If you’ve played My Time at Portia, you’re probably already excited about its follow-up, My Time at Sandrock. And if you’re not – why not?
My Time at Portia, released back in 2019, gave players free reign of a crumbling town. Using your father’s neglected workshop, it was up to you to build new commodities, grow crops, raise animals and more, putting Portia back on the map. My Time at Sandrock hasn’t tried to reinvent the wheel. It’ll feel instantly familiar yet fresh, with a new setting and new challenges awaiting players.
You don’t have to have played Portia to be able to enjoy My Time at Sandrock, of course. This is completely its own game, taking new characters to a brand new location. It simply expands upon the mechanics and gameplay of its predecessor. And so, for fans of open-ended crafting, farming and exploration games, this really ought to be on your radar.
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My Time at Sandrock is coming to PC via Early Access on 26th May, and we’ve been lucky enough to get our hands on an early build. After creating our character, we were dropped into Sandrock, a small town out in the desert that evokes feelings of the wild west. The town isn’t exactly thriving any more, and their hope is that you, as a builder, can come in and put it back on the map. No pressure, then.
Thankfully, your tasks start off small. You’ll be gathering scrap from the surrounding desert to turn into new tools. And, for the most part, everything can be done in your own time. It doesn’t matter how long it takes for you to scavenge for the right parts; this is your journey so take it slowly if you want.
That’s not all there is to My Time at Sandrock, however. As you play, you’ll slowly get introduced to more mechanics. There are townsfolk for you to meet and befriend, many of them having tasks for you to complete if you’re up for it. But not everyone’s friendly. Outside the relative safety of Sandrock, enemies and threats await, and so you’ll have to brush up on your combat skills – and maybe craft yourself a nice weapon or two. But you don’t have to worry about that right away. Getting settled in first is most important.
Crucially, this is a wonderful-looking game. Its cartoonish visuals pop off the screen, making Sandrock an absolute joy to explore. Characters are nicely designed, and the weird and wonderful items you’ll craft all look spectacular. It performs well, too: on PC, its recommended specifications remain fairly modest. An i3 paired with a GTX760 is the recommended minimum – a nine-year old graphics card. The recommended GPU – a GTX970 is still several years old. Playing with an RTX 3060, we were able to max out all settings at 4K with no problems whatsoever.
We’ve only scratched the surface of what My Time at Sandrock has to offer, and we can’t wait to dive in further when it released into Early Access later this month. That Early Access period is scheduled to last around a year, before a full release follows on PC and consoles. Over that year, developer Panthea games plans to add new story quests, flesh out the world, implement a multiplayer mode and add general polish. But even now, this feels like a solid, feature-complete game that’s a joy to play.
My Time at Sandrock is coming to PC via Steam Early Access on 26th May.
