The biggest problem with this game is probably that it launched ~5 days before Enshrouded. Enshrouded I think is the better game overall, but it's more a V-Rising/Valheim+++ whereas Pals was like an Age of Conan Thrall System+++. I COULD see big updates to this making it fun to revisit every so often, but honestly I wouldn't be surprised with the money these guys make if they just focus on another project immediately instead on a grander scale.
There's definitely a bunch of QoL at this point that I'd love to see implemented sooner rather than later:
-Allow the complete destruction of "resources" in bases. Have it be an option so if you want big ore nodes farmed that works, but if there's 30 stupid fucking trees in your base they just get deleted and never come back. This would help out the AI a TON.
-Allow a better assignment system. I had a fucking Penking who I wanted to run an icebox, but there were a bunch of egg incubators nearby and any time I threw him he'd just go "I CAN'T INCUBATE THAT! GOTTA RUN ACROSS THE BASE TO THE MINING STATION I GUESS!" They need let you hold a pal and aim at a bench/utility and then hit a button to perma station them there or make it prio 1 or something.
-AI needs better pathing. Birds are usually like Tier 3 transportation, but they ALWAYS get fucking lost/caught on something, then break their fucking bones or get depressed. They're the absolute worst fucking units, but at some of the larger nodes you NEED at least a 3 transporter.
-A better understanding of the capture "rating". It's numbers, but do the numbers mean anything? Anything significant? Probably not really! I'm 90% sure item tier matters more in capture vs mob level than anything having to do with capture rate. Also stun baton is a fucking suicide mission trying to stun a level 35+ mob in melee range for that 2% increased chance. No fucking way man.
-"Locking" items to spots in inventory/storage. I'd love to lock my armor/weapons I carry that aren't equipped. Not a huge deal as I can just shit out extraneous items and the pals will sort it out, but I'd also like to be able to "lock" some items in bins to make a better storage system. As a solo player this isn't hard to manage, but with a team the odds of some braindead grabbing all 500 spheres and ruining the sphere box is much higher.
Overall I agree this is a 1-2 week game with 50-150 hours of playtime. You definitely feel cooler in the 15-25 range and then after that it's more of the same for the most part. Venturing to dangerous places can be annoying without finding the nearest towers ASAP. Mobs hit hard as fuck. Our server just got turned down from 3x damage to 2x damage and I can not explain to you their damage scaling, but it's probably a 500% modifier. Things that hit me for 600 a shot hit me for like 80 now. The game is playable. Boss fights are long, but not instantly deadly. I do wish I did a little more damage personally, but I'm like 33 still using a crossbow because I can't be fucked to make bullets and 90% of my xbow use is to wittle down Pal health for capture anyways. Most of the boss fights just consist of good ranged Pals and then desummoning/resummoning your Pal at the right time to avoid telegraphs. Feels a little too basic and I think this is where Enshrouded will shine as it's truly more souls-like.
I'd say for a $27 game I'd give this a good 9/10. It's worth the money, could POTENTIALLY have amazing game updates, and had more QoL to begin with than was missing which is VERY unusual for game launches. The biggest downside is, like I started with, Enshrouded coming out tomorrow and I think that will be the more enjoyable game overall even if it's more guided than this one.