There's been a decent amount of hype surrounding the day one release of Palworld on Xbox Game Pass later this week (it arrives on January 19th), and ahead of the launch, various outlets have been going hands-on with it.

That includes us at Pure Xbox, where we've collectively spent about 10 hours with Palworld so far. As a result, we've put together a video preview featuring lots of gameplay footage (from the PC version) alongside our first impressions.

Here's a little sample from the video, which you watch in its entirety at the top of this article:

"This new 'gotcha' game has drawn open comparisons to the likes of Pokemon which you can credit to its catching, training and battling of over a hundred collectible monsters, but to say this is simply a clone of Pokemon would be to completely ignore 90% of what this game is all about."

In the Pure Xbox preview of Palworld, our Video Producer Craig Reid summarised it as an open-world survival adventure that he's "thoroughly enjoyed for the most part", despite a few drawbacks that drag the experience down a little bit.

But what about everyone else? Here's what a couple of other early access reviews have been saying:

Eurogamer

"For now, Palworld is a fantastic base-builder, base defense and collection game, and as long as you're not expecting more than that, you're bound to have a great time with it."

Vulkan

"I do think this is a game that has a very good core. It does need some polish on the outside edges, but what they have so far is going to be very easy for them to build on and continue expanding."

So there you go! That's what some of the reviews are saying about Palworld so far, and we're expecting to see a lot more written impressions (including here at Pure Xbox) crop up before its Xbox Game Pass release this Friday.

What are your hype levels like for Palworld after watching this video? We'd love to know in the comments!

Ready for Palworld? Liking what you're seeing so far? Come tell us your thoughts down below.