Pax Dei has launched into early access today, and while the developers have attempted to keep player expectations in check, that hasn't stopped players from leaving less than stellar Steam reviews.
Pax Dei is a social sandbox MMO that aims to create a fully thriving, player-run world. With developers whose DNA is working on (and even founding) the EVE Online franchise, it's no secret that much of the same systems that the sci-fi MMO boasts are envisioned for the future of Pax Dei.
The MMO launched into Early Access today with many of its homesteading features in place, as well as its wilderness PvP zones, dungeons and more. The team admits that development on Pax Dei is ongoing, and that it has quite a ways to go. In two blog posts in the last seven days, Mainframe Industries have attempted to lay out its vision for both Early Access, as well as the MMO as a whole, stating that it will be in this Early Access period until at least June 2025.
Despite a relative smooth launch, with no real server queues or issues logging in, the Steam reviews have taken a nose dive since this morning, with players highlighting the barebones nature of the Early Access. This isn't wholly unexpected, and indeed it feels like the few blog posts over the course of the last week have been targeted at explaining its goals for those who were skeptical coming in.
Many of the reviews (which were "Mostly Negative" earlier and have come back up to "Mixed") center on the lack of overall features outside of its building mechanics (which will dominate much of the early game anyway), performance, and more. While getting into a server has been relatively painless, many of the reviews also mention lag and rubberbanding (which I can also attest to, it was pretty bad on my server this morning), and more.
It's still early, and many players are enjoying what's there. We're working on our Early Access review right now and will have our verdict on the MMO as it is right now in the coming weeks. It'll be interesting to see how Pax Dei fares, especially as systems to build out the MMO start to come online down the road.
