Palworld 1.0 Review: The Monster Finally Grew Up

Two and a half years after it crashed Steam charts and started a lawsuit-shaped conversation, Palworld has finally shed the "Early Access" tag. Pocketpair's creature-collecting survival crafter hit 1.0 on July 10, 2026, and I went in expecting a victory-lap patch. What I got was closer to a full-blown expansion bolted onto an already enormous game.

What it is

If you somehow missed the storm: Palworld is Pokemon by way of Rust and ARK. You catch cute monsters called Pals, then put them to work - mining, farming, building, and yes, gunning down bandits at your side. It's on Steam, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and Game Pass for $29.99, and Pocketpair pointedly did not raise that price for 1.0. Given the roughly 40 million people who have played, that restraint deserves a nod.

How it actually plays

The headline addition is verticality. Sky Islands - floating landmasses stacked above the main Palpagos map - open up an aerial layer the game never had, and the new Wing Pack frees a party slot so you can fly without benching a combat Pal. It changes how you scout, fight and base-build in a way that feels genuinely new, not just "more map." The long-teased World Tree endgame zone is finally unlocked too, and between the two, the explorable world roughly doubles.

There are 72 new Pals (47 fresh designs plus 25 variants), pushing the roster to 287. The best of them - a martial-arts panda, a sword-tailed eel - are the kind of dumb-brilliant creatures that made this game a meme in the first place.

The highs

The core loop is still stupidly moreish. "One more Pal, one more base upgrade" ate my weekend whole. Automation runs deeper than ever, PvP is live for people who want it, and co-op remains where Palworld sings - four friends and a factory of confused monsters is comedy gold.

The lows

It's still jank. Pathfinding Pals get stuck on geometry, the framerate dips when a base gets busy, and the story is barely a whisper - you're here for systems, not narrative. Combat is functional rather than satisfying, and the endgame grind can turn from cozy to chore fast. None of it is broken; all of it reminds you where this game came from.

Who it's for

Survival-crafter fans, automation goblins, and anyone who bounced off Early Access and wants a reason to return. If you hated the loop before, 1.0 won't convert you.

Palworld didn't reinvent itself for 1.0 - it just doubled down on what worked and gave it wings. For thirty bucks with a price that never budged, it's one of the easiest recommendations of the summer, warts and all.

Score: 8/10

Image: SarahCartwright / CC BY-SA 2.0, source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bluetooth_game_controller.jpg