My Time At Sandrock Preview

During these trying times, simulation games have been welcome relief. Series like Animal Crossing and The Sims draw in players by letting them play out another life entire. This allure grows even deeper in farming and crafting simulators, where you almost always have something to keep you busy. Naturally, this is the case with My Time At Sandrock by Pathea Games. Coming after My Time At Portia, this latest release offers a whole new environment full of fun activities and fresh challenges. Still, the question remains: Can it successfully build upon its predecessor’s foundation?

Moving To Sandrock

Set in the same universe as My Time At Portia, people have managed to rebuild after an apocalyptic event destroyed much of the world. While giant cities are a thing of the past, society is able to thrive among the ruins. You are a builder who has been brought to the desert town of Sandrock to replace the retiring builder. Due to the severity of the desert, many things are in a state of disrepair and it’s up to you to fix them. You’ll be asked to repair, craft, research, farm, gather, mine, spelunk, hunt, and more to improve Sandrock and help everyone live happily. Trying to run a successful and beneficial business in a post-apocalyptic setting encourages you to strive and survive.

Sandrockin’ It!

When it comes to creating a sim world that’s meant to capture elements of real life, there’s a lot to consider. My Time At Sandrock considers many of these things in putting together a very full experience. This comes across in the sheer number of things there are to do. There are so many activities, from searching through junk piles to fishing, and you can spend all your days doing whatever you like. Each activity has many different layers that make you feel like you’re accomplishing something, even if it’s just one thing all day.

Then there’s the amount of focus and importance placed on your shop and crafting. Where in similar games you can make money by looking for things and selling, it’s not that easy in Sandrock. It makes you work for your money by doing tasks for people around town that also have time limits. There’s also a value to the money that makes it worthwhile to dedicate to doing work and making bank. That way you can upgrade your shop to expand and do even more in this world.

Finally, the fact that the game’s set in a desert goes well with the post-apocalyptic theme, since it presents a continuous challenge. Water is very important, as almost every single machine requires it to work. It makes you think carefully about your reserves and how you want to use them efficiently.

Sandrock And A Hard Place

Life sims of all kinds have their fair share of problems that come from trying to include as much as possible. With My Time At Sandrock, some issues that arise from the abundance of content. A big one is the game’s concept of time. There’s a day and night cycle, but as you’ll soon realize, days pass way too quickly. Considering how even processing one thing can take up most of it, you can feel unproductive. Time management is important, but it’s also tedious and stressful — not exactly fun.

Then there’s an aspect of upgrading your shop. This is the main mechanic since the shop serves as your home and place of business. By doing tasks and completing objectives, you can improve your shop’s reputation to unlock more privileges. Unfortunately, it’s very slow going, so it will take a while to raise your shop even one level. This is annoying considering that you won’t be able to undertake multiple tasks until your shop grows, and of course, the best way to grow your shop is to do tasks.

Sandrock With You

My Time At Sandrock is a 3D life-sim about running a building shop in a desert town surrounded by the old world. There are a lot of activities, meaning you’re never bored, and it’s satisfying to complete jobs and earn money just to help survive in the desert environment. It does suffer a bit from tedium and timing, mainly by not giving you enough time while also taking forever to reward the efforts of your shop. In spite of all, there is loads to enjoy in your time at Sandrock.