SAND: Raiders of Sophie is a game I have been patiently anticipating for a while, for one reason and one reason only: you get to build big, dieselpunk mechs and blast each other with naval cannons across a dangerous sand sea. It’s an incredibly cool concept, and I was excited to finally get my hands on the game, playing it both during the server slam a few weeks ago and now after it launched into Early Access. While it has its problems, I would say that the game still captivates with its core identity, and the development team seems to be addressing feedback diligently, which gives me a lot of faith in the game’s future.
Often in these reviews, I like to preface beforehand if there are extenuating circumstances that might make development significantly harder. In the case of solo developers, for example, I do this to emphasize that these issues are understandable and that, while I am pointing them out, the creators should be cut a little slack, so to speak. Especially for Early Access games, I ask that players acknowledge the issues but have faith that the developers will address them in time, even if it might, understandably, take them a bit longer.
In the case of SAND: Raiders of Sophie, it is my understanding that the game is, or at least was, being developed in Ukraine. I shouldn’t have to explain to many of you, dear readers, that trying to develop a game in a country that is under active invasion is a bit of a challenge. It’s understandable, then, why the game suffered so many delays, and it’s commendable that the developers chose to once again prolong its development by releasing it in Early Access, even though it was set for a full release about a week ago.
SAND: Raiders of Sophie is an extraction shooter where you drive giant walking ships called tramplers across an alien world to raid the remains of a dried-up sea. You fight against other players or NPCs aboard your ship with mounted weapons or in dangerous firefights using firearms resembling the technology of the 1910s. The game has an ebb and flow between long, quiet moments and tense, hectic battles, and, thanks in part to its unique setting, captures an incredible feeling I haven’t felt in other extraction shooters to date.
The core gameplay loop is pretty solid: pilot your Trampler, loot points of interest, and extract, while fighting occasionally in between. Looting can be done quickly while trampler combat takes a good long while, as players man cannons and repair their already tanky mechs while under cannon fire. A good PvP battle can easily last over twenty minutes if both crews know what they’re doing, and it manages to maintain intensity throughout.
Aside from bugs, my only real complaint about the gameplay is that the map can feel very empty. This is great when you’re in a prolonged, chasing cannon battle with another player or NPC, but not so great when you haven’t run into anyone, and you’re just trying to loot. The world doesn’t feel very busy and, in fact, can be rather boring in a prolonged match if nothing happens to stir things up.
While you can make your own mechs, many of the meaningful designs come through an unlock tree that will take you many, many runs to start progressing through. I wish there were more variety in the types of tramplers you could build from the start, and, in fact, more variety across the board in weapons, armor, and crew weapons would be great. Finding a rare weapon in the current state is cool, but it feels like there isn’t a whole lot to discover, so games quickly start to feel kind of same-y.
The game can be played in single-player, thanks to the fact that tramplers can be piloted without you having to be at the wheel the entire time, but the experience is best with a team. Unfortunately, the game does not allow solo players to matchmake with other people. Why you can’t do this, I don’t know, but my party of two running into groups of what appeared to be three to five was an exhausting experience, and the game became basically unplayable without friends to get online and play with.
On top of this, there are simply bugs and issues in the current build that can seriously ruin the experience. I found that climbing ladders was essentially a gamble, with my character either getting stuck at the top or outright falling off in one out of every three attempts. The most noticeable issue, however, is server problems, which were prevalent during the server slam and continue into the EA launch. You will at times find yourself facing serious desync that can make PvP feel cheap or broken, or you can outright lose connection during extraction and lose an hour or more of hard work in the process. Of all the game’s issues, this is certainly the most prevalent and impactful.
Oh, and if you do play, make sure you switch your gun settings under gameplay to something other than the default, which requires you to aim to enter hipfire and then aim again to ADS. I don’t know who designed this system, but it feels really bad and makes any shooting segments super clunky to play.
SAND: Raiders of Sophie has promise. The unique premise is great, and pulling off a mech-based extraction shooter was a mechanically daunting task that we should all be rather impressed by. There are still issues, some far more serious than others, but the developers seem keen to fix them. I have hope that, given enough time, the game will be patched into a playable and exciting state, and I’m looking forward to following the development as it continues.
Pros:
- Unique dieselpunk mech extraction shooter, with a strong atmosphere and setting that stands out in the genre
- Trampler combat is tense, lengthy, and highly engaging
- Customize your own Trampler to build your very best death machine
Cons:
- Server desync, connection issues remain, and can seriously impact gameplay
- Large stretches of downtime can make matches feel empty
- Limited early-game build variety for tramplers
- No team-based matchmaking for solo players
- Various bugs and small technical issues in the current build
Try Hard Guides was provided a Steam code for this PC Early Access Review of SAND: Raiders of Sophie. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page!
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