The Sand Man

可爱

The Sand Man, the second game within Uri's "Strange Men" series is a relatively solid entry, if not a little weaker than its predecessor, the Crooked Man. As one would come to expect, the story follows a girl named Sophie who has trouble sleeping (and also trouble in her life, too) as she one night awakens to everyone being knocked out asleep in an eternal night. Spoilers for the Story: [spoiler]Now, the premise is interesting, the Sand Man being this figure that works tirelessly because of timezones and really only wants to sleep too, so he decided to put everyone to sleep except a select few who are invulnerable to his eternal sand dust or whatever. That's cool. However, from a narrative standpoint, I think the story kind of fails trying to convey Sophie's arc? Again, I am fresh right out of the game writing this review and only got the "Good Ending", but I genuinely don't get what her being hostile to everyone except for her dad (later on), and David in the end is going to achieve? I mean, I guess she's sort of taking initiative and finally standing up for herself is one way to read it as. Finally realizing that she can't always be the punching bag, always be dismissive, always harbor that hate inside her... But among other things, that I am currently still processing, I found the story to be quite weaker than that of The Crooken Man's. Again, not a bad story, I enjoyed it for what it is, just not my cup of tea personally.[/spoiler] Now, for a gameplay standpoint. I did enjoy some of the puzzles but I must say they were quite difficult for me to comprehend that some parts I had to look up a guide for. Maybe it's just me being dumb, but there's some puzzles where they don't tell you where to go and you're really forced to roam around until you find the thing that would help unlock this other thing! I don't mind that aimless wandering aspect, there's a lot of games that's like it too, but I did wish it was a bit clearer on what it is you have to do in order to progress instead of relying on wandering around. All in all, I really only have gripes with the gameplay and a little bit of the story from what I have seen. Still adore this title and I'm looking forward to the next game in the Strange Men series! So far, it hasn't really left me too disappointed (though some aspects of Sand Man did frustrate me a bit), but hey, it's neither here nor there. 7/10