My Time At Sandrock takes your average Life-Simulator and adds its unique flair to the genre.
2023 really was a good year for Life Sim fans; it seemed like every few months, a new gem would pop up, ripe for mining. Now, while all of the previous Life-Sims we’ve reviewed over here on GamesCreed have been phenomenal, some less so than others, My Time At Sandrock is definitely a top contender on the best life-sim we’ve played so far and also shows great promise from its developer.
Now, if you’ve been playing Life Sims for some time, the name ‘My Time At Sandrock‘ would probably ring a bell or two, that’s because it sounds very similar to the game’s predecessor, ‘My Time At Portia’. Both games were developed by none other than Pathea Games, an indie game studio that was first founded back in 2010 and is based in Chongqing, China.
Despite being an indie studio, they have quite an impressive range when it comes to video game development, from titles such as Ever Forward, a gorgeous puzzle game with a phenomenal soundtrack, to Let’s School, a school sim where you take on the role of headmaster and must create an environment in which your students will thrive. As you can probably tell, the studio is no stranger to taking on a game genre and giving their unique twist, and there is no finer example than My Time At Sandrock.
Probably a major factor as to why My Time At Sandrock is such a major release for Pathea Games is because of the game’s publisher, Focus Entertainment, a publisher which you may be familiar with. They’ve published titles such as Aliens: Dark Descent, Atomic Heart, and, of course, the game’s predecessor, My Time At Portia. While My Time At Sandrock is certainly quite a different game from Atomic Heart, it certainly is a welcomed addition to Focus Entertainment’s release roster.
You begin your journey in My Time At Sandrock the same as you would with its predecessor, or even any Life Simulator for that matter, as the most recent addition to a small town that will need your help to get it back on its feet. Both My Time At Sandrock and My Time At Portia are roughly set in the same universe.
This makes you worry about why so many small towns need help, but that’s beside the point. While My Time At Sandrock shares many similarities with the game before it, it is far from a copy as the game has added many new mechanics that both make it feel different from My Time At Portia and make it stand out against other Life Sims.
Probably one of the biggest differences between My Time At Sandrock and My Time At Portia is its setting. Sandrock is set in, well, the town of Sandrock; this desert town is separated from Portia by the vast Eufaula Desert. Due to this shift in location and environment, My Time At Sandrock has a much more Western-inspired look to it, which is not often seen in other cozy Life Sims.
The Eufaula Desert feels vast and spacious, which incentivizes players to explore every nook and cranny of the desert to search for both resources and secrets. Just a heads up, expect to get lost quite a few times.
Another key difference between Portia and Sandrock is the player’s role in the story. Unlike in Portia, in which you were a builder who was going up against your rival builder Higgins, Sandrock has taken a much different approach, that being you are a part of the Commerce Guild, where you need to work alongside fellow builder Mi-an, as you both improve the town of Sandrock on the behest of Guild President Yan.
In My Time At Sandrock, you will be commissioned to build various things to improve the town; completing these commissions will earn you both money as well as relationship points with whoever requested the commission. These commissions also serve as a way to advance the game’s story, with you completing that chapter’s designated project in order to advance the story and move to the next area.
One of the biggest issues with My Time in Portia was the game’s crafting. You needed a series of machines to refine your materials. However, My Time At Sandrock has completely streamlined the process and has added machine queues, as well as the ability to pull from your supply chests on the Assembly Station. This makes adding and changing materials so much easier and, overall, makes crafting feel far less like a chore.
The best part about these new streamlined features is that they can even be applied to commission projects, meaning that if you have everything already in your chest, you can just complete the request without running all the way home. Now that players no longer have to spend hours running back and forth, they can instead spend hours exploring their environments or taking on the Abandoned Ruins.
Yes, the Abandoned Ruins from My Time At Portia has made a return and, much like the crafting system, is significantly better. For those of you unfamiliar, the Abandoned Ruins is similar to The Mines from Stardew Valley. Players venture into the mines to gather relics and valuable ore while also fending off against all the monsters that wish to do you harm.
Previously, if you wanted to get to a floor, you would have to start from floor one and work all the way down to the floor you want to be on, but not anymore. Players can now select any floor that they have previously cleared, but that’s not the only major change made to the ruins. If players have successfully unearthed all the relics hidden in the ruins, they will have the opportunity to donate them to the museum, where they will be put on display.
As you could have probably guessed, yes, there is combat, which is something that has been absent from recent Life-sim releases. While combat isn’t that fleshed out, it doesn’t really need to be; Pathea clearly understood this as even though your combos are limited, combat is incredibly entertaining and not for the reason you would think.
You see, in My Time At Sandrock, you can wield comically oversized weapons such as Hammers, swords, and even a set of guns. This cartoony take on violence somehow matches the rest of the game perfectly and makes the combat feel less disjointed from your cozy homesteading.
Speaking of homesteading, as with other Life Sims, when you’re not slaying enemies with a Looney-Toonsesque hammer or exploring the rocky crags of the desert, you can take it easy by personalizing your house with the numerous decorations. Players can also rear animals and tend to their gardens to grow various fruits and vegetables and to fulfill their cozy desert-living dreams.
Though living out your desert dreams is fun and all, why not do it with a partner? In My Time At Sandrock, you are spoilt for choice. With over 21 possible romanceable NPCs, that’s right, you have over 21 characters to flirt with. Despite how many different NPCs there are, they all feel so unique, and each one will come with a unique dialogue and backstory.
The characters in My Time At Sandrock feel so much more fleshed out when compared to the ones we meet in Portia. They still follow a similar gift system as seen in Stardew Valley, but that isn’t the only way to earn their friendship. Players can also fulfill special character-specific quests and go on “play dates” with the characters to increase their bond.
In terms of visuals, My Time At Sandrock is incredibly vibrant and full of life. Thanks to the game’s setting, many of the areas you will unlock and places you see will be screenshot-worthy. The game has definitely made significant improvements to the character designs, which many previously felt were lacking and made characters forgettable. However, this time around, each character feels completely unique and visually distinct from one another, especially thanks to the absolutely gorgeous character art.
Overall, My Time At Sandrock is a phenomenal Life Sim, but more importantly, it has shown how much Pathea has improved as a developer. They took all the criticisms that were given to My Time At Portia to heart and gave us a game that built on what its predecessor had established while going above and beyond.
That’s not to say the game is perfect; crafting especially can get overwhelming at times, but as long as you’re patient and give yourself enough time to get used to all the different machines and how they work, they end up becoming a part of your daily routine. My Time At Sandrock is definitely a game we would recommend you give a try if you want more than just cozy living.
