My Time at Sandrock: Review (PS5)

I get commissions for purchases made through the links in this blog post.

As I have told before I totally fell in love with and became heavily addicted to My time at Portia. Now I finally got my hands on to its sequel, My time at Sandrock. The release date for the full version of the game was November 2, 2023.

 

At the start of the game you move to a small desert town, in hopes of making Sandrock great again! During the course of the main story you build things, make new friends, and maybe even fall in love...  

 

I had feared that I wouldn't like Sandrock as much as Portia. From what I had seen and read, I knew that the boring and brown desert setting of Sandrock would not appeal to me at all. I also thought that the characters, or namely bachelors wouldn't be as interesting as in Portia.

But, like its precussor, Sandrock took me like a storm. Maybe not like a sand storm? Sandrock does have sand storms occasionally, and they are rather annoying. There can be dangerous monsters lurking in the storm, so beware.

 

But what annoys me most about Sandrock is the fact that you need water for everything. All your machines need water to function. And water is scarce, especially at the start of the game. I felt like I was using all my time and all my stamina just to get dew, which is what water is made from. But luckily later in the game the situation improves, and suddenly I didn't have to worry about water at all anymore. 

Here's a useful tip: When you adopt pets you can use them as servants and send them out to look for things, such as water. And when you do well in the workshop rankings you get water as a reward. But my problem was of course that I refused to buy any water. Yes, you can buy water from Burgess' shop Water World. 

 

 

But I wanted to save my money to more important things... such as better clothes. And I mean better looking clothes, not clothes with better stats. And so far I haven't found a better looking clothing than the wedding dress... so I wear it all the time. Is it a bit crazy? Maybe, but style above all else.

 

Pathea has made many good improvements to Sandrock compared to Portia. You no longer need to carry all items in your backpack, namely the relic pieces. To be able to restore the relics at the museum you don't have to have them on you. Also the festival badges aren't even items you carry anymore, you just automatically have them on you all the time. So in this sense Sandrock really is an easier game than Portia.

And that is not the only reason why Sandrock is better and more relaxing game. There are lot less time limited missions. In Portia you were competing with Higgins, but in Sandrock you are actually co-operating with your fellow builder Mi-an.

 

And as a cat lady I really love the fact that cats are very heavily involved in Sandrock. There are three cat residents, and they even are important part of the main story! And that's just the start of it. There are lots of cat related items in the game, and cats are mentioned in dialogue all the time. I'm gonna write many more posts about all the cat things of Sandrock!

 

 

Other similar farm life sims, such as Harvest Moon/Story of seasons, are in my opinion so boring compared to Portia/Sandrock. In Sandrock something is always happening, and the main story is long and fulfilling. Sandrock is very fun to play, and it is full of seriously funny dialogue. Pathea has really found some great writers. 

When it comes to dating and marriage, there are 12 bachelors and 9 bachelorettes to choose from, and boy that choice is difficult to make! Who to marry? You can date them all if you want to, but you can only marry one... unless you use a mod on PC. Of course you can also divorce, and marry someone else. But who can take all that heartbreak? I'm gonna post more about the marriage candidates later.

 

 

Sandrock does have multiplayer, but so far only on PC. Hopefully it will come to consoles as well.

What Sandrock desperately needs is more trophies. It has the same amount of trophies as Portia, but somehow it feels less. What's worst you get all the story trophies long before the game main story's end. I've been told that this must be because those are based on the early access-version of the game. But as a trophy hunter my heart bleeds because of this. I'd want to keep playing My time at Sandrock forever, but I feel I should move on to other games, because of those pesky trophies.

But I can't give up on Sandrock, not yet. After spending 180+ hours on my first playthrough, I'm gonna start a second one. This time as a male builder. I'm planning on seeing all the scenes and romantic side missions I missed on the first playthrough.

Thank you for the great games, Pathea, and keep up the good work!

 

My Time at Sandrock Collector's Edition for Playstation 5 is currently on sale on Amazon.