Pax Dei

Completely hooked on this. Firstly, the most visually stunning game I've played in 30 years of gaming, it's beautiful. Now, is it perfect? No, but show me a game that is. It's in early access as of writing this so it is buggy but nothing that isn't a minor inconvenience that I've come across for a game that's a work in progress.

There's a lot of comments and reviews saying that it gets boring very quickly and there's nothing to do which I don't understand at all. I will say that it is primarily about building a home/cottage/castle and crafting to unlock recipes and better equipment/construction elements. If you are a creative person who loves the medieval setting, you're gonna find a tonne to do. If you're not creative and prefer the combat element then yeah, you're gonna get bored very quickly and you're probably going to want to pass on this one.

It's very forgiving, destroying a building element refunds you 100% resources, dying is a case of going back to where your body is and collecting your inventory back but it is very grindy so again, if you don't like that, you're going to want to pass on this one.

It is a MMO although if I'm being honest the world is pretty empty of players right now. Might just be where I am but I'd say I probably come across 2-3 players a session. Honestly though, not a big deal for me although if you have more people in your 'clan' the less grindy it's gonna be and it's a lot of fun building and exploring the map and what other people have built in the world with someone else.

By far the biggest downer for me is the price. To get the maximum (only 4) relatively small plots and a pack of the nicest furniture set/clothing it's gonna set you back £100 . To me, that is already outrageously expensive and when you tie that with the developers talking about moving to a subscription model on release... I can't justify an ongoing monthly outgoing on a game when I've already paid £100 for the game and out of principle alone, I won't be playing it anymore if that happens. Which would be incredibly frustrating because it has the potential to be a top of all time for me.

You'll probably like this if you enjoy:
Medieval Dynasty - Time Period + Decorating/Building Homes/Towns + Map + Visually
Minecraft - Designing + Builiding Houses/Towns/Castles + Creativity + Decorating
Kingdom Come: Deliverance - Time period + Map
Mount & Blade - Time period + Visually
Going Medieval - Castle/Town Building + Time Period
The Sims - Designing + Building + Decorating
Red Dead Redemption - Being out in the wilderness + Hunting

You won't like this if you're not a fan of:
The grind
Being creative, the most enjoyment I've had out of it is the designing/building of my home/town.
Games with no 'direction' or missions
Games with no 'ending' i.e. no final boss or end credit mission. The game just keeps rolling on.
Games with no main objective i.e. there's no end goal, you just keep on levelling and building your home/town

OK, I have quite a few hours on the game now, and I can say with consideration why I have enjoyed the game and hated aspects of the game.
My Perspective: Retired software/IT dude. I am sort of the game tester in my group, 5 brothers and several other nephews and spouses and friends. I build servers for those games that allow private servers and early test others like Conan, PalWorld, Enshrouded, Soul Mask, Valheim with Mods etc.
The Great: Beautiful game, bugs are getting sorted, and we do not mind the EA necessary work arounds. We are a casual PVE group, and this looks really promising, getting randomly killed by a wizard dude is interesting. Crafting experience: With only 2 playing for now, we appear to have the biggest Castle in US East/Selene/Llydaw so far.
The Very Very BAD:
The crafting is deep and complex, that is ok, (even good), but the random craft failure mode and the skill level crafting gates are just terrible, especially for consumables like iron arrows, if that stays in the game, I doubt I can get the rest of my planned clan to even join.
The Weird: The Plot feature appears to be account based, but the characters are not account based, I.E. the characters share the plot numbers bought. The cost of the EA game would be much more appropriate, if the plots were by character, I.E. $40 1 plot account would have 1 plot per character (2 plots), and a Master account would have 4 plots per character, I would very much value such a change and would use it!
So I am making a qualified “Recommended” for now, but not sure we will stay around for the long haul unless major focus changes are not implemented.
Edit: 6/29/2024 Removed all references to my personal purchase DLC issues, mostly poor communication by Pax Dei and poor investigation by myself. Still disappointed, but not all blame is on Pax Dei.
I have noticed a large usage decrease just based on my in game observations, hope that's a transitional thing until Pax Dei delivers on all the changes promised, I too will decrease my play time awaiting upgrades and changes, I have failed to get 50% of my family game tribe to even try the current version.
Edit 7/20/2024 Have finally got most of my crew into clan. Have made a few issue notices to Pax Dei, and surprise they have been responding directly to me, not always helpful, but they are trying, so two points for effort, and lots of game improvements, minor, but better, still waiting on removal of trees from my foundations, and it appears doubtful that they will change the things I dislike the most, so FYI.

I don't usually write reviews. Theyre subjective and don't always fully highlight all the nuance good and bad for any given game as the author(myself included) will focus on the things that either delight or enrage them.
****If you're here for a short YES this is great or NO don't do it....you should scroll on****
If you're here because you saw the MMORPG tag - please....do not come into Pax Dei thinking that you will be leading epic raids against telegraphed opponents to get the big phat loot.
As a former raid leader in wow and ff14 I have to say that all the things that I found positive about the MMO experience and all the things I hated about it are both present and not present in the game. To clarify, the social aspect of grouping up to take on a dungeon(as opposed to a several hour raid) is present while the required time and effort to keep being relevant is not. I can choose to find a group on their discord server and try my hand at large strong holds or dungeons or I can just chill out and chop trees, mix elixirs, build my clan home or do some exploring of the area at my leisure.
As a busy business lady who also loves to game I don't have time to sit down for hours worth of required farming so I don't let my team down because the point of Pax Dei isn't world server firsts. It's a more relaxed version of what you might expect from an MMO --- which the traditional concept of the MMO has changed over the decades ---
The best first impression I got from this *Early Access* game was my first night cycle...where the horizon of the game lit up with glittering lights from player made structures dotting the mountain side or valleys. The landscape is constantly changing as players log in to build up their plots and grind for power creep.
Is this game grindy? Yes, yes it is. But you can do it at YOUR pace. The player base isn't super bent over whether or not they have the highest skill or the best gear because of the relaxed nature of the game.
While there are definitely server frame drop issues for older graphics cards - I'm using a 1080 Ti - it hasn't really impacted my experience of the game in an overall negative manner.
The best piece of knowledge I got from the community was how mindful the crafting system is. Like many games you have tiered(1-4) ingredients. One might expect to consistently get elevated stats to their crafts based on this alone but this isn't the case. The players skill in the role they play and the tools they use are just as important as the materials used to create them. Each item has a base set of stats that is altered depending on your skill with the tool or your skill when crafting the item in addition to the potential for tiered stats.
I might like to see optional world bosses that all the clans can get together to murder and loot but I don't think it would be a game changing experience for me negatively if that never happened.
Overall if you're looking to marry the traditional concept of sandbox and MMORPG this is a very palatable target of that desire.

First: I think it really needs to be said, that (in my opinion) this game is not for winning, but for playing. So I suppose a lot of misunderstandings about the quality come from trying to get the best stuff the fastest way and level "successfull" somehow. It reminds me a bit at the first attempts in Minecraft, where no objective had been given and it was completely your own choice, how to spend your time there. ...now just with absolutely amazing graphic and more medievilish XD
In opposite to all the survival crafting games I have and where I just try to beat the algorithm of dying, this feels like something I could do long term: built up an existence, some friendships, live a decent life and enjoy all the experiences made, best of it share everything with your neighbors in your village. That means: I have no hurry to get through it in minimized time, I rather take the long road and enjoy the view ^.^
My current pros:
- rich environment with loads of stuff to use already
- the realism that crafting something of value indeed needs time and passion and that epic builts and crafts may need a whole bunch of people (even though it is very grindy...you have time, so let it be that way...)
- amazing building system (prepare yourself for constant rebuilding something as it makes so much fun)
- complex crafting systems with a huge amount of ideas (for an EA game) and with rather few unused od notimportant crafts and ressources
- the people I met so far are really nice and the worst thing happened is that they are not thaaaat chatty. No absent base raids, no spawn killing with "I am just playing the game, it is allowed, so I will do it." and all the other funny stuff one may know by public servers of survival craftings
- the freedom to find my own way for every day
- food is for buffs or poison and there is no need to be online continuously in order not to starve
- The opportunity to socialize, even as a solo player and with no interest in clan liabilities, there always is a chance of a good talk or a short companionship
And my cons:
- I think most player wait for update and so a lot of players are not aktive. That makes it rather dull in a global sense, even though my neighbors are active and great. Other dozens of people in my village I have never seen. Society interaction needs a society.
- there is a lot to craft or levelling that you will never need again (because you then can do better) and so far you cannot recycle crafted things. Can't wait until that is changed because it feels like having tons of waste.
- some things, like combat, is not very good balanced yet.
- the price for all packs is an awful lot of money for an early access. But at least you can start with just one plot to see if you like it.
So overall I think there is a lot of work to do and maybe even lots of updates in next future, but in many ways that game does not feel immature and not playable. It is definately worth the experience and at the beginning you can find very kind helping hands.

I'm 54 years old and have been gaming most my life. This game has reminded me of the fun I had during my 1st MMO which was Ultima Online. I like to think if UO was remade today this would be it. Of course this is a EA game so things can changes and the launch was rough.

What appeals to me is the immersion, the building, and the crafting. The slow paced grind is fun for me playing solo. Oh did I mention the game is simply beautiful!

Combat is a bit simple but they say they have big plans for it. I just hope they don't over complicate it. Right now I really enjoy going hunting for animals with a bow. I have not tried the PvP but with how this game is setup now it isn't anything to worry about if you're not into that.

Even though I have not yet done PvP I will give my thoughts on it. There is no base raiding here!. Sure there is full loot if you get killed but you will most likely have enough resources to replace everything many times over back at your base. This was what I remember from PvP in UO as well. I had fun fights all over but no fear of losing it all while doing real life stuff.

Alot of people including Devs have said this is meant for clans but solo can be enjoyable. This is true from my experience so far. I do not care if I cannot solo a boss in a dungeon and would never expect too. I just want to feel like I am accomplishing something and I prefer that to be my own personal goal in game not some stupid quest to go gather or kill something. Maybe I want to add to my house or setup a special craft area or personal relaxing spot to enjoy the scenery. When trade and the economy releases I may focus on getting rich! Bottom line is the choice is mine.

Ok the elephant in the room is a potential monthly sub. My thought is worth it! I don't even know the price yet but I'm sure it will be reasonable. For a game like this and to preserve your stuff online like they will be doing they have to make some kind of money. No different than someone hosting a website for ya and I would rather pay than have ads. I am on the fence if they added a cash shop or battle pass cause those can quickly go wrong.

If you like to do your own thing or team up along side or fight against 1000s of other players this is your game!. I can see myself playing this one for years to come.

This game has good foundation to be great game. But:
For now feels like super early access.
Second half of game is missing.
First half is building and gathering which is Ok for ea. But there is nothing else besides that. Combat is mostly autoattack. You can have few spells later, but I have litterly no spells after 55 hours in game. This needs to be adjusted. Dungeons are not people count limited. This is really bad. More people you bring in, the better you are. Bad design choice. There should be some small chance to drop some "wow" items or recipes. After killing like 1000 boars, nothing exciting was dropped. Anyways, I decided to thumbs up just because good atmosfere, teamplay, good foundation and the fact there are no skins with pink pyjamas and stupid sombreros yet. Might be good game some day

After well over 200 hours of playtime, between EA and the pre-alpha releases, I feel the need to leave a review simply because I want this game to succeed and be great and I believe my feedback might be useful. We’ll see.
First I’ll blast through the positives.
The game is gorgeous with a very diverse set of area designs and terrains to explore. Here are some caveats to it though. The game needs better optimization, and there’s what seems to be a built in motion blur effect, like being able to see a trail being left behind a weapon swing. This should obviously be gotten rid of. I also wish there would be other easy paths up or down a mountain instead of just one or two. There are many circumstances where you have to heavily sidetrack to a different side of a mountain if you aren’t able to parkour up it.
I personally spent the first 4 days of release just building my clan’s base. The building process is very nice, and is well designed, allowing a player to build some very cool homes, castles and villages with it. Not everything building related is perfect though. In my opinion, some particular building pieces take too much resources, especially when you consider what it takes to get some of the materials like bricks and shingles. These pieces include stone foundation, half-wood walls, and tiled roofing. All of those things involve the use of clay in some fashion, and since there’s fairly limited areas able to be built on in the game, clay becomes tough to farm because many people are having to rely on the same spawns. You could easily burn through hundreds of clay for a small house depending on what walls and roofs you want to use, and where you build might not even be very close to a good source of clay.
I also think there’s a lack of angled pieces when it comes to triangular flooring and foundation and wood beam angles. And getting things to snap correctly to what you want to build on can be a massive pain, especially when trying to be creative with angled beams. My advice is to just put in a button that lets the player vertically flip an object (fixed, read comment) if they want it facing a particular way. I would also like to see the free move worked on a bit so you can more easily place an object exactly where you want it on another object.
Crafting initially started out as VERY grindy during the alpha tests and the devs have made significant improvements when it comes to material requirements for items that are crafted purely for leveling purposes. The kicker is that it can take 30-50 crafts to gain one level in a profession. I don’t think it’s very good design to have to throw the mass majority of things you craft onto the ground because storing the items is pointless even if you had enough storage. I would strongly support the items that are more expensive to make rewarding significantly more experience to cut through the monotony of just crafting the cheapest thing. I do like that the devs brought back the chance of getting extra experience depending on how successful the craft was, and I like the small amount granted from failed and successful trivial crafts.
Since I decided to get very detailed with what I see needs improvements in the positives of the game, the negatives are going to get even more in depth. But these are things I believe need to be said for the good of the game’s future.
When it comes to gathering, I don’t have a problem with how anything is farmed until later into your character’s progression. For one, it is undeniable how nerfing the hide drops from deer, without offering an alternative to what the playerbase lost is a massive setback when it comes to Leatherworking progression. Instead of being able to farm higher quality hides just by hunting, we have to farm bear spawns. These bears are currently almost impossible to kill without the use of a barrier or elevated rock or tree because they have too much health and deal too much damage (this is going to be a theme). These bears have a low chance of dropping the higher quality heavy hides, and yes, a low chance(fixed read comment). Or you can try your luck with strong wolf/boar packs that can drop with smaller hides of this quality, also a low drop chance. These packs you also need some kind of barrier or separate them with your bow. This bottleneck has halted my clan’s blacksmithing crafters because those gear pieces require materials that need the high quality hides to make, and the higher leatherworking skill level to make them.
I also believe that no ore nodes should have the chance of picks only rewarding basic rocks is a really dumb design decision, especially when you can mine a whole node and only end up with rocks. This especially should not happen under any circumstance when it comes to pure iron ore mining when the player is probably in the pvp zone. One other gripe, I don’t like how it takes 2 hours for a large furnace to produce 10 steel ingots out of 20 ore and 200 charcoal. Either make it one hour and lower the charcoal, or have it turn 40 ore into 20 ingots, and keep the charcoal the same.
Alright, it’s that time to talk about combat. I’m not going to beat the poor combat to death simply because the devs already know it’s in a poor state, so bringing it up is pointless. What I’m currently more concerned about is the insult to injury the game brings when it comes to having to interact with the very poor combat.
So in my opinion, a game should either have good combat and difficult enemies, or decent combat and easy enemies. Pax Dei says F*ck you and has terrible combat with very difficult enemies (without cheesing). As someone with plate gear, I should not have to chop down a tree so I can use it as a barrier to kill a bear or wolf pack for reasons already explained. While the infected/corrupted mobs are technically further down the line in character progression, I can confidently say it’ll be impossible to kill them (without cheesing) as well. Also the drop rates of the items specifically from the mentioned infected/corrupted enemies are far too low. Difficulty is also a factor for the Zebian NPCs but less so, still annoying though. My point is, this game’s combat is not in any way, shape, or form, worthy of having such strong enemies. Please tone down the health and damage of these mobs in the open world so that they are actually possible to kill with the current combat in place until it gets drastically improved.
Grouped content in dungeons exacerbates every single unpolished aspect of the game.
-Overall terrible combat
-Lag when multiple players are fighting
-Very weird collision with friends and enemies
-Difficult to get to and hit specific enemies quickly
-Absurd enemy AI that social pulls everything in every direction randomly when engaging
-Enemies that randomly get speed boosts and become impossible to target until they stop
The dungeons are expansive and well designed. I don’t mind somewhat strong enemies because they’re dungeons but the caster mobs that apply dots are super punishing simply because the dots are AoE, they stack, and last a minute. If you get 2 dots you’re pretty much dead without consistent support. There also seems to be incredibly fast respawn times which makes the dungeon even more unnecessarily dangerous when the group is just trying to get through it alive. Combine those problems with what was listed right above and a well run dungeon group can turn into a certified sh*tshow in a matter of seconds. One last thing is I don't like that spears feel like a must use in dungeons to counter the collision and difficulty to hit.
With all that said, I do enjoy the game for the most part, just some annoying aspects of the game that can and should be changed while waiting for combat changes. If done, these changes would lead to a much more enjoyable experience instead of players essentially feeling powerless. Along with some slight balancing I see necessary on the crafting and building side of the game.