Valheim just spent six years in early access and finally crawled out on September 9 with the 1.0 patch, dropping the Deep North biome, PS5 and Switch 2 versions, and full cross-play while bumping the price to $29.99. Polygon’s Tomas Franzese says it’s finally the game it was always meant to be, but admits the whole thing still feels exactly like the 2021 pandemic fad that hooked everyone during lockdown. Iron Gate added some new weapons, armors, a grappling hook, and made the final biome complete, yet the low-fi Viking survival loop, boss progression, and building physics are untouched since the Steam debut.