SAND LAND Review Summary

Fun, enjoyable, and engaging gameplay: The game is consistently praised for being fun, enjoyable, and engaging. Many reviewers found the gameplay loop satisfying, the world immersive, and the overall experience to be a pleasant surprise. The game is easy to pick up and play, making it accessible to a wide range of players.

Extensive and impactful vehicle customization: A key feature is the extensive vehicle customization, allowing players to modify weapons, engines, and aesthetics. This system adds depth and encourages experimentation, with many reviewers praising the variety and impact of these modifications. The designs are reminiscent of Toriyama's style.

Captures Toriyama's iconic art style: The game's art style, world, and characters are heavily inspired by Akira Toriyama's iconic work, particularly Dragon Ball. This evokes a sense of nostalgia and charm for fans of his distinctive style. The game successfully captures the essence of Toriyama's manga, making it a must-play for enthusiasts.

Engaging story and likable characters: The game features a well-written and engaging story with likable characters. The voice acting is frequently praised for bringing the characters to life and enhancing the overall narrative experience. The story is interesting and enjoyable, with some unexpected twists and turns.

Expands manga with new content: The game expands upon the original manga with new content, characters, and storylines, providing a fresh experience for fans. Side quests are well-integrated, fleshing out the world and offering meaningful rewards. The game is faithful to the source material while adding depth and detail.

Repetitive gameplay and world: The game suffers from repetitive gameplay, enemy types, and environments. This leads to a lack of challenge and makes exploration feel unrewarding. Many reviewers found the game became boring after a relatively short time.

Lacks difficulty and challenge: The game is considered too easy, even on the hardest difficulty settings. The AI is basic, and enemies are not aggressive or threatening. Some reviewers found the lack of challenge made abilities and power-ups feel unnecessary.

Slow and padded progression: The game's progression feels slow and padded, with a long grind required to unlock content. Vehicle upgrades are restricted until certain points in the story, which can be frustrating. Some reviewers felt the game was longer than it needed to be.

Repetitive and annoying dialogue: Characters repeat dialogue frequently, especially during open-world exploration. This becomes annoying and detracts from the experience. Many reviewers wished for an option to reduce or disable the frequency of these remarks.

Poor optimization and performance: The game suffers from poor optimization, leading to frequent stuttering and frame rate drops. Some reviewers experienced crashes and other technical issues. These problems detract from the overall enjoyment of the game.

Vehicle-focused combat and customization: The game heavily emphasizes vehicle combat and customization. Players can acquire, upgrade, and personalize a variety of vehicles, including tanks, cars, and motorcycles, each offering unique combat styles and traversal capabilities. This focus makes non-vehicle combat less relevant.

Standard open-world exploration: The game features a blend of exploration, questing, and open-world elements. However, some reviewers found the open-world design to be standard and the side quests to be shallow. The game provides clear guidance with quest markers, making it accessible but potentially less engaging for some players.

Simple character combat: Combat outside of vehicles, primarily using the main character Beelzebub, is considered simple and less engaging than vehicle combat. The combat system involves light and heavy attacks, special abilities, and a dodge roll. Some reviewers found the skill tree for Beelzebub and companions to be not very impactful.

Town-building mechanic: The game features a town-building mechanic where players rebuild and upgrade Spino Town by completing side quests and recruiting NPCs. This mechanic provides a visual representation of progress and unlocks new shops and game modes. The side quests are simple fetch or kill tasks.

Unnecessary stealth mechanics: The game incorporates stealth mechanics, but some reviewers found them unnecessary and shallow. These sections typically involve navigating from point A to point B while avoiding detection. Camera issues can make these sections tedious.

Stuttering issues, especially during loading: Some players experience stuttering issues, often related to shader compilation or initial loading of assets, particularly when using Unreal Engine 5. The severity varies, with some finding it minimal while others describe it as "very bad." Forcing DX11 can sometimes alleviate these stutters.

Acceptable Steam Deck performance: The game's performance on Steam Deck is generally acceptable, with frame rates typically between 40-60 FPS at 720p on medium to high settings. Battery life is around 1.4 hours, and the text is readable when set to "large."

Missing graphical features/options: The game lacks support for DLSS and HDR. Some players have reported issues with anti-aliasing settings not working and resolution limitations, including pillar boxing on super ultrawide resolutions when uncapped frame rates are enabled.

Repetitive, cut-off verbal cues: Verbal cues during open-world exploration can become repetitive and are often cut off by other actions, which can be distracting or immersion-breaking for some players.

Inconsistent music quality: The music quality is inconsistent; while some tracks are good, others are atmospheric and dull, leading to a mixed audio experience for players.

Sale recommended; full price questionable: The game's value is heavily debated, with many reviewers suggesting it's only worth purchasing on sale. Some feel the full price isn't justified due to flaws or lack of content, while others find it worth it, especially if discounted. This suggests a price-to-value imbalance.

Great for Toriyama fans: A significant number of reviews recommend the game specifically to fans of Akira Toriyama's work, including Sand Land, Dragon Ball, and Dr. Slump. These reviewers suggest that fans will appreciate the art style, world, and characters, while others may not find it as appealing.

Enjoyable open-world, vehicle combat, story: Reviewers highlight the game's open-world RPG elements, vehicle combat, and story as key aspects. Some recommend focusing on the main story and city reconstruction to avoid repetitive side quests. The game is considered a good fit for those who enjoy exploration, customization, and a narrative-driven experience.

Similar to Metal Max, others: Several reviewers draw comparisons to other vehicle-focused games like Metal Max, Bumpy Trot, Armored Core, and Custom Robo. They suggest that fans of these games, particularly those who enjoy vehicle customization and combat, may find Sand Land appealing.

Play with Japanese audio: Some reviewers suggest playing the game with Japanese audio due to the awkwardness of the English voice acting. This is a minor point, but it could improve the overall experience for some players.

Tribute to Akira Toriyama: The game is heavily influenced by Akira Toriyama's iconic art style and designs, with many reviewers noting it as a tribute to his work. Some even purchased the game specifically to honor him, especially given that it was one of his final projects. The game expands upon the original manga, introducing new elements while staying true to Toriyama's style.

Good cel-shaded graphics: The game features cel-shaded graphics, with many reviewers praising the art style and animation quality. Some reviewers compare the graphics to Borderlands, while others note the combination of Metal Max and Dragon Quest elements.

Controller support is mixed: The game generally handles well with a controller, although some reviewers found melee combat less suited to a gamepad. Some reviewers reported issues with attacks not registering, regardless of whether they were using a gamepad or keyboard. The game runs well on Steam Deck.

Geared towards younger audience: Some reviewers felt the game was geared towards a younger audience due to its easy difficulty and one-dimensional villains. The game features a fast introduction of characters.

Poor marketing, niche appeal: The game is relatively unknown, possibly due to poor marketing, niche subject matter, and unconventional settings. Some reviewers felt the game's marketing was restrained and purposeful, reminiscent of older game ads.