Pax Dei Review
A game with fantastic potential and sandbox fun, but launched with little content and questionable business model.
Overall Score
I loved the concept of Pax Dei, so much so I was a top tier founder before launch. It has many promising idea, the ideas gamers like me tend to look for: survival, building, gathering, and combat. But it fails to deliver in a way that sets it apart, makes it unique and fun, or keeps you engaged enough to want to travel and explore more than your starting region. Once the game confirmed the business model, subscription required for land rights on monthly basis and the idea of paying monthly for a game without content and narrative, quickly lost its luster. Especially as many founders felt we already paid an extensive amount that including housing plots. *The devs have since made an in-game currency available to possibly be able to cover the lowest monthly tier sub, but you still must pay. The game itself has great aesthetics and art style; a historical yet fantastical approach. The combat is not engaging but decent enough that there is a little variety and weapons have differing playstyles. Though often lag can cause combat to be more than button pushing or confusion as enemies appear in different places like phasing or actions are delayed. The build mechanics are sound and look gorgeous. As you master and improve your abilities, you can craft better gear, more specialized versions, or unique items. But that mastery is hidden behind a grind of gathering raw materials, then crafting with failure chances pretty high for anything out of your safe crafting range. Making the grind that much more dreadful. But this is also where social play comes in, working with a group to maximize specialties and focusing your efforts. In the end, it's a good looking game, mostly due to the engine used but requires the player to do anything of consequence, whether that is a reason to play or coordinate for service exchanges.
🎮Gameplay
Now, onto the gameplay. Gathering and crafting is the entire point of the game systems. Being a social sandbox, it is for the players to provide narrative, events, or purpose in the game, whereas the dev team gives you the place and systems. You'll quickly, you will be gathering, crafting, and building with some light combat against too few creatures and mobs. Building a dwelling and going from nothing to first tier 1.5 weapon and armor set is a triumphant feeling. Notably, The gathering and crafting are well done, but built for group synergy. That said, It is not a solo game nor intended for solo play. You can lay solo, but it is intentionally a multiplayer, social sandbox game. Without direction of story or narrative. This means you must be social, you must interact with others. While the community folks i encountered on my server were ok, I witnessed they soon blackballed anyone who did not agree with them on a number of things including real life ideologies. The learning curve is Fairly straight forward and not complicated. Think Darkfall, but less variety of PvE event and monsters.
🎨Presentation
As for presentation, Great visual presentation. You truly feel immersed in a world untouched by man, even the older ruins are well curated and presented. Until you encounter starting areas and see the multitude of homes and huge guild buildings built by players. Everything feels vast and empty. Nothing much to say here. It isn't bad but not good. Though there are moments where combat music gets stuck on a loop or background music will suddenly stop and not return. Still bugs to work out. Mainly on NPC mobs lagging and interactable not performing. Starting crafting a batch of recipes only to return after adventuring that the crafting stopped for an unknown reason and you must cancel then restart, losing your materials.
💰Content & Value
Let's talk about value. Expect around 67+ hours for your first playthrough. I think there is a lot to see and travel too, but much of the same content across regions. PvE content is very light (again, it's social sandbox with the burden of purpose on the player community). While the crafting system has just enough variety to keep you gathering and grinding to mastery. Since it's a live service, it can go on forever. but after 1-=15 hours, you will have experienced the heart of the game loop. At 29.99, For a purchase price with a subscription requirement to maintain a dwelling or piece of land in game and the lack of content, I feel it is still too much. I bought a founder package from before launch.
📝Additional Notes
A game with great potential and gorgeous visual presentation but somehow devoid of soul. Reviewed a veteran of MMOs, sandbox, and RPG games. This is for MMO fans who enjoy grinding with crafting. What Works: Beautiful Presentation Great looking building pieces What Doesn't: No progress feels meaningful past tier 1.5 equipment Grindy with a system built on reliance of multiple players Nothing to drive a player to explore, expand, or grind Pax Dei had a tremendous amount of potential. But it has turned that potential into a another example of why sandbox games will mostly fall into nothingness. Reliance on players to carry purpose and social drives a lot like communism, it looks good on paper to those who don't study but absolutely fails in real world. Watch videos and then play something else.
How It Scores
Weighted by importance: Systems drive the experience, presentation supports it.
The Verdict
✓ What Works
- •Beautiful Presentation
- •Great looking building pieces
✗ What Doesn't
- •No progress feels meaningful past tier 1.5 equipment
- •Grindy with a system built on reliance of multiple players
- •Nothing to drive a player to explore, expand, or grind
🎯 Buy If...
- →They change from subscription model for housing to B2P or optional sub with housing. Otherwise your money will be better spent elsewhere.
⛔ Skip If...
- →You want to play a game with content and narrative. This is a sandbox, player driven economy and narrative game.
Final Word
"I loved the concept of Pax Dei, so much so I was a top tier founder before launch. It has many promising idea, the ideas gamers like me tend to look for: survival, building, gathering, and combat. But it fails to deliver in a way that sets it apart, makes it unique and fun, or keeps you engaged enough to want to travel and explore more than your starting region. Once the game confirmed the business model, subscription required for land rights on monthly basis and the idea of paying monthly for a game without content and narrative, quickly lost its luster. Especially as many founders felt we already paid an extensive amount that including housing plots. *The devs have since made an in-game currency available to possibly be able to cover the lowest monthly tier sub, but you still must pay. The game itself has great aesthetics and art style; a historical yet fantastical approach. The combat is not engaging but decent enough that there is a little variety and weapons have differing playstyles. Though often lag can cause combat to be more than button pushing or confusion as enemies appear in different places like phasing or actions are delayed. The build mechanics are sound and look gorgeous. As you master and improve your abilities, you can craft better gear, more specialized versions, or unique items. But that mastery is hidden behind a grind of gathering raw materials, then crafting with failure chances pretty high for anything out of your safe crafting range. Making the grind that much more dreadful. But this is also where social play comes in, working with a group to maximize specialties and focusing your efforts. In the end, it's a good looking game, mostly due to the engine used but requires the player to do anything of consequence, whether that is a reason to play or coordinate for service exchanges. "