My Time at Sandrock

My Time at Sandrock is easily the best life-sim of 2023. While it’s not perfect, I haven’t been so immediately grabbed and long-term addicted to a game like this since I first played Stardew Valley, and it’ll be in my regular rota for the rest of the year. It puts its best foot forward with the production and building side of things, then keeps you coming back with seemingly endless side quests and well-developed characters.

I’m hopeful for My Time at Sandrock. While it does have its hiccups left over from the beta that impacted my gameplay from time to time, they were my only real problems with the game itself. My Time at Sandrock is an enjoyable, well-paced game that eschews genre expectations. I enjoyed tangibly seeing how my own, personal progress was helping to rejuvenate the flatlining spirit of the town.

My Time at Sandrock is a huge life/farming sim that, once you start to understand its systems, can be a hugely rewarding experience.

It’s a game I could easily see myself winding down with during the evenings, ticking off my to-do list of tasks while wrapped up cosily. The music, the style, the brief thrill of finding rare components or clearing dungeons; it gives me the same feelings that Harvest Moon once did, but God damn, there’s a lot to be cracking on with at any given moment. With that in mind, I think it’s about time I return to Sandrock.

My Time at Sandrock certainly doesn’t skimp on the content, with players able to expect at least a hundred hours before they hit the credits. It uses those hours well enough, with an absorbing gameplay loop that always gives players the feeling that they are progressing in one manner or another, even when it might be categorisable as busywork. Despite a weaker presentation than contemporary titles and a last third that meanders without the urgency of what came before, the game is a pleasing experience and one that those with even just a passing interest in the life and crafting sim genre are likely to enjoy their time with.