Sand: Raiders of Sophie launched into early access today after a number of last-minute delays, so I finally got the chance to try out the first-person base-building extraction shooter.
My first thought after about two hours of play? It’s like Sea of Thieves but on land, and if your vehicle gets destroyed you’ve gotta build a new one: you can’t just wait a few seconds and respawn with a pristine new ride.
The walking bases, called tramplers, are the star of the game. Before you embark on a mission—you’re in outer space, orbiting a desert planet on some sort of Victorian-era gaslamp space station, by the way—you need to prep yourself and your trampler. You can build one yourself by snapping together modules (I haven’t played too much with this feature yet) or use a preexisting model.
Take a couple handheld weapons like a pistol, shotgun, or rifle, fill your pockets with ammo, then bring a crate containing heavy guns for your trampler, like 40mm and 80mm cannons.
Once you deploy to the planet, you need to run around your customizable walking base getting it ready for action: mount the guns in a few places on the exterior and load them up with ammo. Manually fire up the huge engine, then run to the steering emplacement and start throwing giant levers like you’re Kenneth Branagh driving his spider-mech in Wild Wild West. Your big, noisy, smoke-spewling behemoth will begin slowly stomping across the dunes.
Even the smallest mechs are big enough that getting around on them takes time, having to clamber up ladders and dash through the different compartments to reach the guns, engine, steering, and storage areas. I’ve only played Sand solo, and there’s definitely that same ultra-busy Sea of Thieves feel to it. I’ve got to pilot this huge mech, adjust how fast I’m going, and check the map, all while scanning the horizon for lootable locations and enemy tramplers (by spying ominous clouds of black smoke instead of distant sails).
I also have to leave my mobile base all the time, scurry nervously across the sand on foot when I want to do some looting, terrified the whole time that another mech is gonna stride up and start blowing mine to pieces. That’s a very Sea of Thieves-like feeling.
When the shit goes down, I’ve gotta leave the wheel to man the turrets, some of which are located well on the other side of the vehicle. It’s a mad rush to reload guns and aim turrets and repair damage and make sure the mech, which is still walking so it doesn’t become a stationary target, isn’t about to crash into something like a big rock or rusted ship. It’s glorious chaos, especially for one person.
The sound design in Sand is excellent, too: the trampler makes fantastic mech noises, gears groaning and cables jangling as it lurches across the landscape. The mounted guns are deafening, really making you feel like you’re firing a huge, deadly weapon. And you can hear battles taking place from well across the map, letting you know other players are somewhere in the neighborhood.
The PvE part comes in with ghoul-like NPCs who guard some lootable locations: I only ran into a few of them and they’re not the most dynamic enemies, basically running toward me and shooting me on sight. More devastating are the automatons who (I think) come blasting down to the planet from orbit and begin stamping around after you. I ran into a trio of them, and while they’re not as big as player-built tramplers, they still sock a punch with their artillery and take a decent amount of damage to bring down.
If you are playing Sand solo, you can join a server that is solos-only.
Like Sea of Thieves, Sand is harrowing and tense and it’s definitely not a game meant for solo players: there’s just a little too much to handle if you’re playing on your own. There’s one thoughtful feature, though: if you are playing Sand solo, you can join a server that is solos-only, so at least you won’t get mobbed by larger crews. Even Sea of Thieves doesn’t do that.
Once you’ve done some looting and stored your stuff in the cargo hold of your trampler, you can drive your trampler to an extraction point, where most of the combat takes place. You have to disembark and climb a tall tower to kick off the extraction sequence, wherein a ship takes a few minutes to come down from orbit to collect you. That’s the cue for everyone in the area to stomp your way and try to blow you to hell first.
I’ve done three voyages so far, though two ended early due to launch-day server issues. My second mission was a fun one: my trampler got blown up by computer-controller walkers that swarmed me, and since I didn’t die, I was able to run to an extraction point where another player was about to lift off. I stowed aboard his trampler, thinking it might let me sneakily extract along with him, but once he took off I simply died.
In my last mission, I looted some old ships I found in the desert, shot a few ghouls, bombarded a player attempting to extract (but failed to stop him), then extracted myself while a different player stomped over and took some cannon shots at me. Pretty fun, and I’m interested in crewing up with some friends and playing it more once the server issues have been resolved.