In-game screenshotįortunately, the majority of NPCs seem to have their own questlines or at least a handful of side quests for you to complete. However, I can’t say I engaged much with this feature as beyond hearing a one-liner each day and giving them gifts, it didn’t feel like there was much to our relationships. The few that I did get to know, Owen being a particular highlight, were enjoyable and, at times, exceptionally well-written. I forgot most even existed, surprised whenever they popped up before they quickly faded back into obscurity. Despite the overwhelming number of NPCs to choose from, so few felt like genuine people. I wasn’t particularly interested in the relationship side of My Time at Sandrock, not due to my lack of interest in that mechanic generally, but because the game fails to make it a compelling component. However, how much time you’ll spend with each of them will vary, as it often feels like certain characters got more attention in the writer’s room than others. Watching them go about their daily lives, entering and exiting buildings seemingly with purpose, and even conversing with one another is immersively captivating. Their presence, as artificial as it may be, can, at times, feel real. The sheer number of NPCs you can talk to in My Time at Sandrock is staggering, around 30 in total, and helps make the game world feel significantly more believable. “I wasn’t particularly interested in the relationship side of My Time at Sandrock because the game fails to make it a compelling component.” Instead, you’ll spend much of your time conversing with NPCs and engrossing yourself in their stories. It’s fortunate, then, that the story is mostly secondary despite offering enough depth to be valued as a core component of the overall game. This means that it is often affected by pacing issues, with some main missions requiring an inordinate amount of time to complete. It’s spread out across the game’s extraordinarily lengthy runtime, taking upwards of 60 hours to complete. The way Sandrock tells its story is perhaps a little less compelling. However, it helps contextualize everything you do, giving credence to your actions and relationships with the world, the town of Sandrock, and its colorful cast of characters. It’s nothing special and won’t stay with you as long as other story-driven experiences. Meanwhile, a seemingly nefarious bandit lurks nearby, his relationship with the town gradually fleshed out as the story progresses. The ruins, with their hallowed halls and sand-smothered corridors, are filled with secrets waiting to be uncovered. There’s a lot more going on in Sandrock than you may initially expect, with the more wholesome setup diverging into intrigue and mystery. It’s also one with its own politics, religion, and core ideals that, while familiar to fans of sci-fi shows such as Firefly, make the world and narrative feel refreshingly fleshed out. The world in which it is set is rather intriguing, one filled with advanced technology left to rust in the ruins of an old city buried beneath the sand. Much like its predecessor, My Time at Portia, Sandrock is a post-apocalyptic game, albeit a wholesome one. My Time at Sandrock starts you off as a customizable builder heading to the once-prosperous town of Sandrock with a dream of restoring it to its former glory. “There’s a lot more going on in Sandrock than you may initially expect, with the more wholesome setup diverging into intrigue and mystery.” While its core gameplay loop is genuinely enthralling and its art direction stunning on other platforms, the Nintendo Switch version of Sandrock is so fundamentally flawed that it’s hard to recommend this to anyone. I have a responsibility to let you know exactly what kind of experience you’re getting yourself in for, and in the case of My Time at Sandrock, it’s an unequivocally broken one. Unfortunately, as a reviewer, I am not afforded such a luxury. As I’ve gotten older, fps and low-quality visuals have become only incrementally more important, with stories and compelling gameplay fulfilling me enough that I can overlook technical performance. Having nothing else to compare it to, this was, in my eyes, exactly how it was supposed to run. When I was younger, I used to play the Sims 2 on my PC, running at 12 frames per second.
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