My Time at Sandrock sends the genre of the idyllic farm simulation into the desert. Sounds risky, but already pays off in Early Access.
The name My Time at Sandrock might ring a (pasture) bell with some people, because yes: it is indeed the successor to the “farm role-playing game” My Time at Portia.
This time, however, neither cabbage nor turnips are planted! No, because Sandrock replaces the lush, green meadows of the prequel with a western town in the heart of a sandy desert – and places us there as craftsmen in front of workbenches, kilns & Co.
This is tricky, as economy-heavy social simulations live a little from the idyll typical of the genre. Sandrock, however, combines its complex crafting chains with action-adventure and role-playing in such a motivating way that it is really fun to build bookshelves and cable car gondolas. Alongside this, we can even distract ourselves with a full-fledged clone of the PvP hit Witch It!
That’s a lot of content for an Early Access title that will be developed further for at least a year. And indeed, tech edges still need to be sanded down and intermittent monotony combated via more events. But already fans of Stardew Valley, building games and role-playing mechanics can spend weeks immersed in My Time at Sandrock.
Table of Contents
Possessive Wild West
We are relatively free to decide what kind of main character (male or female) we want to try our hand at crafting in the semi-open world of Sandrock. For this purpose, we have a character editor with 13 customisation categories at our disposal, starting with skin colour and ending with a black metal face tattoo.
Finished? Then we roll into the station of the Wild West town of Sandrock on board a puffing steam train. Well: the post-apocalyptic Wild West town, because our civilisation went down the drain ages ago, Fallout says hello. Why? Well, we’re in the dark about that for the time being.
On the platform, Mi-an, a childlike tutorial in white overalls and aviator goggles, is already waiting for us. From her, as well as from the other droll inhabitants (including a “rapper”, a ship’s captain and a grumpy fighting cat), we learn all kinds of interesting facts. For example, that a tradesman’s job application has brought us here and we are taking over the workshop of the retiring builder Mason. Mi-an has also taken the job of a retiree and accompanies us through many story assignments.
Craft on golden ground
Our main task is to help the economically ailing Sandrock to regain its former greatness with our craftsmanship. We take advantage of the fact that the beautifully designed settlement was built on the ruins of an “Old World” metropolis. Among other things, data discs are buried there, which we use to reproduce forgotten technology. And it is precisely this that is the key to a flourishing city in the middle of the pup-dry sandy desert.
This all sounds interesting, but also very reclined – and indeed Sandrock’s story is as lacking in dramaturgical earthquakes as it is in unexpected twists. The obligatory evil in the form of the masked train robber Logan and the mad “Geegler” is brought in twice. Their job, however, is “only” to accentuate the story in a funny way and to bring variety into the central crafting events, which they do excellently.
The Geegler – wonderfully silly lizard people – lighten the mood, for example, when they giggle and fill Sandrock’s oasis with rubbish (and we are then allowed to clean up the mess). They also lead us on entertaining story missions underground, where we once board up a large Geegler loophole.
In contrast, Logan’s appearances are initially limited to cutscenes that make us wonder why he and his gang regularly rob the Sandrock Express. Valuables don’t seem to interest the mysterious bandits one iota.
All the main assignments, in which we build big things like an elevator in line with the story, were rolled into occasional film sequences and set to music by good English speakers.
However, some tutorial translations are completely missing, so that the windows in question are – well, just empty.
In some places there also seems to be a translation AI running rampant, because who else would translate “draw” as “drawing”? Well, we still managed to find our way around in the test.
Create, create, build a workshop
The desert workshop we move into in Sandrock consists of a small house with a bed, a water tank for energy supply and an open-air construction stage – that’s it. It’s up to us to fill the small Early Access plot with up to 40 crafting machines, which includes their upgraded editions.
Our most important working tool is the workbench, as most objects can be made with it. All other equipment works fully automatically and is suitable for mass production. For example, the recycler reads usable things from collected scrap, the kiln produces bricks or steel bars, and the sewing machine spits out various protective clothes.
Most of the clothes protect noticeably against enemy attacks and significantly increase our few basic values of attack, defence, critical hit rate and luck. The effect of the latter, by the way, remained hidden from us in the test.
With the “sand gear”, on the other hand, we protect ourselves from the intermittent sandstorms through which we can otherwise only move with difficulty. Storms also pile sand around our equipment, which is why we should “sandwipe” vigorously with a feather duster after a storm.
Great effort, great reward
If we want to work on better versions of our grinders and awnings, they must first be researched by the local scientist – the nerdy Mr Qi. For this, the good guy often needs several in-game days as well as the already mentioned data discs, which we procure by knocking on stones on the eleven levels of the futuristic ruins.
This is exciting, by the way, because the access to the next level is cleverly hidden behind rubble and debris. That’s why we often use a jetpack in our search.
Besides Qi, the elegant builder Heidi also plays a role, because with her help we later expand our house and yard. Later, because it takes a while to make the necessary components. This is especially true for horse and chicken stables as well as the rabbit enclosure, which cannot be built without upgraded equipment and rarer resources. In this respect, this part also takes a back seat.
However, we can ride early in the game; Sandrock has a cheap horse rental service. We even save the feed money completely, since Sandrock’s nags don’t eat anything and can still be ridden well.
Speaking of which, money is one of the higher hurdles put in the way of progress in the game. We often have to buy expensive crafting recipes or resources on the spot, so we can’t help but stock up on drawing board orders à la “build me a storage crate”. But this only works once a day and is often not easy!
Sandrock’s crafting system is at times reminiscent of Pass A38, because to build item A we almost always need items B, C, D and E as well. On the one hand, this means that craftsmen working on several tracks often lose track of what they are doing. In addition to orders, better workbenches and mining equipment are also waiting to be completed.
On the other hand, it releases huge amounts of happiness hormones when we rush down to the ruins in the self-built lift for the first time. Or literally gave a stage to a somewhat choppy dancing country duo in the context of the still too few town festivals. The great way in which My Time of Sandrock rewards player effort adds a special charm.
A truly barren desert
The somewhat less interesting part of the game is the desert, which is populated by mobs and is only expediently large, reminiscent of old N64 titles with its washed-out textures. The performance in the outdoor areas is correspondingly good – it becomes more difficult with the appearance of more effective objects such as workbenches with lighting. Then the frame rate is sometimes below 30 FPS, even on strong hardware.
We get the most resources from the desert by stepping in front of cacti, chopping down deadwood with the bronze axe or smashing rocks with the pick hammer. But be careful: this drains our stamina bar, after which only snacks or a good night’s sleep can help. Sleep is compulsory from 3 a.m. onwards – if our alter ego is not in bed by then, he keels over on the spot and starts the next day weakened.
Enemies you don’t want to spank
When farming, the ingeniously designed enemies, which include honey-dragging ants as well as grumpy yaks and “firecrackers” armed with fireworks, only partially attack us. The icons above the animals’ heads are helpful here, as they provide information about their aggressiveness.
For the real-time fights, we have several swords with identical handling and of course colts at our disposal. In close combat, we defend ourselves by rhythmically or quickly clicking the mouse, thus varying the few combinations of blows. It’s more fun with the pistols, as we can target individual parts of the body in target mode and inflict greater damage by hitting the head, for example.
Technically, there is hardly anything to criticise about the skirmishes. Only the difficulty of the regular encounters is far too low, while it jumps up in boss fights – that still has to change for more fighting fun. By the way, you never die in Sandrock, but you are reset fairly. Nor do we lose anything from our inventory after a defeat.Conclusion: On the way to the oasis
Summary: On the way to the oasis
Even in version 0.4.3, My Time at Sandrock impressively shows that a farm simulation doesn’t have to wither in the sandy desert. The Western setting in the post-apocalypse produces diverse crafting tasks that are cleverly interwoven with the entertaining story about economic recovery and dopey lizard people.
Of course, Early Access-typical technical shortcomings and dry stretches in terms of content can be found especially in the city events. As a result, a certain grind feeling sets in at times – despite the great mini-games. Most of the battles are also far too easy.
However, the recently published roadmap gives hope that such shortcomings will be eliminated in the end. And then Story of Seasons, the reference in terms of farm simulation, would get really strong competition.
Editorial conclusion
Phew, I was sceptical at first. Don’t misunderstand: I liked the predecessor My Time at Portia. However, a game like Story of Seasons, Harvest Moon or Stardew Valley also wants to simulate the “good life” – and in My Time at Sandrock that takes place between two rocks, so to speak. But what can I say? In my eyes, developer Pathea has managed to unite these stark contrasts, for I have been able to embrace the desert as my idyll. Sandstorms included, because they don’t just suddenly rage, but come up slowly the day before. Such details really fascinated me about Sandrock.
What I didn’t like as much were the far too easy fights and shoot-outs; I’m really hoping for an additional, higher level of difficulty. Maybe with a few robots buried in the ruins that respond to touch. That would add to the thrilling exploration. Apart from that, I’m glad to have a serious alternative to Story of Seasons. Because I’m pretty picky about that.
