This is probably the best game I've played in the last few years

[LordofDaggerfall]

Playing on Xbox but I'll likely buy it again here on steam after I 100% it to do some modding. As of writing this review, it seems the gaming community is in the midst of an upheaval. AA studios are delivering what would have historically been "knock-off" products of AAA games but have somehow become superior to their progenitors at half the cost. Games like Palworld, HellDivers, Cities Skylines, and more have radically blown up on the scene in a short amount of time, felling the titan upon the throne of their chosen genre. The core ethos in these games seems to be "Here is what works, here is what people actually want, let's deliver it" over the more corporate inclination of "How can we monetize this effectively while maintaining an addictive experience that keeps customers coming back"? Anyway, that's the introduction so let's discuss the game.

THIS REVIEW IS SPOILER FREE.

GRAPHICS:

In a word, breathtaking. Full Disclosure, I am a resident of the American Southwest so I am likely incredibly biased on this point - but the desert rose sings to me. There's something about riding back over the train track from Gecko Station with the sun setting across the canyon my pack full of materials and my energy exhausted that hits the spot. No sane person is going to make the claim that the fidelity of these graphics is top notch, or that they are photo quality or groundbreaking. I am going to die on the hill that the style, form, and composition of these pixels together creates a visual feast and helps transport the player into another world. If we zoom in on a rock on the ground you might notice it doesn't have much texture, its bland and formless. But when we take all the graphical elements and smoosh them together on the canvas we get pure excellence.

As far as the character models are concerned they are distinct, and that's important. I always joke that, originally, the reason games might of had so many animal characters like in Banjo-Kazooie and others was because the polygons were so basic the player might not be able to tell the difference between humans. Grace does not look like Elsie does not look like Mi-an and lack the "anime-itis" of samey characters. The outfits deserve similar praise, very eclectic and singular, they almost seem like a fashion designer's fever dream about making a spaghetti western - but in the best way.

THE CHARACTERS:

There's a lot of folks to love here, and I call them folks intentionally. I know in my brain that they're not real people, but my heart doesn't know that. I'm not going to get into specifics here because I would absolutely hate myself for ruining the character development for someone else, but there are a lot of interesting characters with interesting stories - and surprises abound. This does, however, bring us to a gripe I have - which is voice acting. I'm sure the people they use are very talented, but its not on display here. Some of them are voiced very well like Pablo, Elsie, Justice, Heidi, Amirah, Pen, Owen and Yan are all pretty great, the rest feel a bit phoned in from time to time or as if the recording maybe took place on a different day to the point some lines that are delivered feel disjointed or out of place. This was a gripe in the first game as well, and I want to be clear that its a very minor complaint and doesn't at all detract from the writing or characterization its simply a personal gripe. There's other immersion breaking things as well, like characters will spawn weird places and warp across the map, Justice will show up to every event on his horse and spin in circles like its the main town in an MMO. Initially this can be kind of frustrating, but eventually you are buddies with everybody and can see them on the map so this only applies to early game.

Dating is a lot of fun, and for men or women or inbetween, gay or straight, there are a lot of options on offer and everybody should have a soul mate. I picked a character, and found out she is not romanceable until way way late into the game, which was frustrating, and even more so because there was no feedback that lets you know that, so I had to look it up, which then effectively spoiled a story beat for me and led to me romancing a different character entirely. Outside of the story there should be some kind of messaging to the player why the mechanic isn't working, so they're not led to believe they're doing something wrong.

THE MECHANICS:

This is where we really get into the meat and potatoes of the game, is it fun to play? Does it do what it sets out to do in a way that's engaging? The answer is yes to both. A lot of the clunk from Portia has been streamlined. Inventory space is greatly expanded to the point you can get all the way to late game without building a storage box. You no longer have to place an item on the hotbar to place it as it will autofill from your inventory. Everything from farming, to relics, to just general crafting has been simplified, but not too much to where it feels as though you aren't playing a game anymore. Building of the home has also been greatly expanded, and there are a lot more options to make the workshop of your dreams.

The crown jewel of mechanical improvements is the extension of the day cycle. So much was missed in Portia simply because you didn't have time to complete everything. While this led to replayability, it also felt rushed and like you didn't have the time to complete the things you wanted to. Only absolute monsters play Sandrock above .6 - I can take Grace out on a date, clear a dungeon, mine in an abandoned ruin, and complete a couple commissions in the same day and be done by 8pm in time to have a drink with Owen at the bar and play some whack-a-mole. If I see a cool sunset I can stop and enjoy it without worrying that if I waste even a second I will be unable to have the day I wanted to have.



COMBAT:

Well, at least they tried. I find the combat in this game extremely easy, more like Ocarina of Time and less like Dark Souls. If you're purchasing this game for the combat you're in the wrong place and you'll be disappointed. The weapons are all really cool stylistically. My main weapon is a 2-handed Keyboard sword so I can finally fulfill my dream of being a keyboard warrior! But the stats on weapons and gear are more or less immaterial to success in combat, as placed items in the home end up being much more useful. I also really enjoy the ranged weapons as well, but the whole experience feels a bit lame when compared to other titles.

CONCLUSION:

All things considered, and gripes and clunk figured in, this game is a very solid 9/10. It excels in giving the player a fresh experience every time they login, while also being easy enough to learn and play that its an approachable experience. It puts in a blender elements of Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon, Zelda, and modern mechanics and the smoothie that makes is delicious and addicting. I would recommend this game to anyone who appreciates excellence, and the other developers in the genre had better take note and step up their game because while every entry in other games is stale and slow to improve, Patheos is taking chances and offering a fresh perspective, and no one thought that SimCity would ever get knocked off its throne but here we are.

[House Gnome]

Did you post this as an actual review?

[𝕰𝖙𝖊𝖗𝖓𝖆]

1000000% I agree. I love it no matters the bugs, or the roll eyes sometimes I do, or some events that are grrrr! 😂 I really love it.
I still find the combat easy, I wish was more difficult, but after all is a building the focus.
They really give a lot of heart in this game. I am sure I am going to buy the next game if they made it.

My English is not too good, but you get the point I hope! :)

[LordofDaggerfall]

Originally posted by Eterna:

1000000% I agree. I love it no matters the bugs, or the roll eyes sometimes I do, or some events that are grrrr! 😂 I really love it.
I still find the combat easy, I wish was more difficult, but after all is a building the focus.
They really give a lot of heart in this game. I am sure I am going to buy the next game if they made it.

My Engish is not too good, but you get the point I hope! :)

They've got preorder rights to my wallet! These games are like liquid crack. I do an equation cost/hours of content = value. I'm at about 80 hours on my xbox playthrough and I spent 34 bucks on the special edition and another 8 on the animal DLC which means currently I've got a 2x return of entertainment value to money spent and counting! My English isn't so great either!

[𝕰𝖙𝖊𝖗𝖓𝖆]

Originally posted by LordofDaggerfall:

Originally posted by Eterna:

1000000% I agree. I love it no matters the bugs, or the roll eyes sometimes I do, or some events that are grrrr! 😂 I really love it.
I still find the combat easy, I wish was more difficult, but after all is a building the focus.
They really give a lot of heart in this game. I am sure I am going to buy the next game if they made it.

My Engish is not too good, but you get the point I hope! :)

They've got preorder rights to my wallet! These games are like liquid crack. I do an equation cost/hours of content = value. I'm at about 80 hours on my xbox playthrough and I spent 34 bucks on the special edition and another 8 on the animal DLC which means currently I've got a 2x return of entertainment value to money spent and counting! My English isn't so great either!

:) this is good, I have 3,700 hours imagine that. lol

[𝕰𝖙𝖊𝖗𝖓𝖆]

Originally posted by Eterna:

Originally posted by LordofDaggerfall:

They've got preorder rights to my wallet! These games are like liquid crack. I do an equation cost/hours of content = value. I'm at about 80 hours on my xbox playthrough and I spent 34 bucks on the special edition and another 8 on the animal DLC which means currently I've got a 2x return of entertainment value to money spent and counting! My English isn't so great either!

:) this is good, I have 3,700 hours imagine that. lol

This game has give me some peace and smile in a very difficult time in my life at this moment. One of my dogs has cancer and it is very painful to me. I know is a matters of time so this game in a way make me forget the pain.

[February]

I agree with you completely on the exquisiteness of the atmosphere, OP. I've been drawn to the beauty of desert landscapes since I was a child, so there's something sublime and welcoming about playing in one that is depicted so vividly.

I also think there's something special about worlds that show you different aspects of a single cohesive place rather than slices of multiple places. Think Super Mario Sunshine versus Super Mario Odyssey - they approach the game world in distinct ways, with Sunshine diving deep into island life while Odyssey goes for radical variety. I'll take the former method any day because it gives such a sense of place.

Sandrock's world is all desert and I like that a lot better than the whole "and now we come to the snow biome!" kind of thing. It still offers individually distinct and interesting locations (Sandrock, the Eufaula dunes, the Badlands...) while keeping to the theme, which is really creative and lends a sense of scale to the desert.

[LordofDaggerfall]

Originally posted by Eterna:

Originally posted by Eterna:

:) this is good, I have 3,700 hours imagine that. lol

This game has give me some peace and smile in a very difficult time in my life at this moment. One of my dogs has cancer and it is very painful to me. I know is a matters of time so this game in a way make me forget the pain.

SAME! Games are an escape, I always tell my friends if you're having a bad day just game about it. Take an hour, kill some bosses, level up, get that dopamine flowing and change your frame of mind. With all the stuff going on in the world caring for your inner-child is hella important! Keep gaming, keep smiling!

Originally posted by februaryInk:

I agree with you completely on the exquisiteness of the atmosphere, OP. I've been drawn to the beauty of desert landscapes since I was a child, so there's something sublime and welcoming about playing in one that is depicted so vividly.

I also think there's something special about worlds that show you different aspects of a single cohesive place rather than slices of multiple places. Think Super Mario Sunshine versus Super Mario Odyssey - they approach the game world in distinct ways, with Sunshine diving deep into island life while Odyssey goes for radical variety. I'll take the former method any day because it gives such a sense of place.

Sandrock's world is all desert and I like that a lot better than the whole "and now we come to the snow biome!" kind of thing. It still offers individually distinct and interesting locations (Sandrock, the Eufaula dunes, the Badlands...) while keeping to the theme, which is really creative and lends a sense of scale to the desert.

I am in love with the graphics. Portia was really cool but it always kind of felt like a late-stage PS2 game to me. This one and Red Dead Redemption are games I just stop with an open mouth like "wowwwwwww" and the graphics couldn't be more different. It really goes to show that style is so much more important than fidelity when it comes to graphics.

[Jordan Montana Tagert]

Originally posted by LordofDaggerfall:

Playing on Xbox but I'll likely buy it again here on steam after I 100% it to do some modding. As of writing this review, it seems the gaming community is in the midst of an upheaval. AA studios are delivering what would have historically been "knock-off" products of AAA games but have somehow become superior to their progenitors at half the cost. Games like Palworld, HellDivers, Cities Skylines, and more have radically blown up on the scene in a short amount of time, felling the titan upon the throne of their chosen genre. The core ethos in these games seems to be "Here is what works, here is what people actually want, let's deliver it" over the more corporate inclination of "How can we monetize this effectively while maintaining an addictive experience that keeps customers coming back"? Anyway, that's the introduction so let's discuss the game.

THIS REVIEW IS SPOILER FREE.

GRAPHICS:

In a word, breathtaking. Full Disclosure, I am a resident of the American Southwest so I am likely incredibly biased on this point - but the desert rose sings to me. There's something about riding back over the train track from Gecko Station with the sun setting across the canyon my pack full of materials and my energy exhausted that hits the spot. No sane person is going to make the claim that the fidelity of these graphics is top notch, or that they are photo quality or groundbreaking. I am going to die on the hill that the style, form, and composition of these pixels together creates a visual feast and helps transport the player into another world. If we zoom in on a rock on the ground you might notice it doesn't have much texture, its bland and formless. But when we take all the graphical elements and smoosh them together on the canvas we get pure excellence.

As far as the character models are concerned they are distinct, and that's important. I always joke that, originally, the reason games might of had so many animal characters like in Banjo-Kazooie and others was because the polygons were so basic the player might not be able to tell the difference between humans. Grace does not look like Elsie does not look like Mi-an and lack the "anime-itis" of samey characters. The outfits deserve similar praise, very eclectic and singular, they almost seem like a fashion designer's fever dream about making a spaghetti western - but in the best way.

THE CHARACTERS:

There's a lot of folks to love here, and I call them folks intentionally. I know in my brain that they're not real people, but my heart doesn't know that. I'm not going to get into specifics here because I would absolutely hate myself for ruining the character development for someone else, but there are a lot of interesting characters with interesting stories - and surprises abound. This does, however, bring us to a gripe I have - which is voice acting. I'm sure the people they use are very talented, but its not on display here. Some of them are voiced very well like Pablo, Elsie, Justice, Heidi, Amirah, Pen, Owen and Yan are all pretty great, the rest feel a bit phoned in from time to time or as if the recording maybe took place on a different day to the point some lines that are delivered feel disjointed or out of place. This was a gripe in the first game as well, and I want to be clear that its a very minor complaint and doesn't at all detract from the writing or characterization its simply a personal gripe. There's other immersion breaking things as well, like characters will spawn weird places and warp across the map, Justice will show up to every event on his horse and spin in circles like its the main town in an MMO. Initially this can be kind of frustrating, but eventually you are buddies with everybody and can see them on the map so this only applies to early game.

Dating is a lot of fun, and for men or women or inbetween, gay or straight, there are a lot of options on offer and everybody should have a soul mate. I picked a character, and found out she is not romanceable until way way late into the game, which was frustrating, and even more so because there was no feedback that lets you know that, so I had to look it up, which then effectively spoiled a story beat for me and led to me romancing a different character entirely. Outside of the story there should be some kind of messaging to the player why the mechanic isn't working, so they're not led to believe they're doing something wrong.

THE MECHANICS:

This is where we really get into the meat and potatoes of the game, is it fun to play? Does it do what it sets out to do in a way that's engaging? The answer is yes to both. A lot of the clunk from Portia has been streamlined. Inventory space is greatly expanded to the point you can get all the way to late game without building a storage box. You no longer have to place an item on the hotbar to place it as it will autofill from your inventory. Everything from farming, to relics, to just general crafting has been simplified, but not too much to where it feels as though you aren't playing a game anymore. Building of the home has also been greatly expanded, and there are a lot more options to make the workshop of your dreams.

The crown jewel of mechanical improvements is the extension of the day cycle. So much was missed in Portia simply because you didn't have time to complete everything. While this led to replayability, it also felt rushed and like you didn't have the time to complete the things you wanted to. Only absolute monsters play Sandrock above .6 - I can take Grace out on a date, clear a dungeon, mine in an abandoned ruin, and complete a couple commissions in the same day and be done by 8pm in time to have a drink with Owen at the bar and play some whack-a-mole. If I see a cool sunset I can stop and enjoy it without worrying that if I waste even a second I will be unable to have the day I wanted to have.



COMBAT:

Well, at least they tried. I find the combat in this game extremely easy, more like Ocarina of Time and less like Dark Souls. If you're purchasing this game for the combat you're in the wrong place and you'll be disappointed. The weapons are all really cool stylistically. My main weapon is a 2-handed Keyboard sword so I can finally fulfill my dream of being a keyboard warrior! But the stats on weapons and gear are more or less immaterial to success in combat, as placed items in the home end up being much more useful. I also really enjoy the ranged weapons as well, but the whole experience feels a bit lame when compared to other titles.

CONCLUSION:

All things considered, and gripes and clunk figured in, this game is a very solid 9/10. It excels in giving the player a fresh experience every time they login, while also being easy enough to learn and play that its an approachable experience. It puts in a blender elements of Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon, Zelda, and modern mechanics and the smoothie that makes is delicious and addicting. I would recommend this game to anyone who appreciates excellence, and the other developers in the genre had better take note and step up their game because while every entry in other games is stale and slow to improve, Patheos is taking chances and offering a fresh perspective, and no one thought that SimCity would ever get knocked off its throne but here we are.

Did the developers pay you to say that????????

[PrplGrl]

I prefer Portia, for multiple reasons, especially because of the builder having an audible speaking voice, unlike Sandrock, but I still really loved playing this game too, the story was so much more exciting!

[LordofDaggerfall]

Originally posted by thomasdpatrick:

Did the developers pay you to say that????????

No, My job paid me to write that, lol. Pure work boredom.

Originally posted by PrplGrl:

I prefer Portia, for multiple reasons, especially because of the builder having an audible speaking voice, unlike Sandrock, but I still really loved playing this game too, the story was so much more exciting!

I prefer Portia as well, I would like to see that game remade with some of the system updates in Sandrock but I would rather just see a new game, maybe in Highwind this time or do a Harvest moon or 2 seasons and have multiple towns to choose from. There's a lot of Magic in Portia, you can tell its a labor of love as opposed to Sandrock which feels much more efficient but less quirky.