Social sandbox MMO Pax Dei is free to play this weekend, which is perfect for solo survival game enjoyers like me who are curious about all the community features

I like survival games because they let me live out my fantasy of leaving the computer behind forever and building a log cabin out in the woods all by my lonesome. No internet, no noisy eaters, just peace. Because isolation is so core to my dream, I rarely partake in MMOs, but Pax Dei's free weekend has piqued my interest.

Pax Dei isn't a new diversity programme, it's a "social sandbox MMO" where you can build your own home, make your own clothes, and generally just live out a medieval life. The idea behind it is that everything is player-led. You can set up a market stall full of goods you've made yourself, from armour to flowers, and trade with other players.

There's also dungeon diving, where you'll rummage up the gold you need to buy wares from community merchants, and you can join clans and form villages and even castles if you've got enough people playing with you.

Despite my preference for solo experiences, the emphasized focus on community building is so far off what I usually go for that it's swung around to interesting for me, and the fact the game is free to play until Monday, January 26 means I'm tempted to dip into it this weekend and see if I gel with it.

When it first launched into early access back in June, 2024, a lot of the more community-focused features hadn't been added yet, but more elements have come to the game since. One is the controversial plot token system. To build, you first need to claim a plot of land. To keep that little slice of heaven, you need plot tokens, which you can get by paying a monthly subscription. In the Steam reviews for Pax Dei—which are 'Mixed'—a lot of people complain about it. Who wants to pay a digital landlord?

Others praise the game's visuals and how far it's come since early access, but the fact that you can lose part of your village if a player doesn't pay for a plot token one month is enough to put a lot of people off.

If you do give the free weekend a try and enjoy Pax Dei, you'll be happy to learn it's also 40% off until February 2, making it $18 (£15).