Why I don't recommend Sandrock

[Harris]

Last week I finished my 200-hours playthrough of Sandrock and gave it a negative review. And now, after the game released, it suddenly exploded. Unfortunately, I did not discover it from Steam awards notifications. I discovered it because of all the people going out of their way to contact me and tell me how much of a terrible person I am and wish me prostate cancer. One even went as far as to dig up my old review from years ago where I made a mistake of not setting comments to "disabled". What they wrote me was something along the lines of "Even though a developer acknowledged your feedback and told you it's incredibly valuable, you're actually wrong and your review is bs. Grow up kid".

Now, I'm not going to give a verbatim of a 8000 characters review, you are welcome to look that up if you'd like, but the bottom line is - Sandrock is flawed. It would be delusional to think it's not. For days after I wrote that I thought of many other things I either forgot to add or there just wasn't enough space to do so. And the main flaws I pointed out and the devs agreed with is bloat and "quantity over quality" approach of Sandrock. I am checking out the full release right now, and my criticisms stand, even taller than before in fact. Yes, we do get to build houses for 3 new families in the endgame now. But what's the point? They are all literally random NPCs without side-quests, voice acting, pretty much anything than a name and a short backstory summarized by "adventurer from Tallsky" or "grandmother of two". At this point, about half the people I see on the streets of Sandrock are either unnamed tourists or the characters outside the core cast that joined following a quest - like Catori's son or the pair of Geeglers. Sandrock is now large, but dead. And that goes for areas surrounding it. For example, what's the point of Dead Sea, if it's only needed for a single quest and the resources from this area are only ever used in 1 or 2 recipes? Yes, there is a factory and greenhouse now, but both feel glitchy, unwieldy and shoehorned on top of the existing systems. I ended up deleting the factory and doing things the old way. Yes, we now get a medal from Civil Corps - but we can't even wear it alongside the Sandrock Hero one. I seriously need to stop now, because this will turn into a second 8000 characters review before I know it.

I'd like people to realize that an opinion different to their own should not be seen as a personal attack or an attempt to invalidate their experience. I'm as much of a fan as the next guy, I got all the DLC for Portia and now Sandrock, because I'm excited to see what Pathea does next with the franchise. But being a blind fanboy only does the game a disservice. Like I said in the review, Sandrock got its diamonds, but they are buried too deeply under the sand for a lot of people to see and enjoy them. Sandrock tries to accomplish too many things at once. It sits on multiple chairs, but ends up falling clumsily to the floor. Yes, you can build a house, but it's ultimately a pointless affair as the rooms are mostly needed to store relics, which shouldn't be in your house in the first place since museum exists. Sandrock is at its strongest when it deviates from its nature as a shallow game. At such moments I get excited but also bitter - as I get a glimpse into what kind of game we could have received instead. Nia is a single, but perhaps the most prominent example of this. She got more background and personality than whole of Portia AND Sandrock, combined. I would gladly trade away 20 love interests from either game for just 5 deep characters like her. But that, unfortunately, is not an option.

So what I wanted to say is I enjoyed Sandrock. It was a great adventure and an emotional experience. But it was also a tedious experience - early game was a struggle, and I had the urge to stop playing multiple times, both because of tedious mechanics and because of some particularly obnoxious characters. While I ultimately had the willpower to sit through all the grind - I honestly don't think it's fair to expect many other people to have the same. Nor do I believe a game should take 50-100 hours before it becomes enjoyable.

[Pathetic]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย JIBA:

You guys gotta stop feeding trolls.
OP is literally farming clowns as you can see on his profile showcase. He's legit proud of his clown farming achievement, whereas he HAS to show them to everyone else.

Besides that OP is still clearly playing Sandrock atm. Imagine that, leaving this whole rant about how Sandrock sucks and yet immediately after launch the game.

I'm not saying Sandrock is a perfect game, I'd say it's 85/100 but OP clearly a clown farmer so ignore this ♥♥♥♥.

Yeah this is the funniest part. Wouldn't recommend after 200 hours, but now he's at 240 hours and continuing to play the game.

I actually agree with some of his points, in that the house has lost a lot of functionality and at some point it just became a stat warehouse. The generic NPCs that started roaming the town I dislike too. I personally think they should just stay inside after their work if they dont have lines or interaction.

However, I think its insane that they say the characters dont have deep stories or motivation. I think Sandrock has the most character development and exploration overall per character out of any farming sim i've played except maybe RF4. You are not going to get something on the level of Miguel's arc from most games of this genre.

[Jun]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Ihateeverybody:

I mean. What is clown farming? It sounds like someone is actively giving them these things.

I know its not me. So by responding to the Post how are we aiding this endevor?

Basically you post controversial stuff like politics or how a good game is bad etc
People will give you jester awards because it will be such a clown take. Those free awards translate to free points to whoever receives them.

If you look at OP's review history you can see 95% of his reviews are all negative. Many like sandrock he has many many hours in. Unless OP is a masochist, he's clearly leaving behind controversial reviews purely for the sake of farming these awards.

[Pancakeparty]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย JIBA:

You guys gotta stop feeding trolls.
OP is literally farming clowns as you can see on his profile showcase. He's legit proud of his clown farming achievement, whereas he HAS to show them to everyone else.

Besides that OP is still clearly playing Sandrock atm. Imagine that, leaving this whole rant about how Sandrock sucks and yet immediately after launch the game.

I'm not saying Sandrock is a perfect game, I'd say it's 85/100 but OP clearly a clown farmer so ignore this ♥♥♥♥.

Their post wasn't even what I'd call a review of mtas, but a critique on the members of the community like yourself, who are hilariously taking a review that critiqued the game personally. You're more of a clown than they are.

[Killer Rabbit]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Ihateeverybody:

So by responding to the Post how are we aiding this endevor?

Partially because it keeps putting the discussion back to the first page.

If clown farming is the thing that gets them out of bed every morning (figuratively speaking) then good for them. Life can be ♥♥♥♥♥♥ sometimes.

[Harris]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย JIBA:

You guys gotta stop feeding trolls.
OP is literally farming clowns as you can see on his profile showcase. He's legit proud of his clown farming achievement, whereas he HAS to show them to everyone else.

Like I said, I realized that if I'm gonna get feedback on my review anyway, I'd rather talk about here than some esoteric place that got nothing to do with the game.

I also have 240k Steam points right now and I can't see any feasible way for me to spend these any longer. So I don't see how could you contrive a theory that I am farming anything here.

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Pathetic:

Yeah this is the funniest part. Wouldn't recommend after 200 hours, but now he's at 240 hours and continuing to play the game.

Am I supposed to never touch a game after I "not recommended" it? Steam seems to think that way at least. Hence all those "Would you like to rewise your review?"

This particular case, I am playing through some new side quests and trying to figure out if the game improved in the full release. Like if maybe I should iterate of my review or maybe get rid of it altogether, you know? So far, a miracle did not happen.

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย JIBA:

If you look at OP's review history you can see 95% of his reviews are all negative. Many like sandrock he has many many hours in. Unless OP is a masochist, he's clearly leaving behind controversial reviews purely for the sake of farming these awards.

Are you implying that things I post don't represent my genuine opinion of a game? Every single time? That I have to conjure up a narrative that I anticipate to go against the hivemind? Well that's quite a leap.

I mean, I tend to only review things I really love or am particularly disappointed about. It just so happens that a lot of games tend to fall into the latter category.

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Pancakesplease:

Their post wasn't even what I'd call a review of mtas, but a critique on the members of the community like yourself, who are hilariously taking a review that critiqued the game personally. You're more of a clown than they are.

Based.

[TygerBlu]

Did you enjoy writing this essay? Jeez.

[Lucky Strikes]

I came to the same conclusion as the OP, for different reasons but still same basic conclusion. Since the game is at full release I am willing to start new and do 1 more play through before I fully review it. We'll see if the final release has some major change that's not a paid DLC, which adds nothing to the game btw.

[Kashra Fall]

No disrespect, but if a game is not enjoyable for you, why sit through 50-100 hours and THEN tell people it is a bad game in your eyes/you don't recommend it? That type of mentality never, ever made any sense to me. Sorry you got verbally attacked over a review, but that portion of what you said, makes 0 sense to me.

People love mine craft, I can't stand it. I don't tell people it is a bad game, or don't recommend it, I just don't play it.

[Harris]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Cactus Jack:

We'll see if the final release has some major change that's not a paid DLC, which adds nothing to the game btw.

It does indeed add nothing and is introduced a bit heavy-handedly, like it just drops stuff to your letterbox, and the Gecko is just immediately there. If you don't give it a home there and then, you'll start losing relationship with it. I just grabbed the DLC to support the devs (and also some tracks are pretty good, the wedding and Duvos themes are my favorites).

As for major changes, like I said, every point of mine holds up so far. I just finished Nia's new side quest. Without spoiling things for anyone, I just read the line of dialogue "Thanks for everything today, Harris and Mi-an!", and the voice acting for it was "Thanks for everything today ........ And Mi-an!". Moments like that are really jarring, especially after having to hear them for 100+ hours of story. Not making the Builder a defined character Max/Lucy was a mistake, really.

My general impression of the side quests though - together they add a new story on top of the story that already ended. And as the game overstayed its welcome, I'm kind of too tired to care about it anymore. The quality also varies btw. Some stuff is voiced, some is not.

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Pathetic:

I actually agree with some of his points, in that the house has lost a lot of functionality and at some point it just became a stat warehouse. The generic NPCs that started roaming the town I dislike too. I personally think they should just stay inside after their work if they dont have lines or interaction.

Yeah, it gets ridiculous sometimes. 3 out of 4 characters in this picture don't have anything to them but a repeatable static line of dialogue, and the final one is a full-fledged character who you can go on adventure together, give gifts to and gain beneficial perks based on relationship status. Can you guess which one? Yes, it's the cat

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3070231366

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย TygerBlu:

Did you enjoy writing this essay? Jeez.

Matter of fact - no, I didn't. You can tell writing's all over the place and not nearly as eloquent as my reviews. That's because this is kind of a stressful experience and I needed to get this out of my system. Should have probably taken it in stride but, I'm only human.

[Wolfe]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Kashra Fall:

No disrespect, but if a game is not enjoyable for you, why sit through 50-100 hours and THEN tell people it is a bad game in your eyes/you don't recommend it? That type of mentality never, ever made any sense to me. Sorry you got verbally attacked over a review, but that portion of what you said, makes 0 sense to me.

People love mine craft, I can't stand it. I don't tell people it is a bad game, or don't recommend it, I just don't play it.

Simple, maybe it's not that bad, but it's not good enough that you'd suggest people spend money on it. But since you already did, might as well play it, since it's not that bad.
Or maybe, someone likes playing bad games, but doesn't recommend them to others, because most people like good games.
Or maybe, it takes that long to realize.... "This" is all there is to it? There's nothing else? Well... that's not recommendation worthy.

[Pancakeparty]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Kashra Fall:

No disrespect, but if a game is not enjoyable for you, why sit through 50-100 hours and THEN tell people it is a bad game in your eyes/you don't recommend it? That type of mentality never, ever made any sense to me. Sorry you got verbally attacked over a review, but that portion of what you said, makes 0 sense to me.

People love mine craft, I can't stand it. I don't tell people it is a bad game, or don't recommend it, I just don't play it.

When a game is in EA for as long a MTAS was, it's easy to rack up that amount of hours as you're playing through newly added content, from multiple new saves for years.

Also, not recommending a game doesn't mean someone "hates" it. It means it they feel it needs to improve in the areas that they mentioned before they can personally recommend it.

[Cynical Jester]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Aerogems:

They just immediately launch into the personal attacks and dial things up to 11 immediately.

Dude... This has been how the internet has operated since its inception. It is most definitely nothing new and it actually used to be worse. Now you have word police all over the place that delete comments, ban people etc.

You definitely never had anything like that before and people said MUCH worse stuff than they do now. So you should be thankful that what people do today is considered "personal attacks" and "dialing things up to 11" because it's most definitely all been dialed down to 1.

[Wolfe]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Cynical Jester:

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Aerogems:

They just immediately launch into the personal attacks and dial things up to 11 immediately.

Dude... This has been how the internet has operated since its inception. It is most definitely nothing new and it actually used to be worse. Now you have word police all over the place that delete comments, ban people etc.

You definitely never had anything like that before and people said MUCH worse stuff than they do now. So you should be thankful that what people do today is considered "personal attacks" and "dialing things up to 11" because it's most definitely all been dialed down to 1.

dialed down to 1 would be civil discourse, with no name calling, or worse, just mutually respectful dialogue without any heat. Try a different number.

[Rizo the Hunter]

Welcome to the internet?

[syzara]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Ihateeverybody:

I mean. What is clown farming? It sounds like someone is actively giving them these things.

I know its not me. So by responding to the Post how are we aiding this endevor?

It's the people who give the OP the Jester award what makes the clown thing going.

Keep in mind this apparent troll managed to be the top post in our discussion group here on Steam for the last couple of hours. While I sincerely prefer talking about either issues or happiness. This whole review thing is neither.

The best one can do with this kind of person is ignore them tho, so no one else feels the need to give the OP yet another Jester. I mean him having 203 of them should be Spider Georg levels of enough already, and also be enough of a hint to assume the clown farming is real.