Story:
There is a story to this game but it is murky. From what I could gather:
Space people wielding cannabis-powered guns, travel to a desert planet where they are worshiped as gods by the native people for introducing cannabis to the planet. At some point everyone has to evacuate to Earth because sand worms have become too much of a problem. The protagonist may be a native that rediscovered the portal, or they may be a time traveling space-person. It's unclear.
Gameplay:
The player starts out as a marathon runner caught in a sandstorm (likley inspired by Mauro Prosperi). They take shelter in an old building and emerge to an alien desert with Earth animals. It's an odd mix of survival game and walking simulator that tries to imitate the feeling of being stranded in the desert by having nothing but sand all the way to the horizon. Landmarks are rare. There is no compass. The only save points are the ones the player crafts themselves, and the map is a blank sheet of paper you have to draw out yourself. Travel from one location to the next can take minutes to hours, but the player character or their mount can be set to auto-run, making it possible to look around, manage hunger/thirst, and craft basic items while covering ground; and the absence of points-of-interest or objectives to complete removes the worry of missing something important.
Referencing the map while relying on my memory and the scant few landmarks, often obscured by tall dunes or sandstorms, to navigate the world made exploring the barren landscape strangely rewarding. It was also punishing. Without a save-point bed, there is no way to record progress, making it easy to loose hours (real-world time) of travel because of heat, animal attack, a misstep, or game crashes. The UI and controls are awkward and difficult to learn because the tutorial tells you what to do but not how to do it. After a few hours of fiddling I had most of it worked out, but simple quality of life improvements like a tool-tip or icon showing what button to press for various actions would go a long way.
I had a good bit of fun with this odd indie game until I reached the final oasis and boss area. This is where Starsand transitions from a decent open-world survival game to a terrible linear platformer. The whole final area is a confusing mess of corridors with poorly defined pathways that force the player to make long jumps across chasms that deal enough damage upon landing to insta-kill, and to crawl through maze-like tunnels with insta-death potholes. To complete the game, you will need to backtrack to the starting location in order to gather the resources required to fight the final boss. But this whole final area seems to be designed only for the player to go further into the endgame zone instead of out. When I first got to this area I genuinely thought it was impossible to get back out; I had to turn to an online guide for help. I died over 20 times and had about 7 game crashes while trying to find my way out, and almost gave up. According to the trophies/achievements only 2% of players owning the game have actually beaten the final boss and left through the portal.
Conclusion:
Starsand strikes me as very niche. There just aren't many survival games quite like it and despite it's nightmare of an endgame zone, I ended up loving the first half. I honestly wish the game was longer and had more content because it left me wanting more. If I ever replay it, and I often get the longing for a similar experience, I'll probably just stay in the desert.
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