.jpeg)
PC | PS5 | XBOX SERIES |
HOW I PLAYED: I played on PS5 with a physical copy.
STORY — 11/20
INTRO (3)
In a land devastated by war and natural disasters, the river that once sustained life has dried up, leaving citizens desperate as the greedy king hoards the last water and sells it at crushing prices. Amid growing chaos and crime, Sheriff Rao, disillusioned by the monarchy’s corruption, resolves to find a new water source beyond the king’s control. To succeed, he allies with the feared demons of Sand Land, enlisting the mischievous yet just Beelzebub and his sly companion Thief. Together, this unlikely trio sets out on a perilous desert journey, driven by the hope of freeing the people from the king’s tyranny.
Sand Land's intro gets you right into the action with an interactive cutscene. It seamlessly demonstrated basic controls and mechanics. It was a good first impression.
CUTSCENES (3)
Sand Land has some pretty cool action sequences. There's also a generous amount of story driven scenes that were heavy on the text. Everything is done using the game's main engine and did a fine job of moving the story along and breaking up the action.
WORLD BUILDING (3)
Aside from your standard traveling merchant and towns with NPCs there really wasn't a lot to make the game's world feel alive and lived-in. The theme of water as a precious commodity is reused throughout the game and serves as its primary way of resting and restoring Beelzebub's health.
Bounty hunts make an appearance in Sand Land as well and reminded me a lot of Hunts from Final Fantasy 12.
OVERALL STORY (2)
Sand Land is based off the Akira Toriyama manga of the same name. Its a simple tale that has our cast of characters set out in the desert in search of water. While seemingly not that original on paper, its the adventures they have along the way and characters they meet that leave a lasting impression.
The problem with the game's version of the story is that it goes well beyond where the manga concludes and ends up feeling very diluted and kind of pathetic. The plot was incredibly dull and repetitive for almost half the game.
If it wasn't so damn much fun to play I would have just quit playing. There was an unreal amount of dialogue sequences that to serve a meaningless plot me just felt pointless.
GRAPHICS — 10/15
CHARACTER MODELS (3)
I don't know -- I'm kind of mixed on this one. I think that being such a big Akira Toriyama fan made me initially attracted to the characters , but after some critical inspection and watching the footage again, I really think that the animations were stiff and the game really didn't;'t do the art justice. There were some really rough textures as well, especially on faces and things didn't look great up close.
The game's main attraction are the various bots you control throughout the journey and they all looked just as fun as they were to use. The designs were fantastic and featured a bunch of Toriyama's work not included in the original manga. We got a ton a bonus content here and it was definitely the highlight of the game.
ENVIRONMENTS (3)
The Unreal Engine world looks very unreal engine: the lighting and shadows were good and there's a nice contrast and tone to the environments but the overall art style of the world was very uninspired and dull to my eye. Nothing really popped.
The vast expansive desert is decorated with large stone structures and metal scrap heaps litter the scenery but it all felt quickly thrown together and lacking a human touch.
The game take place primarily in a large desert but you'll also spend time in industrial areas, dimly lit caves and forested areas.
SPECIAL FX (4)
Smoke and explosions looked great and elevated the various bot battles. Beelzebub expels flashy sparks of light and energy when he throws kicks and punches and I definitely got carried away playing with lens flares from the sun.
AUDIO — 10/15
AMBIENCE (3)
The game's soundtrack was a cool mix of upbeat tracks that carried a sense of adventure and energy. Stealth sections had their own tone as did rest points at camp sites.
BOSS MUSIC (3)
From what I could tell, every major boss in the game had a unique track which was awesome. They were a mix of instrumental rock and metal, high energy electronic and drum heavy beats.
SOUND DESIGN (2)
The main character Beelzebub was pretty cool and a standout but the rest of the voice acting was OK at best.
One thing that really got annoying was the repetitive banter from the NPCs as I was exploring the world. They'd each have only a handful of phrases that they'd say to provide hints or useful tips and they were recycled over and over and over
Do you think we'll ever explore all of Sand Land?
The thought makes my head spin. I am intrigued though.
X infinity
It was almost comically bad. It felt like a bug: incredibly lazy and shoddy.
There are literally Reddit threads dedicated to this topic where gamers just absolutely rip this to shreds. I'm glad I wasn't alone in my distain for it. Its actually insane that the developers left this in the game and thought that it was OK.
The sounds of the various weapons in the game were a bit cartoonish to me. The machine guns sounded more like woodpeckers than something destructive and dangerous but I supposed this added to the games vibe. Nothing in Sand Land felt particularly scary or imposing and I think that's the point.
PERFORMANCE — 9/10
FRAME RATE (4)
The game ran well but there were no options for graphics settings.
STABILITY (5)
Traversing the vast overworld in the various bots was an enjoyable experience. I only ever got caught in some rocks once but was easily able to switch to a different vehicle and get myself unstuck. You can also fast-travel from pretty much anywhere to anywhere at any time which was nice. Switching between bots was seamless, buttons and menus always cooperated and load times were ridiculously fast.
GAMEPLAY — 31/40
CONTROLS (5)
If you've seen or read any of my other reviews you might remember how much I can't stand when third person action games pan the character to the left. Luckily in Sand Land you're dead centre and the controls were very good! I really appreciated how well controlling Beelzebub felt not only running around but climbing, jumping and attacking; really responsive and a smooth camera.
The controls for the various bots were just as good and you could tell this is where the developers put most of their time. Vehicles were touchy but in the right way and each had their own unique feel. Controlling the game was a joy.
MECHANICS (4)
Fans of Armored Core will feel right at home with the mechanics in Sand Land. You'll control up to 5 vehicles instead of one this time but the ideas are very similar. Each vehicle comes with a primary weapon, secondary weapon, legs, fenders or wheels, a main body or frame and chip slots for special bonus stats. Customizing the bots was a lot of fun and finding new and improved components from enemy drops was a consistent dopamine hit.
Beelzebub also comes with a whole arsenal of special moves himself for the hand to hand combat portions of the game. I'll be completely honest though, I maybe used 10% of them. There was just no need. While definitely not as nauseating as the variety of skills and abilities in God of War, Sand Land failed to crate moments where its mechanic were actually required.
I played the game on the middle of the three difficulty levels and breezed through almost every encounter just using basic attacks and button mashing.
Your party members can also join the fight with special moves of their own but this lacked any real impact or sense of occasion.
Large towers are scattered around the land and can be repaired using basic parts from your inventory. Once operational, the towers reveal a large chunk of the map around them. This was such a simple thing but was oddly satisfying.
PACING (3)
The story moved along at a good clip and there was always a marker on the map to show the next destination. There was a good sense of progression too from unlocking new bots that allowed for further exploration of the map. The story really took a nose dive though once the main objective was complete.
UI/UE (3)
The game's menus really worked for me. I thought they looked awesome and matched the anime vibe really well. Item portraits were primitive but I appreciated them being there as opposed to just bland text based menus.
The main UI shows the ammo for your currently equipped bots two main weapons as well as the vehicles speed and turbo gauge. The UI was a bit cluttered for me but luckily there were options in the menu to toggle certain features on and off.
BOSS QUALITY (4)
For the game's length, I thought the boss encounters were abundant. They featured fun arenas that required actual strategy. Overall the boss fights were one of the game's better qualities and felt meaningful and climactic. They also did a good job of being district from one another as some favoured the use of certain bots over others. They all had unique tempos and were definitely an asset to the game.
ENEMY VARIETY (4)
The enemies in the game were a mix of wasteland bandits, soldiers from the King's army and various dinosaur like creatures. In the industrial areas there were smaller bots that hovered around and a couple of mid sized ones. The variety wasn't bad but I felt like the game could have definitely done better.
GAMEPLAY VARIETY (5)
This is where Sand Land maybe impressed me the most. For me, gameplay variety isn't just about how many things the game distract me with but needs to include aspects like a change of camera perspective, different control schemes and a major change of pace. I found all of this and more in Sand Land.
A big surprise for me was the inclusion of stealth sections in the game. While they were janky at times, they were a welcome reprieve from tank battles and explosions. My one complaint here is that the enemies AI was almost too sensitive and unlike oh I don't know - Metal Gear Solid - the mini map didn't display the enemies field of vision so I felt like I was guessing a lot of the time and unnecessarily handicapped.
The game switched to an almost 2-D platformer-like perspective for certain sections that felt fun and well executed.
The 5 bots in the game were varied in not only appearance but in they way they handled. There was a bit of a learning curve to each of them that was satisfying to grasp.
One bot aptly named the jumper bot lets you clear large gaps such as a ravine where a bridge was destroyed but in addition encouraged vertical exploration. This opened up a whole new dimension to the gameplay that felt really fresh.
REPLAYABILITY (3)
Once you complete the main story the game drops you right back into the world to finish the of optional caves, treasure chests, bounty hunts, hidden areas and mini bosses. There's a crazy amount of stuff to keep you occupied for hours to come. My playthrough lasted a little over 20 hours and I only cleared maybe a third of the fog from 1 of the games two huge maps. I could easily see this being a 50 to 60 hour game if you wanted to go for a completionist style playthrough.
As far as repeat playthroughs I don't know really how much value is on offer here other than some customization of the bots.
I bought the Manga, its 216 pages but the game goes for the Hobbit trilogy treatment and stretches it way too thin. I can't see myself ever playing through it again for the story or the "adventure".
In additional to everything I just mentioned the game also features a battle arena where you can face-off against harder versions of bosses from the main game and increasingly difficult mini-bosses.
BONUS — 1/3
Sand Land offers various options for control schemes but nothing I would call a real accessibility feature. It does have colourblind options however.
OVERALL — 71/100
GOOD
PROS
✅ Excellent controls
✅ Really fun and engaging battles
✅ Huge gameplay variety
✅ Potential to sink tons of hours into
CONS
❌ Second half of the game is a mega drag
❌ Some really annoying NPC dialogue
❌ World design lacks excitement
❌ Average soundtrack
TLDR: 71/100 (GOOD) Sand Land delivers fun and varied gameplay with tight controls, customizable vehicles, and engaging boss battles that keep combat exciting, but it’s weighed down by a weak, dragged-out story, repetitive NPC dialogue, and uninspired world design. Based on Akira Toriyama’s manga, the game shines most in its diverse mechanics—ranging from bot combat to stealth and platforming sections—while offering plenty of side content for those seeking long playtime. Though the narrative overstays its welcome and the presentation is inconsistent, the core loop of exploration and battles makes Sand Land a good, if flawed, experience with a lot of heart.
PICK UP (Sand Land) HERE:
PlayStation: https://store.playstation.com/fr-fr/concept/10005459/
Xbox: https://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/store/sand-land/9pgcvr1c0mzh
PC: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1979440/SAND_LAND/
CHECK OUT OUR VIDEO REVIEW HERE
.jpeg&description=SAND LAND | REVIEW){kind=link}
0 Comments