depth in maximizing different Pal perks and stats to keep your base running at peak efficiency.
Everything is explained clearly and is easy to understand. I started a new campaign, and before I knew it, six hours had gone by. My Sunday afternoon disappeared into this Pokémon-esque open-world survival game. The controls feel completely different from the early access build, and the added polish is noticeable, since I didn't run into any distracting bugs this time around.
It's a massive open world with over 200 Pals to collect, boss battles, main and side quests, and dungeons packed with loot and schematics to earn. It's a monster of a game, and I'm genuinely fueled to see it through to the end, something I rarely do with base-building survival games. I haven't even touched the online side yet, sharing a world with up to 20 players, since I've been playing purely solo so far.
I'll have a full review out hopefully next week or so, but after just one weekend, I can already highly recommend the game.
About the Author - Carlos Hernandez
Carlos Hernandez is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Too Much Gaming, where he writes about video games, reviews, and industry news. A lifelong gamer, he would do anything to experience Final Fantasy Tactics for the first time again and has a love/hate relationship with games that require hunting for new gear to improve your character.
Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is a faithful, gorgeous remake that nails everything above water, even if its stale combat proves the series still hasn't solved its oldest problem.