SAND: Raiders of Sophie

With the game besieged by negative reviews made by people who played a couple of matches and left because of some inconvenience they experienced in an EA title, I've decided to leave a positive review. The game actually deserves it for what it is, and most importantly, what it's trying to achieve. Firstly, the game suffered from two major issues which caused the early wave of negatives: -Server instability during first week which caused some matches to crash, returning everyone back to base. This issue is already solved and the servers are mostly stable now. I haven't seen it but there might be some minor issues. Never had a match interrupted for a long time now though. -A cheater wave ~1 week ago. The devs, as with all such competitive games with resource collection (Rust, DayZ, Tarkov etc) are locked in a fight. So far, after the initial struggle, it looks like they got their things in order and solved the worst of the cheating. This game also has potential to be a bit more resistant to cheats simply due to its nature. Most fights are at range and bullets have dropoff and travel time. Wallhack would also be mostly useless. Both issues are under control now and the devs are releasing weekly patches to address the issues. This leads me to an important point about the devs: even if it's the studio's first release, the devs are very active and seem to react to many popular issues quite quickly. It doesn't mean they can solve everything overnight, but this does make me hopeful for the game's development. Just today, they've released a patch with more improvements and much requested smoke shell nerf. Smoke shell topic picked up steam 2 weeks ago tops and they reacted quickly. It's nice to see the devs doing something with feedback, even if it's simple tweaks. As for the game itself: there is no other title like this one on the market. I know there's sea of thieves but it has a different vibe. Unlike other shooters, this one is very focused on teamwork and outcompeting the enemy team with the resources you have and the machine you built. There's different playstyles and they all are based on what you come up with. Firing your broadside on the move? Getting in close with a ram? Boarding? Straightforward shootouts? Avoiding combat and having rear-facing weapons only? All are down to what you want. Asides from that, the game does feel somewhat fair compared to other shooters. Most of the time you'll see your opponents coming from afar. Ambushes and sneaking are rare and done dynamically instead of camping the only chokepoint on the map. Even if you are facing a bigger, better armed trampler - you can always try to run before they get to you, get into rough terrain that's hard to navigate for bigger ships or simply win the fight via boarding. Gear advantage is at it's weakest in close combat. Shotguns are deadly and medium tier armor is the most common. Granted, killing an enemy does not take them out of the game - players respawn in crew quarters as long as they have supplies or the module is intact. Even still, wiping the enemy crew lets you sabotage and disarm their trampler if you are quick at it. So there's always a chance for your team to win as long as you can get up close and board the enemy. This all ends up creating a thrilling experience where you have times of calm as you travel and loot the deserted (no pun intended) planet just to run into an enemy and have the action suddenly begin. Maybe you spotted them at the last possible moment. Maybe you surprised them. Or maybe you just had a chance to rob them and took it. The game has a long way to go. But people acting like the intermittent issues during the post-launch period were some sort of catastrophe really seem to miss the mark. I played during early release and had ~4 out of 10 matches ruined but still had lots of fun. Currently, you can still encounter bugs but it's something to be expected in an EA title. The only major issue that's still unadressed are teamers in solo (people trying to join the same game at the same time to play together). While it is a bannable offence, you can still see them sometimes in lobby. I suspect the devs will also roll out a patch to solve this fairly soon. The game is cheap, has huge potential, and you may have like one match out of 20 ruined. Chances are, in any other extraction shooter, something would make you rage anyway. Buy it, try it. Learn from mistakes and try to think up solutions. I say it's worth it.

Easily the worst experience ive had with any game so far. the core mechanics are awesome and beeing able to steer your very own trampler just feels right. But the matchmaking is just upright awful and i do not recommend playing the game in its current state.

Не зважаючи на те що концепція гри мені сподобалась сама гра просто йобана стидоба,починаючи з того що тебе може вилетіти при загрузці на планету і після перезахода твій труп тупо вилітає під текстуру,так і просто їдучи на трамплері вмераєшь за штурвалом.Реєстрація дамага теж йобаний піздець,починаєш захоплювати трамплер і тебе кулаками починає бити противник 2 шота в притул з дробаша не убивають і тебе разом з топ лутом убиває чел кулаками,коли в аналогічній ситуації я з кулака єбашу по тіпу який захоплює траплер і по ньому не проходить дамаг 10 разів,.Тупо йобаний кал коли стрибаєш на ходу зі свого трамплера на інший і траплери проходять один наскрізь іншого і тебе переносить назад на свій трамплер хоча я вже стояв на палубі іншого і ставив сішку щоб підірвати двері,але ігрі ♥♥♥♥♥ вона телепортує мене назад до свого трамплера,заїбала ♥♥♥♥♥ з респауном противника,коли першого разу тіп ресаться на капітанці а вже потім в інших каютах(хоча капітанка ціла і їжа в холодильнику є),тупо сидиш чекаєш тіпа на капітанці а тебе в спину чел з кулака хуярить.Хоч я і не супер топ і скіловик проте 200 годин награв і захоплювати трамплер абордажем вмію,проте йобаний ♥♥♥♥ крінж коли сучий дробаш не може вбити тіпа без броні,який з голими кулаками на тебе біжить при тому що до цього я його разів 5-6 вже вбивав,і тупо в момент коли ти проходиш до капітанки в гри все стає на тормоза і в тебе ніхуя не регає,і ти зливаєшься від тіпа якого 5 хвилин назад пиздив на кд,а в кінці кінців програєш тіпу просто тому що розраб мудак,який не може пофіксити стірльбу і реєстрацію дамага.Висновок дуже простий,розраби замість того шоб займатись фіксом проблем і боротьбою з чітерами(бо читаків все ще вистачає,бо я в житті не повірю що у тіпа настільки класний аім що він абсолюно всі рази по тобі влучить з 80-ки і ні разу не промаже) страждають єбаною хуйньою,певно онлайн в 20-30к закрутив голову і тепер будуть сидіти з 2-3к

If you like to get getting fisted with no lube then this is the perfect game for you! Nothing is more fun then starting to play the game learning a few things and enjoying my time with my friends and then a maxed tech tree crawler comes out of the bush and outguns you every single time so the game is just a waste of time. Unbalanced, bugs, cheaters

Unfortunately no longer worth playing. The lobbies in voyage are entirely empty. Spent hours in a duos lobby without a soul ever joining. Stormdive is still riddled with preteamers that will gang up and kill you. The "preteamer fix" patch somehow screwed up everything to where it's just a boring solo game and if you do happen to run into someone, it'll be them and many of their friends queueing together to farm storm dive in peace. On the rare chance they get a random in their match, the lobby all beelines to you from all angles skipping all PoIs. It's too bad, it'd be a great game if they could just get a handle on all the issues.

Awesome concept but horrible performance and boring game loop. The tech tree takes forever to climb and you just have to loot the same 14 identical towns over and over to get enough stuff to get the competitive trampler build. Lots of times where you drop a box thru the map or lose a 3 hours worth of loot due to game glitches. 10gb of game aint much and it shows here. AWESOME concept, very poor execution and support. Cheaters galore.

After 100+ hours in this game, I have the positives, the negatives, and the inbetweens in my opinion of SAND: Raiders of Sophie. Positives: A unique premise and setting, manning a customizable 'trampler' mech across a steampunk/post-apocalyptic desert planet feels fresh, cinematic, and incredibly fun. The combat is thrilling, particularly during chases (Smash those legs!) and ambushes on unsuspecting players. The freedom to design your own "war machine" from chassis, to reactors, weapon mounts, storage, crew quarters, and more is one of if not the biggest stand-out feature for this game. The ability to unlock new compartments through a tech tree and optimize/change your trampler for different playstyles and strategies gives a reason to continuously change and improve your walker after fights. The risk/reward tension of scavenging for loot at shipwrecks and POI's, battling against NPC's and players, and then making the dangerous trek to extract safely and lock in your loot makes for memorable stories and that "one more run" feeling when matches go in your favour. I also wanted to add a moment for the developers who I feel have been getting dragged through the mud unnecessarily. The team at Hologryph (with publisher tinyBuild) has been notably active since the early access launch, rolling out frequent patches and updates that directly reflect community feedback. Key Improvements have included: Gear-based Matchmaking: In the most recent update, this was introduced to help balance fights which from what I have experienced, it has helped a decent amount in solo's and duo's, I haven't seen a notable difference in the larger crew servers but this could simply be due to their not being enough players running those crew sizes to have the system be effective. The changes were aimed at reducing the "David vs. Goliath" crew matches that made playing the game as a new/lower-geared player near impossible, I would frequently go 6+ matches without an extraction just simply because "Goliath" walkers would wait at extracts or overrun smaller walkers, I would say I am now successfully extracting (with my own walker kills as well) 70-80% of the time. Anticheat Enhancements: There have been considerable efforts to target cheating which included the temporary disable of trampler capturing which has since been restored. I play mostly on US West servers and have not run into a ton of cheaters myself but much less then when the game first launched. It's far from perfect, but so are most if not all games anti-cheat systems, so take that as you will. Content and QoL Changes: New armour sets, shell types, reactor reworks, new POI's, and the return of trampler capturing have all added to expand gameplay variety and address commonly noted feedback/nerf requests, on the topic of nerfs, in most updates the developers have been silently reworking HP and damage on many compartments and gear to help balance the game, some changes have been more effective than others. Matchmaking Queue Changes: Adjustments have been made to queues to improve fairness and improve players odds in fights, Duos and Trios were separated creating a Duo's Only queue. Quads were also separated from "Large Crews" to give a more fair experience to Quads as large crews used to be 4-6 players which a two-player advantage can make a HUGE difference in fights. Queues are now, Solos, Duos, 3-4 (Small Crew), and 5-6 (Large Crew) All of the changes demonstrate a clear pattern; The developers are monitoring feedbakc, communicating via patch notes, announcements, and responding to reviews (privately), and release substantive fixes and updates, rather than just minor tweaks. DO NOT GET ME WRONG, there are absolutely bugs, glitches, and issues within the game (I will address some of these below) But I wanted the developers to get the acknowledgement they deserve. Where the Game Still Needs Work: Playerbase Population, and Pre-Teaming Despite the strong concept, foundations, and steady positive progress, a couple large issues still exist, but baby steps, changes will continue to come. Gear-Based Matchmaking: These systems rely heavily on health queue populations to find appropriately matched opponents. Due to the inconsistent playerbase, queues do still have issues with mismatched gear levels and frustrating encounters with "different ballpark" players. More concurrent players would let the system do the job its designed to do and would ultimately lead to fairer, more varied queuing. Pre-Teaming (Especially in Solo Lobbies): One of my biggest complaints, along with many others, is the amount of players coordinating outside of the game to enter solo ques as de facto squads. While in-match alliances are part of the games emergent play style, pre-lobby coordination gives an unfair, hard-to-detect advantage which is driving away many genuine solo players. I realize this can be tricky to address correctly, but there are options ex. Stronger Detection of Repeated Co-Queue Patterns, Staggered/Randomized Queues (not first come, first serve), and much clearer enforcement aginst coordinated solo-queuing. Bottom Line: SAND: Raiders of Sophie has an incredibly compelling core-creative mech building feature, a distinctive world, and tense extraction gameplay. The Developers have backed that vision with consistent, substantive community feedback driven updates since launch. If the playerbase grows to support the gear-based matchmaking and the development team implements stronger measures against pre-teaming in solo queues, the experience could click into place as one of the most unique and rewarding mech shooters available on the market.

Au début c'est fun et on aime créer son vaisseau et explorer le monde, puis a la longue le farming deviens répétitif et on peut s'ennuyer, a coté de ca une grande partie de la communauté est toxique et a une immense hostilité envers ceux qui commence (oui le jeu est sorti il ya même pas un mois mais que voulez vous...) sans parler des hackers omniprésent en jeu... C'est marrant une heure avec les copain pour la nouveauté mais ca n'ira pas plus loin