My Time at Sandrock Review (RawR xD)
My Time At Sandrock is amazing. (+Optimisation tips and summary at end)
I was looking for a long term chill game similar to stardew valley where i sink hours into without realising. With fun characters, spontaneous plot points, and just a relaxing vibe. This is it people. THIS IS IT. I am addicted. I may occasionally compare to Stardew throughout.
Quick introduction, you are a builder who is working in Sandrock to restore it to its former glory (the story explains more). As a builder, you BUILD, completing commissions for the townsfolk while helping upgrade Sandrock overall. You will be collecting resources everywhere, while also being able to simply buy some of resources if you wanna spend the day doing something else (this isnt that bad of a choice in fact buying resources is promoted due to the setting of the game!)
If you're starting, it begins overwhelming, "there's so many crafting stations", "there's too many items to manage", "not enough TIME". Read the rest of this review please, it PICKS UP MASSIVELY. (also, you can literally change the speed of time throughout a day, which is amazing for sweating the game, min maxing, or just playing casually).
I didnt like the "children" look of My time in Portia. MUCH IMPROVED IN SANDROCK. This one everyone looks more mature. I decided ill give it a go then. My hours in game tell the story. This is so much fun.
To start, you are not going to immediately be building a farm, as the role in this game is a BUILDER, not a farmer. You build things. A little later into the game, you have the opportunity to change your playstyle into more of a farmer, but remember, to progress the story you need to BUILD.
Remember stardew where there was 1 commission that required you to find a fish at specifically 2pm in Summer (its winter) else you've missed it, and if you managed to catch it, also hope to get to the commission requester before they hide in their house for 12 hours? In this commissions are PROMOTED. You have multiple days, and everyone is out and about till about 10pm. As you upgrade your builder status, you can accept more per day. Amazing for not stressing yourself.
Furthermore, as long as an item is on your base lot, you can use it for commissions. My god this is a game changer. The chest management and inventory management isn't in any way as stressful as it normally is. Simply put the wood or copper into your chests in your base, and congrats you can do whatever you want with them to build!
The characters, I REMEMBER THEIR NAMES. You will quickly develop your favourites in the roster. The people of Sandrock are unique and diverse. Not everyone is friendly at first, which adds to the immersion rather than everyone being teehee omg builder so cool hi. Everyone has their quirks. As its early access, some characters lack content. They literally TELL you which ones so if you wanna romance someone, you can see whether they have alot of content or not. Amazing little treat. My favourites are Mi-an (cringe at first, grows on you quickly), Pen (funny and full of himself, fav), Catori (CATORI WORLD WILL RISE), and Yan (hes so sarcastic i love him)! Dialogue frequently varies and adapts, unlike my stardew experience of hearing the same line every day of the year.
SO MANY EVENTS. 80 hours in and im still having side quests pop up and opportunities to learn about characters. There's so much to do. Seasonal events also occur. I spend hours taking pictures at each to get the right angle with all my in game friends. There is almost always something to be doing and looking forward to. As you gain friendship, more events unlock. I hope the developers have made some specifically for if you make it to year 2 or you are dating them in year 2, but for now... Theres STILL stuff to do.
The lore is suspiciously interesting for a casual relaxation game. Listen to dialogue, read the lore, and immerse yourself in the world. There's more to it than just farming building game. I am very interested in everything going on and wanting to discover all the secrets ( PLEASE ADD EASTER EGGS AND SECRET EXPLORATION THINGS!!).
Decorations can give stat buffs so there's actually an incentive to decorate and make your base pretty! You can spend your time finding artefacts purely for the stats, or invest into upgrading your base for the stamina etc! I love being rewarded for decorating.
Now the negatives:
-CUSTOMISATION... GIVE ME MORE BEARDS, i want to roleplay my builder getting old and growing a ravenous beard, not a light moustache, and that goatee thing. Fashion doesn't really work, as certain events give you good looking clothes which just get outclassed the next day stats wise. Let us keep the stats while overlaying our fashionable fits PLEASE. Also please make the hat visibility optional, i wanna see the gorgeous hair and their amazing physics.
-Combat is FAR too easy. While i understand its a casual game, i BEG they add a mode where you can get higher rewards in dungeons/caves, at the cost of enemies 3-4 shotting you. Right now, you can tank 30+ hits on the "threatening" enemies and still be fine, despite being equal level.
-Event dialogue can feel out of place. Without spoilers, there's a moment where someone asks about your love life, and if you are dating someone, there is no dialogue option to mention this, or your date doesn't adapt their language when certain scenarios pop up (expect for Owen i think(occasionally)). This happens a few times, and you will notice throughout your gameplay, though its early access sooooooo... I was told i was Builder of the year a day before the event even happened... some out of place dialogue.
-Half the male characters are umm... ugly. Whereas almost all the female characters are gorgeous. Little thing i noticed hahaha
-OPTIMISATION, you'll find yourself quite frequently waiting for objects to spawn so you can continue your goal, else you're just stuck standing there menacingly (while waiting). EARLY ACCESS though so this is fine, though this issue was prevalent in My Time in Portia according to its reviews. My best solution was:
REMOVE CLOUDS (You wont notice the difference)
UNCAP FPS
REDUCE DISTANT SHADOW QUALITY
OVERALL:
PROS:
+AMAZING characters, i have loved talking to everyone and learning their stories. Some are sarcastic, rude, happy, energetic, relaxed, tense... VERY diverse. TAKE THEM ON DATES AND PLAYDATES TOO, they follow you around town and your date will hold your hand (aww)!!!!
+SO much to do: commissions, farming, scavenging, mining, socialising, dating, playdating, fighting, exploring, building, decorating, foraging...
+Suspiciously immersive world for a casual game... im googling lore and info... in a farming game? Yeah its good there's more stuff than meets the eye
+Beautiful art style, everyone looks maturer
+Base building is fun and the progression of gameplay is satisfying (theres ALOT, I've only built tier 2 stuff and im 80 hours in)
+Rewarded for improving Sandrock, more stuff unlocks when you help, and little details make it all the more satisfying to watch.
+Theres alot to explore? I have only explored around half the map which makes me excited to unlock more!
+YOU DONT NEED TO HOLD ITEMS TO COMPLETE COMMISSIONS, JUST HAVE THEM ON YOUR BASE!!
Cons:
-Early Access so some optimisation issues
-Some characters are lacking content (EARLY ACCESS)
-Out of place, or dialogue that ignores what you've done in the game can ruin the immersion (but VERY rarely)
-Fashion aint found here, you will be wearing that ugly af shirt with a pipe on it because it gives you stats, instead of the pretty purple jumper you got for pretending to be a ghost really well :( MORE BEARDS PLEASE
I found myself forgetting this was Early Access many times. If you're even reading this part... yes GET IT. £20 is an absolute bargain for what this is.