SAND LAND

SAND LAND offers a big beautiful dust bowl for players to explore to their hearts’ content. I found its story and its characters to be the main driver for my playthrough, but the fun vehicle combat went hand-in-hand in my enjoyment of the game. A great adaptation of a legend’s work.

Sand Land has its shortcomings and feels a little overlong despite seeing credits around the reasonable 20-hour mark, but it maintains a charm throughout. Toriyama’s fun sense of humor is front and center with Beelzebub taking on the adventure primarily so his dad will give him an extra hour of video game time every day. I may not have had strong connections with most of the cast and was annoyed with a number of specific sections, but I liked spending time in Sand Land (and beyond) and seeing my garage upgrade and grow.

With Sand Land, the late Akira Toriyama lays the last stone of a prestigious building. Enriched with new storylines, this video game adaptation is the ideal extension of the manga and anime. On a playful level, the adventure is far from perfect, but the scenario and the events are faithful to the original work and the progression offers several notable moments. With its ultra-endearing characters and its universe, this production has enough assets to satisfy fans of (semi) open world games. If the idea of playing an action-RPG in a Mad Max-style universe interests you, this title may satisfy you.

Sand Land is a game that pays homage to Akira Toriyama's original work, with a living world that brings much of the atmosphere of the manga published in 2000. The good story and charismatic characters make the campaign a lot of fun most of the time, but the repetitiveness of the enemies and the shallow combat prevent the title developed by ILCA from soaring higher. For an open-world RPG that can exceed 40 hours between the main story and side quests, Sand Land still entertains, but it would certainly be a better game if it featured more variety of strategies in hand-to-hand combat or on board the various vehicles you unlock during the campaign.

Classic, repetitive, but devilishly effective. Sand Land is a game with many flaws, but it manages to captivate thanks to its pleasant universe, sensational soundtrack and addictive, customizable gameplay.