(Editor’s note: we’re no longer going to provide release-day reviews, as having a review of a massive game like a 4X game takes much longer than a normal, non-4X game and we want to be as accurate as possible. Therefore, we will now have release-day impressions, with the basics of the game and some early subjective thoughts, then release our final thoughts and score in a 2-3 week period following the release date. This will ensure that we get things as right as we possibly can.)

What To eXpect:

Third time might be the charm for developer Mike Domingues. His previous two efforts, Lords of the Black Sun and Dawn of Andromeda, weren’t exactly universally well received. In fact, Lords of the Black Sun was straight awful, while Dawn of Andromeda was headed in the right direction, yet failed to reach its full potential (if you never played it, it was a bit like a deeper 4X experience than Sins of a Solar Empire, without all the things that make SoaSE great).

Mike leads the development studio Grey Wolf Entertainment and clearly loves 4X games, as he and his studio keep trying new ideas as they revisit the genre. This time around, with Pax Nova, they set out to develop a game that featured both terrestrial and space exploration and exploitation, while keeping things simple enough that you didn’t get too bogged down with poor pacing or a lack of things to accomplish.

So, is the third time the charm for Mike and his quest to make a great 4X game?

The Basics

The game starts simply enough with you colonizing your first city and beginning to explore the first planet you’re thrust upon. Colony management strays from the norm, with buildings being placed on occupied tiles and they’ll each need a citizen to operate in order for them to provide the resource that each building provides. That means that Pax Nova limits your cities to the number of buildings that they can employ by the number of citizens that they can house.

As you begin exploring your world, you’ll find a variety of “goodie huts”, mixed in with minor factions, strategic resources, and a variety of indigenous life, that you’ll all want to eventually eXploit or eXterminate.

There’s a limited variety of planet types in Pax Nova – only four right now – but each of them are distinct enough with unique resources and terrain types. As a result, you must eventually colonize a variety of planet types to properly exploit the various resources that you must acquire to construct the latest and greatest units. It encourages players to get off their starting planet in a way that’s not heavy-handed but makes the most sense strategically.

Meet the Aion Cult!

You’ll quickly run into other major factions, of which there are quite a few. The universe of Pax Nova divides these factions by three different races, the Humans, the Corvus, and the Drosk, and the factions are all appropriately asymmetric. Not only do they receive your standard fare of bonuses and maluses to various gameplay mechanics, but they also have Seals that provide a special bonus or ability (which can be taken from them in conquest or through the rare trade deal), and unique technologies. The combination of which makes each faction feel unique enough to warrant multiple playthroughs, but they’re not quite as distinct as, say, an Endless Legend faction.

Each faction has a short summary of their backstory and lore.

Speaking of unique, let’s talk about Pax Nova’s standout feature.

Terrestrial and Space

Few 4X games encompass not only the terrestrial side of 4X but also the space aspect, too. Hell, only a small handful of games have even tried. However, Pax Nova has taken on this endeavor and mostly succeeds.

Space travel is achieved relatively early on in the research tree, but it will take longer to obtain the ability to colonize other planets, as extraterrestrial colonization is deeper in the research tree. This works well, as it allows for a longer period of time in the game where scouting space is occurring before the colonization race begins.

Space, the final frontier. Maybe.

As I mentioned before, you’ll want to expand to other planets to obtain valuable resources that you simply won’t find on your starting planet. Most of the mid- to late-game units and structures will require a supply of those resources and the AI is competent enough that you’ll need to have those units at the ready to win your game.

Just how good the AI is at launch remains to be seen, as it’s supposedly been given a few updates and made more capable. I can say that in my first game with the release version, I’ve noticed many more military units being produced by the AI and much more activity in the space realm. Finally, the AI seems to be building structures in space and sending multiple fleets out to defend their territory.

Because Pax Nova requires management of both the terrestrial and space realms, the game does become a bit micro-management heavy as you progress. Even just a couple colonized planets can mean that you’re switching between three to six different colonies and many, many more units. It can be a bit tricky to keep track of.

Fortunately, there is an easy-to-use shortcut to zoom in on your colonies and back out to space, via an icon group that’s situated in the top left of the UI:

There are also additional UI elements that help, including a unit list, a colony list, and other menus that can give you a quick glance at what you’d need information on to properly manage your empire:

While still a bit overwhelming with all of the menus and information that Pax Nova provides, it’s mitigated to an extent and because it’s turn-based, you’ll have all the time you need to keep track of things if you’re a meticulous player.

Other Systems

Pax Nova strives to be different by adding some interesting systems that incorporate some of the best of other 4X games’ systems, yet have their own special twist.

First, the edicts system, similar to Stellaris, allows you to choose a focus for your cities or empire overall at the cost of influence or credits. To enact a particular edict, however, your empire will need to have accumulated a certain amount of points in a few different leadership types, like pragmatism, liberty, and authority.

You’ll gain those points based on how you react to various events that will pop up in the game. So far, I’ve only seen a handful of these events, so I’m hoping that more will come, as they begin to feel stale quickly.

You’ll also gain points in the various Paths of Pax Nova as you progress through the game. You’ll gain points in these paths as you choose various technologies and pursue quests. Each path has four milestones that you’ll reach with enough points, and each of these milestones allows you to choose from a selection of bonuses that you can apply to your empire.

For example, in the screenshot below, I had just reached the third milestone in the Path to Bliss. I was given the choice between adding 2 citizens to my capital, improving relations with the minor factions known as Trading Companies by 25 (and thus possibly being given access to new techs, resources, etc, which we’ll talk about soon), or advancing my faction on the Path to Bliss by 4. I chose the middle option for reasons I’ll go into later!

It’s a fun enough system that doesn’t really guide your choices in any real way, but it’s nice to pick up bonuses through some tough choices periodically in the game.

So speaking of minor factions, the minor factions in Pax Nova come in a few different flavors. Each type will offer a variety of different goods, technologies, or resources depending on what your relationship with them is like.

Your Relations are tiered here, too, and can be increased through donations with credits, sending a delegation with influence, or passively by a couple of the factions that you can choose from. As you can see below, the first tier of positive relations with the Blackwater Institute will provide me the opportunity to by “Industrial Fertilizers”, a unique technology that I can only obtain here.

My only gripe with the system as it stands is how long it takes to reach each tier, but that may be for the best, as it encourages the player to only focus on a few of the most important possible trade goods to pursue. Whereas if it were a bit easier, I imagine it might too easy to run away with all the factions’ goods!

I’d also like to see minor factions offer up combat units, just to add some more variety to the system and to provide a bit more incentive to buddy up with some of them.

Diplomacy

Diplomacy in Pax Nova has a few more options than your average 4X. It’s also more nuanced than you’d expect.

First, you’ll notice below, that your relations with other factions are broken down into three categories: Affinity, Respect, and Trust. You’ll earn, or lose, each of these through various means and the diagram provided below gives you a quick understanding of where you stand in each category. Mousing over each of these categories will give you an easy-to-understand breakdown of what has led to the score.

For instance, my trust with the Ashanti Union is low because we’re of different races and because they feel I’m a threat to a planet they occupy. But our affinity is high because I’ve been in a non-aggression pact with them and have been trading with them for some time.

Interacting with the AI is also more detailed than you might think, too. You can trade just about everything you have away, but the AI is appropriately stingy with their stuff, within reason. You can even trade your faction’s unique Seal away, but good luck getting other factions’ Seals unless you’re just about to finish them off.

All in all, the diplomacy is better than your average 4X and in the release build of Pax Nova, the AI initiates a moderate amount of trade deals and treaty suggestions. It feels much less lonely than it did through much of the Early Access period.

Performance

While Pax Nova performs pretty well for the most part, I’d be remiss if I didn’t complain about the loading times. In particular, the loading times for booting up a save game are horrendous. Pax Nova on an M2 solid state drive shouldn’t take in excess of 30 seconds to load a save game or even start a new game, for that matter.

It needs to be addressed.

The AI

During Early Access, Pax Nova‘s AI factions rarely provided much of a challenge and would almost never muster up any sort of real threat. I’m happy to report that so far, I’m seeing improvements in this regard. I will wait to provide a real verdict here until I’ve played much more, but in my first game with the release build, I was caught off guard by The Eastern Resistance when they not only declared war, but also soon had multiple military units at my doorstep.

That’s a big step in the right direction, but I’ll need more time with the game to see if the AI can properly handle itself.

Parting Thoughts, For Now

I had my doubts as to whether or not Grey Wolf could handle this ambitious game when it first released into Early Access about a year ago. Frankly, Dawn of Andromeda started off promising, too, but didn’t even come close to realizing any potential it had.

That being said, Pax Nova is a different story and it feels like Grey Wolf might have a sleeper hit in the making here.

Pax Nova‘s Early Access period was mostly a success because of how well Grey Wolf listened to the fans and to quality feedback. Many of my main complaints at the outset of Early Access, i.e. the factions feeling very similar, the game looking a bit “blurry” and frankly, ugly, on the terrestrial maps, an overall lack of challenge, poor pacing, and others, have all seemingly been addressed.

I will endeavor to really dig deep into Pax Nova to see if it holds up under more detailed scrutiny, but I’m feeling pretty positive on the game right now.

If you already own Pax Nova, then I think you’ll be delighted to know that its last patch into Full Release seems to have really improved the game. If you don’t already own Pax Nova, it might be worth waiting a little longer as some of us here at eXplorminate dive deeper and are able to give you a final verdict.

If you’re still considering it, I’ve begun a new Let’s eXplore series just above, starting from the late early game period, and will do my best to showcase what Pax Nova brings to the table.

However, stay tuned, as I will continue to play the release version of Pax Nova and will offer my final critical thoughts on the game in the coming weeks!

To Be Continued…

Rob founded eXplorminate, and quickly brought on Nate, as his passion for 4X needed an outlet. You can find Rob in just about every 4X game beta and 4X game forum, too. He’s equally obsessed with the strategy and tactics genres and constantly combs the internet for new and exciting titles in those genres. He’s proud to be a member of Amplitude Studios’ VIP program and the concept creator of Endless Space 2’s Unfallen.