There's A Game Somewhere In Pax Dei, But I'm Struggling To Find It (2024)

Pax Dei is vast and shiny, but has the depth of a tech demo. I’ve seen glimpses of dungeons and monsters and heard whispers in the community of upcoming in-game events, but I have yet to experience any of them. During my first dozen or so hours with the game, I barely saw anyone else and didn’t really do anything but struggle with the tricky building mechanics and collect myriad fruit and vegetables. I did meet one or two folks out in the woods cutting down trees, but when I tried to talk to them, I thought the chat box was broken. This is an early access game in the old school way - it’s not remotely close to being finished, and you, the player, are required to test it.

Positioned as a social sandbox MMO by developers Mainframe Industries, the world of Pax Dei starts out empty. There’s nothing significant to find, except some angry boars. The idea is that the world will become populated with the creations of the players, a la a more permanent Death Stranding. Castles, roadside inns, entire villages: if you can think it, you can build it - at least, if you’ve got some friends to play with. Pax Dei isn’t a solo experience. It took me quite a few hours to even get a rudimentary base going, as the quest for simple clay took me further and further from my homestead.

It’s a lovely idea, all these people co-existing, a local entrepreneur building a tavern and charging you for beer as you pass through the town. Emergent storytelling and roleplay tied to a gorgeous world built in state-of-the-art Unreal Engine 5. This is what Pax Dei promises. But it’s not there yet. It’s not even close. The whole concept makes me pull on my conspiracy hat. There’s definitely liberal use of Unreal Engine assets in Pax Dei. I’m sure I’ve seen those boars before, maybe even the bushes, and the walls of my first building. It feels a bit like the Truman Show, when Truman finally starts to take notice of the oddities of his world.

Then there’s the game's early access and rumours of its complicated monetization when the game launches into full release. Murmurings of a subscription service, of being able to buy plots of land for real money - which you can, already, by the way. Funnily enough, I don’t want to log into a game that I’ve paid for and then pay virtual rent on a piece of land that I’ve got to turn into something actually worthwhile. The problem is, if everyone feels the same way, suddenly there’s actually no Pax Dei at all. What’s a player-crafted world when you don’t have any players? Whatever the developers have planned to monetise the game, they need to be more transparent about it before selling a half-baked game for full price.

This all sounds pretty bleak, and the Mixed reviews on Steam clearly show I’m not the only one feeling this way, but perhaps there is some hope for Pax Dei in the coming years. Yes, I do mean years. That’s how far away this game is from being something remotely similar to what the developers have promised. We’re currently in an alpha, basically. A basic framework of a game with store assets and little else, just a hefty roadmap from the developers to give us half an idea of what to expect.

If you’re keen on paying to alpha test quite a buggy and unfinished social sandbox MMO, then Pax Dei is the game for you. It’s a lovely place to explore because Unreal Engine 5 makes things look very lovely, but at the moment, everything else isn’t worth it: combat is ropey at the best of times, a lot of the buildings appear fairly generic, there isn’t much to explore in the world, and no way of organically meeting people in the game; there’s no in-game currency, no proper clan functionality beyond saying, “I’m in a clan”, and a number of game-breaking bugs, like the inability to place down a new plot of land, or having to waste precious moments of your life on this earth for the game to catch up with a chopping block you placed down 15 minutes ago.

With the chance that Pax Dei does get consistent support for the next five years, this could be - could be, could be, could be - one of the most interesting MMOs ever made. The team is communicative, and the roadmap does look packed with interesting ideas. If you’re on the fence about trying out the game, head over to Discord, chat with the development team, read their blog posts, and make your mind up based on that. The developer’s vision of the game as essentially an emergent society in a fantasy world is of course intoxicating. Whether we ever get there is the real question, and I’ve been burned enough times (especially with MMOs) to know it’s a journey fraught with usually a lot of the player’s money and plenty of disappointment.

Go forth and support Pax Dei if you really believe in it, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least say: be cautious. Optimistic, sure, but cautious. I hope to see Pax Dei reach its full potential, because I do want to play the game it promises to be.