Presented a year ago already, the MMORPG Pax Dei opens its doors with an Early Access release on June 18. Fans of the genre will therefore be able to discover what the developers call a “ Social MMO Sandbox “, understand a title where the players are creators of the content and where the interactions between users are the key to the evolution of the game. We had the chance to get our hands on Pax Dei during its Beta phase as well as to be able to speaking to those responsible for the development of the title, here is a presentation of the MMO.
Pax Dei in Early Access from June 18
So be careful, the development team has been very clear on this subject, Pax Dei Early Access is a real AE. In the sense that the game is still in the development phase and should not be completely finished for at least a year. They explain that the objective of this Early Access phase is to be able to test the new features of the game with a larger population in order to obtain more feedback.
In addition, this phase will also allow the game to evolve in a direction that corresponds more to the community, particularly on gameplay elements that are not very present during the Alpha phase.
Please note that this Early Access phase will be paid for, so you will need to purchase the game in order to participate. The developers assured that the objective was not to monetize a Beta and then stop progressing the game but to be able to accelerate its development. For the most curious, many competitions and events will provide keys so they can test Pax Dei for free.
What to think of Pax Dei after its Alpha phase?
We had the chance to try out the game during its initial development period. On paper, Pax Dei is an extremely ambitious project, using the Unreal Engine 5 to create an extremely rich world, with quite incredible depth of field.
The very concept of the game is relatively niche since a Sandbox MMO is clearly no longer fashionable. If this was more the idea of the genre two decades ago, titles like World of Warcraft have since popularized a completely different model, the “
Theme Park » where the extensions follow one another and the content passes from zone to zone, with content that does not last long.
So, the challenge for Pax Dei is to be able to build the loyalty of a fairly large community around a game that could be quite complex to learn. Especially since in terms of game mechanics, we find ourselves very much in a survival title like
Valheim.
The construction and crafting aspect are extremely important in Pax Dei and the developers intend to set up a whole trading system, which is a bit reminiscent of Star Wars Galaxies
for the oldest. Indeed, players will have to go from town to town to find sellers and items created by other users. No centralized AH, so you’ll need to travel and interact with others to progress.
This rather special and risky direction can be explained by the fact that part of the team responsible for the game also worked on Eve Onlinea game renowned for the complexity of its handling.
However, for the moment, we appreciate the quality of the work carried out since Pax Dei is really successful visually and the Housing part is really gripping. Conversely, combat gameplay is currently very limited. A point that we were able to discuss with the developers, who assure that it is a major element in the evolution of the game in the coming months.
If you want to try Pax Dei, Early Access begins on June 18, it will be possible to purchase the game via Steam. The MMORPG is available with menus and part of the UI in French from its launch.