Starsand Island

[b]tl;dr[/b] a cute, cozy sandbox which works fine albeit a bit slow on the steam deck OK so I purchased Starsand Island on a whim last Thursday as a game to play over the weekend. I did not look at any reviews or yt videos. It was an impulse purchase which considered I played 20 hours over the weekend (!!), it is a purchase which I do not regret at all. The game is a sandbox, reminiscent of the My Time At Series and the latest Fantasy Life game with a touch of Harvest Moon Grand Bazaar (the exploration reminded me of it). There is no rush and you can really play at your own pace, but if you want to advance in the game (and open new items, crafting tables, and decor) you have to advance in one of the 5 careers which are crafting, fishing, farming, ranching and adventuring, hence why it reminded me a bit of FL. The crafting part of the game itself is very similar to the MTA games where you craft cutters, furnaces and other equipment to craft other equipment or tools. [b] Cons [/b] Let me get over with the cons first. [list] [*]The combat makes use of ranged weapons (slingshot and bows). I am not a huge fan of this as I frankly horrible in using ranged weapons. I wish we were also given some nice melee weapons or even better, this is a cozy game, please please please devs, have the combat be optional (maybe with a toggle?). Also bosses respawn :'(. Please devs, make combat optional for the ultimate cozy game. [*]The game also has a sleep penalty where if you miss bed time by 2am you wake up the next day with only half of your stamina. If you repeat it for three nights, you will sleep the whole next day. Again, this is a cozy game, is it possible to have this as optional? I am sure some like the challenge, but I would prefer if it did not exist. At least, a day in Starsand Island is longer than your overage game in this category so there is that. [*]Running the game on a version 1 old LCD steam deck is a bit slow and maybe not that snappy if it makes any sense? To be fair, I only encountered stutters the first time that I ran the game, but for example, it takes over 30 seconds to load the game the first time, talking to the characters and petting the animals feels a bit slow. [*]Encountered some weird bugs here and there (such as all icons not showing from the map), but this game is still in EA so I am fine with that and so far the bugs have not bothered me that much. [/list] [b] Pros [/b] Ok so now comes the fun part! Because despite the above cons, this game is a really fun one and I am enjoying my time in Starsand quite a bit! I want to preface that this game so far does not have a story and... I am liking it. To be honest I do not ever really care much about the story and the NPCs and more often than not I end up rushing the main story regardless to get it over with. I know that this is an unpopular opinion and I am seeing on discord people asking for a story, but personally I hope that they leave it as is. We already have many games with stories. For me, the joy I am finding in this game is the freedom to do what I want and trying out different builds, and grinding for these builds. I am taking it slow and 20 hours in and I am still not even in junior level in any of the careers. I am spending my days in Moonlit Forest (the equivalent of the mines in other games), fishing (which is easy), farming, petting my bunnies, my adopted cat, doing the notice board side quests and building sheds and so on. Now because I like lists, the following is a list of the pros. [list] [*]You get vehicles, mounts, rollerblades and so on very early in the game. [*]This game has amazing QoL. Just like the MTA series, the storage boxes are linked (you access one and can access all of them) and also you can use your items from storage to craft and for all quests. Some other QoL is the fact that you can upgrade your bag directly from the bag itself and that there is a shop open 24/7 next to your homestead if you want to sell stuff (you can build a shipping bin later on). Fast travel is also opened quite early in the game. [*]This is a game which you can play at your own pace. You can start building stuff on your first day as long as you have the resources. At the same time you can opt out of some quests (for example I have totally abandoned ranching for now) and I can still progress in the game / other careers. [*]Aesthetically it is a cute and pleasing game. The vibes are cozy, the graphics are nice ad the clothing and decor is actually so cute! [*]Speaking of decor and clothes, even though this game is still in EA, there are already many options to choose from and you can change clothes / hair style quickly as well. [*]Tools do not need to be repaired. [*]Moonlit Forest is so pretty. Sigh I really, really wish the devs would add a non-combat mode because I would probably spend all my time there exploring. [/list] [b] Steam Deck Performance [/b] Finally, a few words on the steam deck performance. As I already mentioned the game is a bit slow on my SD. In addition to this, there is some text which is a bit tiny. When I played on a large monitor it was fine, but the smaller print was noticeable on the small LCD screen. I also want to mention a bit the controls. I have only played this game with controls, either on the SD or using my dual sense. I have encountered no issues but I did need some time to get used to some of the controls. I think using Mouse + KB would make the experience much better (especially when building!)