The Siege and the Sandfox

This game has so much potential, but after over 5 hours of play I just had to give up. The last hours I've done nothing but wandering around the map and tediously backtracking in all directions with no indication on where to go or what to do next. Everywhere I go I end up at inaccessible areas, because the required skill is missing (cannot grab metal rails, and cannot pas through the small metal "gates". The map doesn't even indicate (many of) these points or let you place enough tags, so it's near impossible to remember where you can and cannot go. So frustrating and ruining all the fun. With so little effort this game could be so much better it's a shame. There are also some annoying bugs, but I can live with even those if the games basic games would just work...

Pros: Relaxing MV game with nostalgic pixelated Prince of Persia vibes, ideal if you hate bossfights and just want to explore like me. Cons: Backtracking takes forever, not enought fast travel points and at least one was broken. (Didn't notice any other bugs except that)

Played on the Steamdeck, Installed to a micro SD card. I've put about 14 hours into this game so far. It has crashed two times: once a minute into the game and the 2nd time later into the game, but I was next to a save point. I have only encountered a few minor glitches of my character getting stuck in a different animation when climbing and getting stuck in a wall when warping; restarting from a checkpoint fixed it. Nothing game-breaking. completed the game with 77.9% of items collected.

Man, I was so hyped for this game to release, but broke my number 2 rule for games. Rule 1: No preorders. Rule 2: Wait for initial reviews. This game had so much promise, but overall.. it's really bad. I got to 116 minutes of gameplay, got stuck (explained later), and decided "I can wait until the dev fixes this, they'll fix it and if they don't, I'll refund!" Well, my time schedule got messed up and I never refunded the game. So, I waited. And waited. And waited like a fool. No update, game still broken. Siege and the Sandfox is a game that focuses around stealth. So much so that if an enemy manages to even get close to you, they thwack you once and you're respawning at your last checkpoint. Combat isn't an option, even if you manage to get the drop on an enemy, there's a good chance that they'll still overpower you. Fine, it's a stealth game, so be stealthy. Hide in the shadows, crouch/crawl along the floor so you make less noise, jump up from the platform underneath when the enemy isn't looking and high tail it out of there before they catch wind of your presence. This is all well and good, except that last part. There's one section in the game where you have to do exactly this (stay on the platform below an enemy, wait for them to walk away, then jump up and run). Problem is the psychic AI. The enemies track your character PERFECTLY, making it impossible to jump up (because they'll hit you immediately). Standing still in hopes they walk away does nothing. Your only choice is to completely LEAVE the room to respawn the enemies (not the screen, not the general area, the entire ROOM), come back, redo all the stealth areas to get back to that enemy in hopes that their AI reset. This is the reason why I stopped playing. That doesn't mean that there aren't other issues with the game. There is no fast travel, so you're stuck running across long sections of the map, stopping every few seconds to double check the map (as there is no mini-map or option for one). Fine, the game takes place in ancient times and there's no obvious alien technology to warp you around. You can just pause every other room to double check the map and plot your course. At least up until you realize that the room you THOUGHT you could leave through was actually a one-way exit (and you're on the wrong side). I'm sure there are other issues with the game, but as you can see, reviews are still heavily "Mixed". Heed them. Save your money.

Plays too slowly for me, though I figured it might, given it's stealth direction.

Juego con mucho potencial, y lo disfrute. El problema es que tiene muchos bugs y no lo andan parcheando. Así que a mi pesar por ahora no puedo recomendarlo.

I'm a fan of stealth games and I like Metroidvania games (even if they don't like me). This one has a lot going for it. Pros: - The music, narration, and graphics are really nice; they don't distract from the game (besides unclear pronoun reference by the narration at times). - I like the stealth and parkour. - The controls feel rather smooth (probably more so for better gamers. I'm using a wired Switch controller. I think a keyboard would be agravating. - The biomes are interesting to travel through. They aren't as explicitly unique as say Hollowknight, but there are dungeons, libraries, rooftops, slums (a tiny bit so far), catacombs, caverns, temples, palaces. There are some different foes in them and different types of platforming challenges too. - I really like the little colour-coded tick-marks on the map to remind you about the power-ups needed to get through different areas. Cons: My biggest cons are with the map presentation and a stylistic choice of PC pronouns. Map:As you explore you reveal the map. Standard fare there. However when you visit the fast travel points and are selecting where you want to fast travel to, the game reveals all tunnels all around each location you've unlocked. It spoils so much of what is connected and how to get there. PC Pronoun: I realize they/them pronouns are a thing. Maybe the devs are just trying to be trendy and trying to make a character that can be more accessible to more people. Or as some sources think online, it's to make the Sandfox more mysterious. But with how often I need to do mental gymnastics to figure out who the narrator is talking about (Are "they" the people I followed who revealed the password when I eavesdropped or is "they" the singular PC?) Some is that I'm not hip and worldly enough for alternate pronouns, and some of it is just plain, unclear pronoun reference. When pronouns are unclear, it's up to the writer to be more clear in the writing. Meh: there are indeed bugs. I haven't encountered the soft-lock problem or anything else gamebreaking that some reviews mention. When guards were inexplicably detecting me when I was in an urn or box or crouched in shadow, I just restarted from the last checkpoint (which are plentiful); even with my older computer, reloads were only a few seconds. It wasn't a big deal, but some of those points took several reloads to manage. Sometimes AI needed several reloads to get fixed. The most drastic bug I found was when I clipped through the ground on death and trigged a later checkpoint. If it hadn't been advantageous for me, it would have been especially frustrating. As it was, I felt like a dirty cheater not having to earn the advancement. Another point against this game related to the bugs is that seemingly the devs have abandoned it. There are indeed bugs, and besides one update in the first month (in May or June 2025), there don't seem to have been any further bug fixes. The various sites I've referred to for info on the game don't seem to realize that the game is out yet. Obviously the missing bug-fixes are more dire than a lack of online info. However, the lack of follow-through by the game company / publisher bodes ill for future updates.

This game is overflowing with charm. I love the stealth system, its an floor is lava game. The narrator is fun to listen to as well. I think the gameplay movement is a lot of fun and the visuals are gorgeous.

I never thought I'd play a stealth metroidvania before but I really loved this game. There's no combat beyond sneaking up behind guards and knocking them out. This is strictly a stealth based game and it does a good job at it. There are certainly some faults that I want to discuss though. The controls can be a bit frustrating at times. There were plenty of times I missed a jump because the controls felt a bit finnicky. Fortunately, for the most part, checkpoints were pretty frequent so it never felt that punishing, just frustrating when it happened. There are a lot of negative reviews about guards bugging out. It happened sometimes but it was pretty rare for me. I assume the bugs got patched out at some point since release. Occasionally, I would run into a guard that would be stuck in alert mode, enough to make note of it, but not enough for it to really worsen my experience with the game. The game also focuses a lot on exploration. There comes a mission about 2/3 of the game where you have to gather evidence and some of it doesn't have any quest markers on the map. I ended up looking up a guide for them after I couldn't figure out where to go for some help but if I didn't, I felt like I would have helplessly been exploring the whole map. Those are some issues of mine that I think should be addressed but overall, I still had an absolute blast with the game. There aren't many 2D stealth games out there and this one does a good job. The story's decent enough and the voice acting is surprisingly good, even if it's just one person narrating the whole thing. The pixel art is beautiful as well. It's a great first effort from a new team and I hope they make something similar, fixing what they've learned from this game.

What an incredible game beset by some small bugs and too niche to sell well. If interested, here's my video review https://youtu.be/V-92HIANL8M I picked this up on sale on a whim and I'm glad I did. While a lot of the major bugs mentioned in other reviews are gone, there's definitely some flaws with this one that unfortunately don't seem to be fixed, but it in no way detracts from how unique and memorable the experience was. -Enemies can sometimes get stuck -Your jump height might be inconsistent every now and then -And the main quest where you need to locate evidence doesn't properly mark any of the quests, forcing me to find a community post where the dev explained where the items were, mentioned it's a bug.. yet hasn't fixed it? -The game also HATES multi-monitor setups and often takes extra effort to get it on my main monitor every time I start it up. Aside from that, this is a solid metroidvania combined with a great stealth game, making for an S-tier experience for me being a fan of both genres. The map is huge, you can explore pretty much everywhere after the tutorial (save for a few places locked behind progression), the stealth is tight with you emitting different sound volume based on the surface you're walking on and your speed. You can knock guards out, but they'll wake up when you come back, and there's a few monsters used very sparingly. Thief was definitely an inspiration for this, but it reminded me more of Prince of Persia with the surprisingly good parkour. Depending on how big you are into the mashup of these two genres, I could recommend it at full price, just keeping the bugs in mind, but if you're on the fence just wait for a sale. I'll warn that the first 45 minutes of playing I felt iffy, it took a while to get its hooks in me, but when it did, this game had me under a spell and I couldn't put it down.. if I had extra time, I'd love to replay it. Maybe if the bugs ever get fixed I could use that as my excuse to track down all the collectables.