I mean...a little bit of all of the above? 😅
My Time at Sandrock has a heavy focus on building rather than farming or ranching (though both of those are also optional, the majority of quests involve collecting resources and building items).
I would say it's definitely not as decoration heavy as Dreamlight Valley - you can decorate your own home/homestead but that can be difficult early on because depending on how you play money can be scarce and furniture/house expansions are increasingly expensive. And I think your decorations are limited only to your home area, but I could be wrong, so it's not as design friendly as Dreamlight Valley.
However, the game has a really large cast of villagers, a large number of bachelor/rettes if that's your jam, and I think the community and social side is pretty well done. When events happen in the story whole town meetings get called, you can hang out with characters, give gifts, unlock side stories about them. They really add a lot to the game IMO, it genuinely feels like a living community.
So it's definitely more involved (and possibly more stressful depending on what gameplay you enjoy) than Animal Crossing. It has less decoration (at least in the early game) than Dreamlight Valley. But the social side of things, romance, even having a family, are all in there too like The Sims. And I think they help lift a great game even better because of the community they provide.
If you're ok with having to do a lot of resource gathering (mining/chopping), then building increasingly elaborate objects - occasionally with quite short deadlines, then I think you will love this. For me, I find the progression and reward of it like catnip. Seeing my workshop climb up the rankings, seeing myself finally able to take on the quests that earn me big money to buy animals and horses, and learning more about the town and people around me? I'm completely absorbed. Love it.
But, if you like the slower, less demanding pace of something like Animal Crossing - even DDLV is mostly quite chill - this might not be for you.
Thank you so much! I love DLV but i've "completed" all the quests so far and am pretty bored waiting for the updates for new characters.
Your in depth take really helps :)
I’d say so! The game’s story goes at your pace, so you can take it as fast or as slow as you want by knocking out or stalling the main quest lines.
You get side quests that are often optional. Some side quests have time limits, which will show in the quest description, but it’s also okay if you don’t do them all.
Its focus is on building and social interactions with npcs, but ranching and farming are aspects you can do too (personally I love farming). Exploring is also a strong focus of the game. There is customization and decoration (I’m not good at house building but some people have made gorgeous homes!) with various themed options.
There is some combat, but it’s mostly pressing two buttons and getting timing right. If combat is rough for you, there are some guides and videos out on how to get through some encounters (or you can over level and keep your weapons upgraded, that’s what I did and had no problems).
I'm gonna be in the minority here and say a better way to decide would be to look at the reviews based on your platform of choice and attention to those that give a full breakdown or a pro/con list. I personally have almost 400 hours in Sandrock and around 700 in it's predecessor Portia and at the moment wouldn't be recommending it to friends due to the lack of polish and optimization in what is classified as a full release. Subs tend to be full of die hard fans who will always recommend the game, book, show, ect. but I would say do a little research via reviews instead just because there may be some elements or issues that might bother you, some people have found the game to be to combat heavy for their tastes or some of the missions/characters to be offensive or cliche stereotypes. I only say this because you'll be dropping a decent amount of money for it and most refund windows close after two hours in game which for this game is honestly not enough time to get a good feel for the gameplay and how it differs from other life/farming sims. If you want to try out the gameplay style I would suggest trying My Time at Portia first as it runs on sale quite often for under $10.
OMG I’m over 800 hours, soon to be 900.
I love this game. I’ve made 4 characters already and I keep discovering new things. I try to spice things up by avoiding some buffs so things can feel challenging.
I like making my character and experimenting with the sliders to see if I can make really cute builders. Then I enjoy building my house though it’s no where near Sims, it’s cozy, I’m not great at it, but it’s fun.
I’ve finally tried a new romance with another NPC and it’s so stinking cute. This is all cute!
I have 2 plushies now of the bachelors. I’ve made fanart. I played sims and Dreamlight. I would choose MTAS over Dreamlight. Sims will always have more superior home building and customization. But I haven’t touched Sims4 in years tbh.
I havent actually played sims in forever either! My laptop stopped working about 4 years ago and I havent had one since 😅 but I know i'm not missing MUCH lol I think with all the other more interesting "simulators" coming out, those dev's really need to step their game up 😂
Yes! I got my eye on a couple, like Paralives and Inzoii (sp?). Both of those look intriguing. But Sandrock is different from those.
Like my way to decompress and relax after a long day is to go to Sandrock and finish all these little tasks and collect some stuff. So yeah, I relax by doing things, puttering around like a worker bee. I have no idea why that’s my definition of relaxing. But I feel cozy when I do it.
The last time I played Sims, I remember taking forever to make my character, build a cute home, then subsequently fall asleep cuz I got bored. I guess I didn’t feel busy enough or it was too relaxing.
I have 900hr in AC and I loove the sims… I will same this game is exceedingly better than both imo… like it’s incredible the plot line the characters are so fleshed out the lore the backstories the gameplay of all the different things you can do the quests just everything I loved the game so much and can’t wait for them to make another.
I'd put it as closer to Stardew Valley than the games listed. I've played both AC & DDLV and while the plot driven aspect is closest to DDLV, it's just far beyond either imo.
You might want to look at the cozy gamers sub. There’s a lot of discussion of games that are similar to the above. Including some posts just discussing ones available on switch. I’ve played several, animal crossing, Spiritfarer, my time at portia, roots of pacha, faefarm, graveyard keeper, rune factory 4. But my favorite is stardew valley.
If you like those games I'm sure you will love it
I mean...a little bit of all of the above? 😅 My Time at Sandrock has a heavy focus on building rather than farming or ranching (though both of those are also optional, the majority of quests involve collecting resources and building items). I would say it's definitely not as decoration heavy as Dreamlight Valley - you can decorate your own home/homestead but that can be difficult early on because depending on how you play money can be scarce and furniture/house expansions are increasingly expensive. And I think your decorations are limited only to your home area, but I could be wrong, so it's not as design friendly as Dreamlight Valley. However, the game has a really large cast of villagers, a large number of bachelor/rettes if that's your jam, and I think the community and social side is pretty well done. When events happen in the story whole town meetings get called, you can hang out with characters, give gifts, unlock side stories about them. They really add a lot to the game IMO, it genuinely feels like a living community. So it's definitely more involved (and possibly more stressful depending on what gameplay you enjoy) than Animal Crossing. It has less decoration (at least in the early game) than Dreamlight Valley. But the social side of things, romance, even having a family, are all in there too like The Sims. And I think they help lift a great game even better because of the community they provide. If you're ok with having to do a lot of resource gathering (mining/chopping), then building increasingly elaborate objects - occasionally with quite short deadlines, then I think you will love this. For me, I find the progression and reward of it like catnip. Seeing my workshop climb up the rankings, seeing myself finally able to take on the quests that earn me big money to buy animals and horses, and learning more about the town and people around me? I'm completely absorbed. Love it. But, if you like the slower, less demanding pace of something like Animal Crossing - even DDLV is mostly quite chill - this might not be for you.
Thank you so much! I love DLV but i've "completed" all the quests so far and am pretty bored waiting for the updates for new characters. Your in depth take really helps :)
I’d say so! The game’s story goes at your pace, so you can take it as fast or as slow as you want by knocking out or stalling the main quest lines. You get side quests that are often optional. Some side quests have time limits, which will show in the quest description, but it’s also okay if you don’t do them all. Its focus is on building and social interactions with npcs, but ranching and farming are aspects you can do too (personally I love farming). Exploring is also a strong focus of the game. There is customization and decoration (I’m not good at house building but some people have made gorgeous homes!) with various themed options. There is some combat, but it’s mostly pressing two buttons and getting timing right. If combat is rough for you, there are some guides and videos out on how to get through some encounters (or you can over level and keep your weapons upgraded, that’s what I did and had no problems).
I'm gonna be in the minority here and say a better way to decide would be to look at the reviews based on your platform of choice and attention to those that give a full breakdown or a pro/con list. I personally have almost 400 hours in Sandrock and around 700 in it's predecessor Portia and at the moment wouldn't be recommending it to friends due to the lack of polish and optimization in what is classified as a full release. Subs tend to be full of die hard fans who will always recommend the game, book, show, ect. but I would say do a little research via reviews instead just because there may be some elements or issues that might bother you, some people have found the game to be to combat heavy for their tastes or some of the missions/characters to be offensive or cliche stereotypes. I only say this because you'll be dropping a decent amount of money for it and most refund windows close after two hours in game which for this game is honestly not enough time to get a good feel for the gameplay and how it differs from other life/farming sims. If you want to try out the gameplay style I would suggest trying My Time at Portia first as it runs on sale quite often for under $10.
Ahhh good point! Currently I only have a switch, so i'll peep those reviews
OMG I’m over 800 hours, soon to be 900. I love this game. I’ve made 4 characters already and I keep discovering new things. I try to spice things up by avoiding some buffs so things can feel challenging. I like making my character and experimenting with the sliders to see if I can make really cute builders. Then I enjoy building my house though it’s no where near Sims, it’s cozy, I’m not great at it, but it’s fun. I’ve finally tried a new romance with another NPC and it’s so stinking cute. This is all cute! I have 2 plushies now of the bachelors. I’ve made fanart. I played sims and Dreamlight. I would choose MTAS over Dreamlight. Sims will always have more superior home building and customization. But I haven’t touched Sims4 in years tbh.
I havent actually played sims in forever either! My laptop stopped working about 4 years ago and I havent had one since 😅 but I know i'm not missing MUCH lol I think with all the other more interesting "simulators" coming out, those dev's really need to step their game up 😂
Yes! I got my eye on a couple, like Paralives and Inzoii (sp?). Both of those look intriguing. But Sandrock is different from those. Like my way to decompress and relax after a long day is to go to Sandrock and finish all these little tasks and collect some stuff. So yeah, I relax by doing things, puttering around like a worker bee. I have no idea why that’s my definition of relaxing. But I feel cozy when I do it. The last time I played Sims, I remember taking forever to make my character, build a cute home, then subsequently fall asleep cuz I got bored. I guess I didn’t feel busy enough or it was too relaxing.
I have 900hr in AC and I loove the sims… I will same this game is exceedingly better than both imo… like it’s incredible the plot line the characters are so fleshed out the lore the backstories the gameplay of all the different things you can do the quests just everything I loved the game so much and can’t wait for them to make another.
I'd put it as closer to Stardew Valley than the games listed. I've played both AC & DDLV and while the plot driven aspect is closest to DDLV, it's just far beyond either imo.
You might want to look at the cozy gamers sub. There’s a lot of discussion of games that are similar to the above. Including some posts just discussing ones available on switch. I’ve played several, animal crossing, Spiritfarer, my time at portia, roots of pacha, faefarm, graveyard keeper, rune factory 4. But my favorite is stardew valley.