After a hugely negative response that has since grown somewhat, Pax Dei is already in a strange situation. Now it is being accused of being just an Unreal Engine asset flip, accusations to which the developers have responded.

A negative Steam review posted on June 18, the day of the game’s launch, was a satirical text suggesting that executives at the studio behind Pax Dei intended the game to be nothing more than an asset flip built from prefabricated Unreal Engine store files. It was met with support from thousands of disgruntled players and has prompted the developers to respond today, June 19, stating that the game is still in alpha development and thus missing a lot of content that it will have once the dev cycle is complete.

"We're a passionate indie studio and quite proud of what we've created over the past five years," the developers wrote in their response, adding that Pax Dei also appears to be missing certain features that were never intended to launch in the first place. These features include traditional quests, NPCs, and dialogue, the absence of which was noted in the review.

As for the alleged abandonment of the game once the studio makes enough money, the developers said that they plan to work on the game “for the next few decades” and that abandoning the project is not part of their agenda. They also added that the game may seem lacking in content and scope, but that this is not related to any evil plan or plot. “We know the game is still in its early stages, an alpha state, and that many players will not enjoy it,” they wrote.