What a MASSIVE improvement from My Time in Portia, which was already an incredible game!
Many many improvements overall. Most notably the graphics, improved character models, visuals & aesthetics of the game!

The biggest and greatest change for me. Is the storage. Yes correct, storage and inventory management is a thing of the past with this new system! You can now auto-store all stacks of items across all your stashes at once! Thus allowing you to keep unique items on you, but stack up all your inventory junk instantaneously.
Not only that. But your stashes act as a sort of backpack now. Anything in your stashes count as being on your person for the sake of crafting, handing in commissions etc..
This is a GAME CHANGER as the most tedious park of Portia that burnt me out and prevented me from completing it. Was the CONSTANT inventory management. In Sandrock you can now auto-store all stacks then continue the focus on having fun!

And boy is it fun! there is 2-4x the content than in Portia, and with inventory management to the wayside. You can really dive in and just get lost in the experience!

I can't really find any faults with the game. For the price you are paying this is def a 10/10 product imo.

Even just in early access, My Time at Sandrock is the game that My Time at Portia wanted to be. Portia was a commendable effort from a new studio that fell flat and felt unpolished. Sandrock is an evolution that shows they've gained experience and confidence in their new franchise. I've broken down my review into categories with pros and cons.

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Gameplay:
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Pros: There's a very addicting game play loop that's been perfected here. Crafting is the main draw of Sandrock, and Panthea really nailed making this satisfying. You can craft using items in your storage, the game helpfully shows which recipes you need for crafting items for quests and even automatically sets the number to craft when using one of your stations.

For the social elements, there's nothing groundbreaking. You talk to cute townies, get to know them, shower them in the gift you discover is their favorite, pick the one you want to marry and make a beeline to them every day. The social web tab on each NPC's profile is extremely helpful and it's nice to see how the villagers are connected.

Dungeon diving is DRAMATICALLY better in Sandrock than Portia. Rather than a large shapeless cavern, you are delving through ruins that have personality and tell a story. It's fun to dig through the dirt and find lots of crafting goods and data discs, which are used to research new machines.

Combat is also an improvement. It's not very deep, but it does the job. I settled on dual daggers because they're fast and can break an enemy's guard easily.
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Cons: A general lack of polish, which I'm hoping can be improved upon. When town events start, you're just kinda... dropped into it. And when they are over, it just abruptly ends.

I think the NPCs themselves could use a bit more life. It would be nice to see them interact with one another, and during town events, you see them all saying the same things in the speech bubbles over their heads. "I hope my great-grandma can see this!". It's also a little weird that there is only one child in all of Sandrock. Maybe this changes later, but to start the town is a bunch of adults and one child. I know at the beginning Sandrock is meant to feel like a declining town, and this aspect is well done, but I'd like to see a bit more variety in terms of ages represented.

The game doesn't explain itself well. I have no idea what the icons next to my health bar mean. It took me a while to understand what the icons while crafting meant (The icons that show how many of the item you have in storage, and how many you need to craft). Some of the tutorial windows are overly wordy and kind of confusing, though this may be due to a translation issue. The one that comes to mind that confused me the most was the tutorial explaining the ghost hunt mini game. When you're a ghost hunter, it's a bit more obvious what you do, but when you start playing as a ghost, I was very confused and the tutorial was not helpful.

I've not played much with the house expansion, but what I have done has felt a bit buggy. I also find it odd that you can purchase furniture as part of the house builder, but you can't actually put it in your house.

It's difficult to tell in combat when you've been hit. Your character doesn't have any reaction. I think combat could use a bit of an overhaul to be more exciting and to better telegraph what you're doing. There's little strategy involved other than mashing the button and hoping you've dodged an attack in time.

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Graphics:
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Pro: The game's art style is charming, and the new graphics engine brings everything to life. I like that Pathea's art style for these games set them apart from other games in the genre. The environments are lively, characters are well-animated, and everything has a certain charm.
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Con: Some characters can look a little goofy at times, particularly some of the options in the character creator. Characters eating don't hold utensils correctly, and weirdly hold their plates. There is text on certain objects in the game that is just a standard Arial font and looks really ugly and out of place.

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Audio:
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Pro: Pathea has professional voice actors this time, and boy does it show. The actors do an excellent job bringing their characters to life, and it really enhances the charm.
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Con: I find the music to be a bit dull and repetitive. I have it turned down lower than the other sound effects. Some voices are not as good as others. Certain actions you do that you'd expect to make a sound don't. I think this game could do with more Foley sounds.

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Writing/Story:
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Pro: Characters are well-written, and the game tells a very interesting story. The dialogue feels mostly natural, and I'm eager to find out what happens and to get to know the townies of Sandrock better.
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Con: Some translations are still a bit rough. Some menus don't explain themselves well due to this issue. Big blocks of text in the game need to be broken up to improve readability. I appreciate the effort to be really descriptive in the game, but a lot of things are just WALLS of text.

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Performance:
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Pro: I'm running the game on the highest settings and it's been mostly smooth sailing. No framerate dips, no crashes.
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Cons: The game is early access and still is a bit buggy at points. I've not run into anything game-breaking, but keep in mind that it's unfinished. Sometimes the cutscenes will stall for a second, almost as if the game hadn't quite finished loading. I've also had at least one instance where I've been unable to finish a quest because I mistakenly did something out of order and the game didn't acknowledge steps were complete.

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Overall:
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My Time at Sandrock is an evolution on the formula Panthea started with My Time at Portia. You can feel the love and care they've poured into the game, and I am really enjoying myself. Sandrock is charming, the characters are interesting, and the game play is fun and rewarding.

If this is how great the game is in early access, I cannot wait to see how things are when it's finished.

Thank god running doesn't drain your stamina!




Edit based on full release:
Game is great. If you enjoyed the first one, you're gonna enjoy this even more! Tons and tons of stuff to do. There are quite a lot of bugs, most are harmless but some have forced a restart, mostly cutscenes not triggering and stuff.

"Okay I'll finish this comission and then I'll go to sleep irl"
*New mission*
"Well... I'll finish this new one THEN go to sleep"
*New objective*
"Okay okay just this TINY thing and then I'll go to sleep"
*new missi-

Absolutely addictive 10/10

Played it since the early access . One of the best casual games I've played after MTAP and so much improvement after MTAP . It's a simple gameplay with story lines and also a lot of side quests. For multiplayer, can't say much, because what i read is that it doesn't have story lines. just building and building . However, if you're looking for a chill game to play, I highly suggest this one.

I so badly want to just love this game. It's a fun game that I can play with my wife and it really is pretty good.
HOWEVER, in multiplayer the way they handle storage is probably one of the most atrocious things I have ever seen in a group based game. You get ONE storage box that your entire group can access, and it has VERY little space. Sounds like an easy fix, right? NAH. You CAN NOT make more public storage. ONLY personal storage, that only you can access. So you end up with 20 random personal boxes around your yard filled to the brim with all of your materials that only one of you can access, because for whatever moronic reason they refuse to let you make more public storage. What could otherwise be an amazing multiplayer game is completely dominated by this one tiny flaw that completely ruins the game for my group.

Having played 107 hours so far, you can clearly see that I've enjoyed My Time at Sandrock. I had spent 146 hours in My Time at Portia, and I had tried the demo of Sandrock so I already knew what to expect. First, let's say I prefer Sandrock.

Contrary to many posters, I like the characters. When you take the time to know them, getting bits of their past and their actual life, their job, their family, you realize that we have a nice variety of people. I have to admit though that I was not expecting a dating game so... And as for the relationship, without working hard on that, I still managed to get five 3 hearts and more, and many 2 stars (commissions, chatting, sparring or playing cards once in a while when my work is done for the day...) I liked the more 'personal' events that you have once in a while. They kind of force you to relax if you're not the kind of player to do so by yourself. ;)

If you absolutely want to be the most important person in the world, ya, this game may not be for you. It is clear from the beginning that you are there as a simple builder to help rebuild the town, and not as a super hero (sorry if it hurts your self esteem). I have to add, though, that if you play long enough, you become the one who is praised more often than anyone else.

As for the graphics, I find them OK. I like the western vibe so I prefer Sandrock bit it's a matter of taste. I enjoy the building part. It's similar to Portia and, as you get used to it, it is quite easy (although it takes time). The combat system is fun, especially with the choice of different weapons and the fact that you can upgrade your weapons and give them different stats. I agree that, as you level up, it can be quite easy, but there are still some creatures (in the north-western part of the map) that can be challenging (level 30 and up).

The freezing bug is not fixed yet. As many have said in the discussion forum, as soon as you hear the sound glitch, you just have to save, quit, and relaunch the game and you're good to continue. It is still annoying though. Even if I'm the kind of guy who likes to play slowly, I find the gardening and cooking systems to be a bit too tedious. Having to take the ingredients/items from your chests and put them in your inventory to be able to use them, and then put them all back in your chests... It would be nice if it would work like the machines and take what is needed directly from the chests.

That's about it. Considering that it is still an Early Access, I can say that I've enjoyed my experience so far and I'm eager to what we will get in the future. Should you buy the game? It's up to you to decide, after having read the comments to see if it suits you.

Sorry if I was not always clear; english is not my native tongue.

I was fighting a boss when my husband looked over and said "I thought this was supposed to be one of your farming games..."

10/10

I really enjoy this game. There is plenty to do even when there is not a quest. I really like the story line and can not wait to see what happens. I am 57 years old and on some games I have issues with defeating some bad guys but with this game (so far) I have not had to get my sons to kill anything for me. My 24 year old son is also playing this game and has enjoyed it as well. The game is still a work in progress so there are somethings that are not right yet. I would recommend this game for anyone, young and old.

My Time At Sandrock,
A sequel to My Time At Portia set in another town roughly in the same time
is a fantastic adventure and a major graphical upgrade from it's predecessor.

Sandrockers I've played Sandrock 600+ hours and a few hundred in the beta.

The amount of content in this game from the start of early access to full release
is staggering for your money frankly. Completed just the main campaign alone would take
over 40+ hours alone.

The multiplayer is finished and though they did axe the multiplayer story part it is functional works great if your in to that with a few of your friends or some random sandrockers.

The soundtrack is pretty good and doesn't really set it set apart to much from Portia
but does go with the town quite well.

The way Pathea games tried to make the saves compatible is commendable and though a tad buggy into a full release, a fresh start runs just fine.

My only complaint about the game was you'll eventually run out of adventures.
Want more!


Overall My Time At Sandrock was really enjoyable so far and I think we can only get better from here. Will update review as game develops.
Video thoughts here: https://youtu.be/sHr77dLOobA