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4 Reviews
Starsand is a compelling survival and exploration game, though it needs some improvements to reach its full potential.
The survival aspects of Starsand are well-designed. The game balances difficulty, offering a challenging yet rewarding experience as players progress from barely surviving to mastering the desert environment. Initially, the world feels vast and intimidating, limiting exploration, but it’s crucial to venture into ruins for new technology, making exploration essential and thrilling.
The desert’s realistic and immersive design enhances the gameplay. The game doesn’t spoon-feed information, especially in the tutorial, which adds to the sense of being lost in a vast wilderness. This encourages players to think critically and figure things out independently, adding to the overall sense of accomplishment.
However, combat is where Starsand falters. The concept of xeno attacks driving player progression is excellent, but the execution needs improvement. Melee combat lacks feedback, making it hard to determine if hits are landing, and the AI’s predictability can turn encounters into tedious slogs. New players might benefit from disabling xeno attacks initially to focus on learning the game’s basics before tackling this challenging aspect.
Starsand excels in its atmospheric elements. Sandstorms add a dynamic challenge, forcing players to seek shelter, while the alternating threats of scorching days and freezing nights keep survival strategies varied. The sound design, particularly the cues signaling monster arrivals, enhances the tension and immersion.
The crafting system is robust, with most items proving useful, and traps becoming indispensable as players progress. However, some early-game items feel redundant, and the absence of durability indicators for tools and weapons can lead to unexpected breaks at critical moments. Additionally, the abundance of oases can make the desert feel less forbidding.
The game’s minimal but impactful story drives exploration, offering enough narrative to keep players intrigued. The difficulty is generally well-tuned, though the construction system can be frustrating due to the lack of terrain leveling options. Discovering pyramids is a highlight, offering both pride and frustration as players often need to backtrack for necessary resources.
Enhancing the game with more animal species, including flying creatures or aquatic life in larger oases, could diversify encounters. More types of traps and enemies would keep players engaged, and slight procedural generation of the map could enhance replayability. Addressing bugs, such as issues with domesticated camels not following, and optimizing performance would improve the overall experience.
In summary, Starsand has the foundation of a great game. With some tweaks to combat, additional content, and more polish, it could stand out as a top-tier survival game.
Starsand is a mystical survival game set in the middle of a mysterious desert. In an open world full of dangers and sand, we try to explore mysterious events and the environment, hunting, and try to survive by making crafts and shelters. If we compare it with other productions of the same genre, it is a really successful production. If you like the genre, you can give it a chance.
Do you want to dive into the heart of an immersive adventure, where the desert is transformed into the scene of our epic? So, intrepid players, get ready to rub your magical controller & dive into an adventure where the impossible becomes possible, & each mirage conceals a reality to discover. Starsand awaits, ready to fulfill your wildest dreams in the midst of this infinite & mystical desert.
Our protagonist, unexpectedly takes a jog in the desert &, by some unexplained magic, ends up lost in another desert, seemingly on another planet. The lack of an initial explanation places you directly into the scenario, obscuring the reasons behind this mysterious shift. While the narrative is somewhat hollow, the focus isn’t on a substantial plot but rather on providing a glimpse of surviving in a harsh environment. Through side tasks, you learn to craft tools from initial resources, aiming to create sophisticated items from raw materials.
This way, starting from scratch, you end up building a base with supplies & reserves. However, resources are scarce, & dangers are omnipresent, especially the sun. When it gets too hot, you dehydrate, & so on. Although the environment is quite empty, it accurately reflects the hazards of the surroundings: it’s too hot at noon & very cold at night. You need to stay in the shade during the hottest hours & by the fire at night to avoid hypothermia. The freedom of movement within the vast desert creates an immersive experience, accentuated by dynamic environmental elements such as sandstorms.
As mentioned, the environment is very empty, which is expected given the setting, but what we mean is that the technical aspects, especially the visual rendering, take advantage of this emptiness to be minimally worked. The textures are flat with a very grainy appearance. At least the animation suffers no slowdown, normal considering there is not much moving (logically). But what is certain is that the title is not very visually appealing (far from the graphical level of Assassin’s Creed Origins, but it still gets the job done).
Establishing the setting, let’s delve into the gameplay. It’s a realistic & somewhat tedious title, bordering on an exaggerated simulation. Breaking a rock yields exactly what you see in your inventory. This extends to logs & other resources, no shortcuts here. Unlike some survival games, there’s no swing-and-gather mechanic, you fell a palm tree, it drops trunk & fruits. From trunk to logs, logs to small wood, & so forth, this cycle dominates the adventure. After hours building your survival base, exploration & encounters, like sandworms (a nod to Dune 😉), await, making patience your key ally.
In Starsand, the map unfolds as a blank canvas ready to be explored & exploited by players. Instead of providing a pre-filled map, the game offers a unique experience where players are the cartographers of their own destiny.
The game offers an intriguing experience, not visually stunning but close to reality. However, it’s on this latter point that one determines whether you like this kind of game & atmosphere or not. Who will find it amusing to survive in the desert? It’s clear that there’s a game for everyone.
With no multiplayer mode, it truly is a title of solitude (At least in the movie “Cast Away,” we had Wilson to keep us company).
There is a lot of potential for this game & I cannot wait to see what they will do in the future.