My Time at Sandrock Early Access Review
Interview With Lucia Drietomská From Slovakia
July 5, 2022
Interview With Siobhan Gantly From Vistatec, Ireland
July 6, 2022
Dive back into the beloved farming simulator game series with My Time at Sandrock by Pathea Games!
Introduction
Disclaimer | At the time of writing, this written review only covers the early access version of My Time at Sandrock. Therefore, all views and opinions that are expressed in this article is not representative of the full release of the game when it comes out later this year.
Take a look at any kind of game that has released recently, or maybe even your favorite one and answer me this: What is the recurring theme that the game builds itself on or has?
When you look at the Halo franchise, it has themes of Master Chief being the ultimate super soldier and focuses on nothing but the mission, and will strive to achieve it no matter what.
Outlast II has an incredibly heavy influence with the more hardcore side of the Christian religion and the extreme measures that the people practicing this form of worship are willing to execute.
And farming games such as the likes of Stardew Valley and My Time at Portia celebrate the idea of borrowing from nature and the environment around you and turning it into something that you can give it back to and those around you tenfold.
Stardew Valley and My Time at Portia are games that are positioned very highly at the top of my list as they give me a more grounded outlook in life and in some instances, teaching me some incredibly valuable life lessons that I desperately needed in the worst of days in my life.
Two years after the release of My Time at Portia, the Chinese developer Pathea Games has announced the confirmation of the sequel game to the My Time series, My Time at Sandrock. Originally slated for release in 2021, the Kickstarter title is unfortunately delayed and expected to release sometime in 2022 instead.
However, at the time of writing this, Pathea Games has announced and released the early access build of My Time at Sandrock and at the time of this current draft, I have been playing the early access version to its end for three days and I can say for certain that this is the sequel that Portia fans, myself included, from all over the world needs and is looking forward to its full release!
The Story
As of now, My Time at Sandrock is still in early-access, and there is still more content pertaining to the campaign and story side of things.
If you have played the original My Time at Portia, you will definitely be familiar of the events that will be mentioned by townsfolk around you. But if you’re exploring the My Time series for the first time, here’s a quick refresher:
My Time in Portia takes place around 300 years in the future after the fall of humanity during the event that is simply known as “Day of Calamity”. But after a good long while, humans finally emerged from the safety of their underground confines and start to rebuild society with whatever resources they have left. And it is from there that you, the player, are given the goal to not only to help forward the progress of rebuilding society and expanding the great city of Portia, but to become the greatest builder in the great city of Portia.
In My Time in Sandrock, the plot and events that happened in the first game still carries over to the sequel game. Although the information is a little bit withheld from you so that you don’t have to get held up by the smaller details in the first game.
Like My Time in Portia, My Time in Sandrock introduces the protagonist as a newbie builder that has arrived in the Wild West-esque town of Sandrock in the middle of the desert. And your goal throughout the game (or at least the early access build!) to follow the footsteps of your grandfather, the best builder in Sandrock, to restore the town to its former glory and turn the community into a tourist spot worth visiting. All the while you become the best of friends with the locals of Sandrock and also maybe defending its inhabitants from monsters.
Oh, and you have to do all that while not getting the town bankrupt. Which is neat.
Like I said before, there isn’t really much I can say about the story since it’s still in early access. But from what I have seen firsthand, I do think that My Time at Sandrock has the potential to become a sequel that is better than its original release. And throughout my playthrough, I kept seeing wanted posters of a man in a black mask. So I hope I get to see him and what makes the town want to go after him!
The Visuals
Similar to its predecessor, My Time at Sandrock expands its cutesy, simple graphics inherited from My Time at Portia. Having played the first game for a considerable amount of time and then jumping into the sequel game, I noticed that the updated graphics are a little bit more detailed, polished, and refined compared to the original. Albeit at some points, I discovered for the more minor objects to have more complex textures to be a little bit too smoothed out and some artifacts and abnormalities happening in some areas. But otherwise, the visuals of My Time at Sandrock is still reminiscent of the first game, and I doubt the anybody who is looking too close at it would find anything the is deemed unsightly.
Lighting and reflection are also done exceptionally well for how simple the textures and graphics look as the result of Pathea Games’ commitment to the art style. With the new setting of My Time at Sandrock taking place in the middle of the desert, the lighting is incredibly warm throughout the day and especially at night! And I’m gonna say it, My Time at Sandrock might be the very first game that made me sweat in an air-conditioned office cubicle.
Playthrough Highlights
Jumping back into the world of My Time at Sandrock, even though I totally expected the same of pretty much everything that I have experienced in the previous My Time at Portia game, everything felt different enough where I was nearly caught off-guard and not knowing what I should do in the first few hours of playtime. Nevertheless, I found my rhythm and breezed through the game like how I did back at my time in Portia (boom, catchphrase!).
Just like in My Time at Portia, you are put through a brief tutorial session where you learn the controls of what your inputs and commands do, and also which areas serve what purpose to help benefit your workflow in the long term. Very early on, as you are trying to get your bearings in order to learn the ropes around the town of Sandrock, the mayor personally welcomes you herself and tells you right of the bat that there are Fireside meetings held every week that you have to option to either attend or be absent from. Of course, nothing consequential will befall on you at the moment, but it’s also considered a rude thing to not be present for important meetings like these.
Another gameplay tweak that I was not prepared for is the minor changes to combat mechanics in Sandrock compared to Portia. In Portia, fights with monsters relegated to just clicking on your mouse button until either side ceases to exist. In Sandrock, combat is given a new breath of air with the introduction of basic mechanics found in other games like improving on dodging and breaking your opponent’s defenses to deal huge amounts of damage. And coming out from my second playthrough of Elden Ring, nothing feels more satisfying than rolling away from your enemy’s killer attack safely and then timing a perfectly-placed greatsword strike!
One big change, however, to how you will be running your day-to-day activities as a builder is the issue of water. Being in the desert, water is an incredibly scarce resource and being the only power source that keeps your workbenches running at the same time. From time to time, you can visit the large reserve of water in town and sneak a few liters of liquid to keep your production going, but your main way of getting water will have to be scavenging in the desert away from town for a few drops.
Speaking of which, Sandrock takes the values of paying respects to nature and the environment around you and outright penalizes you for any action that is deemed a threat to the ecosystem. I found that out the hard way when I was clearing some bushes near my property and got my first warning and shameless plug of someone else’s business to purchase essential crafting resources from him.
Now, at this point, I’ve already sang my praises in the various improvements that I can jot down into the early access review. And just like all early access build games, there are a couple of little niggles that it too suffers from…
First off, the relationship system in My Time in Sandrock. Just like in My Time at Portia, you start complete sidequests and give preferred gifts to NPCs that you are interested in to become better friends and even more than that. However, I could not find myself to relate to these events and it just felt like an item on a checklist that you tick ‘done’. What Sandrock does better than Portia, on the other hand, is the unique dialogue that is written for each and every one of the townsfolk that gives you some replayability.
Secondly is, of course, performance issues. Like I mentioned earlier, you will come across some textures that will artifact and look weird in some places and expect some drops in framerates when you are overlooking a large and/or busy area. But I expect these issues to be ironed out for the full release and the visual hiccups are nothing to be mad about.
Concluding Thoughts & First Impressions
At the moment, even though My Time at Sandrock is still in early access phase and is slated for its full release some time this year, I personally hold the belief that this has the potential to surpass My Time at Portia a hundredfold.
My Time at Sandrock has seen all of the criticisms that I myself have also expressed my concerns in and chose to listen to the community by righting the wrongs from the first My Time at Portia game and innovating and improving upon the current mechanics.
Sure, some level of polish would be needed to resolve some of the issues that I have encountered in this build. But considering the astounding level of quality that I have seen throughout my 50 hours of playtime, I believe Pathea Games have improved as a developer and will really knock this title right out of the park!
Credits
Author: Ryan L.
Game: My Time at Sandrock
Developer: Pathea Games
Release Date: May 26, 2022 (Full release TBA)
Steam Pre-order & Early Access: Click here
