It's been out 5 days and I have 153 hours into this game. I don't think that adds up properly but the metrics don't lie. Needless to say its an amazing and addicting game. The systems you can design are endless. Great for problem solvers. Here is my rundown so far:
It’s an idle-friendly game that you can just let run, but I honestly can't step away because I get completely consumed by the instant problem-solving. If you are into factory building, resource management, and setting up automated systems, this is exactly what you are looking for.
What makes Sandustry so uniquely brilliant is the developer's pixel-based physics engine. Every single material particle in the game has its own mass, volume, and density, and the game's gravity topology obeys those rules. It creates beautifully frustrating logistical puzzles. For example, trying to drop specific petals into a sorting bin on a belt mixed with wet and dry seeds gets wild, because the heavier wet seeds will clog the sorters. My solution? I ended up building this crazy locomotive belt system using staggered launchers matched perfectly to the floating density of the target item so it sifts in perfectly while the junk bounces off. It's meticulous to build, but incredibly satisfying to watch run.
The game is incredibly open. There are no strict rules other than the physics of the objects themselves. I constantly find myself thinking, "Well, if that's how that component works, I can just do X, Y, and Z," and then I just get to build it and test it. You can build amazing self-reciprocating systems like self-fueling flamethrowers or self-cooling condenser systems.
I played the demo first and found some frustrating nuances, but luckily the Early Access release essentially addressed every single one of them. There are still a few buggy things here and there, but the developer has a great feedback process in place and is actively working them out.
I've already essentially "beaten" the current Early Access content, but I'm still playing because I'm chasing that $1M gold mark (currently 2/3 of the way there!) and upgrading my power grid. I usually burn out on games quickly after the tutorial on some stubborn mechanic, but Sandustry has kept me hooked the whole way.
Highly recommended.
