Tencent's big new survival game looks like Palworld wrapped in Horizon Zero Dawn, but it does have an interesting premise: 'Why can't human beings kill God?'

Tencent is getting into the open world survival game business with a new game called Light of Motiram, set in a verdant jungle world dominated by massive machine monsters called—wait for it—mechanimals.

First things first, yes, Light of Motiram has a very obvious Horizon Zero Dawn visual vibe going on. But on the gameplay side it also borrows heavily from Palworld, as players will be able to bond with numerous types of mechanimals, customize and level them up, and put them to work on various tasks—exploration, combat, or just gathering and building. There's a bit of Monster Hunter as well in the boss fights, each of which will unlock new crafting recipes and materials, and reveal more about the story of how the world of Motiram ended up in the state it's in.

Despite the fantastical setting, Tencent is leaning hard into the game's "realistic physics simulation," which encompasses everything from the individual materials in its "freeform building system" to weather: A falling tree will kill you quick, and metal armor is not recommended for use in the middle of a lightning storm.

I'm not sure we really need another open-world survival game, and the similarities to Horizon are not subtle. Even so, I think it looks potentially quite good, and Tencent making what appears to be a determined move into the genre is interesting in its own right. The Chinese conglomerate is a quiet superpower, and it can bring more or less unlimited resources to bear on the project. That's not a guarantee of success, but it sure doesn't hurt—and as we've seen with games like Palworld, originality isn't necessarily a vital part of a winning formula either.

And beyond all that, any game that asks "Why can't human beings kill God?" is going to immediately arouse my curiosity, especially when it's framed not as a rhetorical question but a practical one. Why indeed? I don't know that Light of Motiram will really clear that up for us, but it might be fun to see it try.

What might also be interesting is whether Light of Motiram arouses any interest from Sony. Numerous posts on Steam (where the game actually leaked yesterday) note the obvious inspiration (to put it mildly), and it's undeniably pretty blatant. But whether it will be enough to prompt any sort of action remains to be seen: When Nintendo sued Pocketpair, for instance, it didn't do so because Palworld looks like Pokemon, but over allegations of infringement of three specific patents. Tencent may not be setting any new standards for creativity here, but whether it's done anything legally actionable is an entirely different question.

Light of Motiram will support solo play or multiplayer for up to 10, with cross-platform support across PC and mobile devices—and yes, it's free to play. A release date hasn't been announced but it's available for wishlisting now on Steam.