Pax Dei feels like a true medieval life sim as a sandbox MMO

destructoid.com:

I’ve been excited for Pax Dei since developer Mainframe Industries showed off the sandbox MMO earlier this year. As per the announcement back then, the MMORPG is preparing for an upcoming Alpha test starting on November 14. I had the opportunity to jump onto the test server a few days early and get a feel of what it would be like to live in this medieval fantasy world.

Nicknamed “Home Valley”, this Alpha test focuses primarily on the peaceful gameplay aspects of Pax Dei. Players can venture into one of four provinces each with 6 Heartlands valleys which are intended to be their own separate communities for players. In this test, players can create their character, choose which province and valley they want to start in, and then begin their life in Pax Dei.

After creating my character, I settled in the Kerys province in the valley called Dolavon. I immediately discovered I could pick up some resources off the ground, like stones and sticks. If you’ve played a survival game like Conan Exiles or ARK: Survival Ascended, it felt very similar. After crafting an axe, I was able to chop down a tree and upon picking up the logs unlocked a few recipes for buildings.

It took me a while to find the perfect spot I wanted to call home. I already knew my goal in Pax Dei was to carry out a long-time goal of mine: to be a blacksmith who rarely left his shop. Ever since my early days of delving into MMOs back in the early 2000s, I always thought it would be cool to play an MMO where you could just be a blacksmith, shopkeeper, or innkeeper, and be able to fully play that role while still making a difference in the game world. After speaking with the Mainframe Industries developers, it seems this is a big goal of Pax Dei: to give players