While New World is currently experiencing a sort of third spring, Pax Dei is celebrating its final launch on Steam. Of course, our MMORPG enthusiast Karsten is on it. However, he had the most fun with another game that was released recently.
I already wrote it: October will be THE big highlight in an otherwise very weak MMORPG year 2025. While our MeinMMO demon Cortyn dives into WoW Legion Remix and colleague Cedric immerses himself with remarkable joy in Blue Protocol: Star Resonance, I have my eye on two other releases:
- New World makes a turnaround after difficult years and delights its community with Season 10 … I wanted to find out how this third spring manifests on the servers.
- Pax Dei has finally been released on Steam and has noticeably increased its player count … but what has improved since my last visit in Early Access? And how important is the subscription?
Since my kids were busy elsewhere last weekend, I fortunately had unusually much time to dive into both MMORPGs. However, they did not get my full attention. Because there was also a third, still quite fresh blockbuster release that kept luring me back to its servers.
In the following, I will not only share my insights from Pax Dei and New World, but also reveal which game I had the most fun with.
Karsten also feels comfortable in almost every other genre. No wonder, after all, he discovered and developed his love for video games on the NES and C64.
Pax Dei – Time-consuming grind to switch off
I had not played the sandbox MMORPG from Mainframe Industries since July 2024, so I was quite curious about how much better Pax Dei has become over the past year. And thanks to the progress wipe, I was able to find out with a newly created character.
First insight: A lot has changed since the beginning, the game now explains much more. Since I passed the free access, which comes with every founder’s version, directly to my better half, I could closely observe that the text prompts are still not enough to clarify all important questions. One still has to work through the entry into Pax Dei.
I found our different approaches to the game interesting. While I set off immediately with my prior knowledge to build a home in a good location, my wife dove into the camp and the generally accessible workstations of the Free2Play version to craft some equipment.
Second insight: The progression curve in crafting is more pleasant, important raw materials are better distributed, and combat has also received noticeable improvements. However, there are still one or two hurdles that require a lot of farming, and you should not expect a refined combat system, like in many other MMORPGs.
At least the somewhat lengthy grind for farming resources serves even now, as it did before, to simply switch off for a while and recharge. This is supported by another strength of the MMORPG: the beautiful medieval game world, with its impressive vistas.
What I liked the most during my replay was how lively this world is currently again. Pax Dei desperately needs its active community to exploit its potential. Therefore, I doubt whether one has done oneself a favor with the paid properties.
The expansion of the home is still one of the biggest motivators for Pax Dei, in my opinion. After all, the developers have listened to something I’ve been wishing for many years: a subscription model that does not rely on the standard 13 euros per month that WoW introduced to the mainstream 20 years ago. Premium costs only 4 euros in Pax Dei, Premium + 1 property is okay at 7 euros.
On the next page, it continues with my experiences in New World:
