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If you’ve ever read Philip Reeve’s Mortal Engines series and thought you’d thrive in life on a locomotive town or city, then you’re in luck. The first demo for Sand, a walking mech-based PvPvE extraction shooter, is live right now. You’ll construct a Trampler and set out stomping across a post-apocalyptic alien desert in search of contracts to complete and other players to blast to pieces. Sand has the tense gameplay of Escape From Tarkov, dressed up in a Sea of Thieves-style adventure that trades oceans for land.
The first thing you’ll do in Sand is build your Trampler – a giant, walking, steampunk base. There are a few presets to choose from if you just want to jump in and play, or you can craft a setup that’s perfect for you. Once you’ve placed the various bits and pieces that make a Trampler operational and have enough space for your crew or just little old solo you, it’s time to pack in as many platforms and turrets as possible.
Why are you building a Trampler? Well, Sand is set on an alien world called Sophie that’s recently experienced an environmental disaster, rendering it into something resembling Dune’s Arrakis. If you’re not on a Trampler, you’re not going to get very far due to the heat, dangerous locals, and one heck of a lot of sand.
Sand’s demo is live right now for anyone to download and try out. Fans are reporting in Steam reviews that the demo is quite glitchy, but the mechanics that are there feel satisfying, and they can’t wait for the full release.
Sand captures the essence of riding a huge vehicle across a vast and unknowable landscape, similar to the sailing in Sea of Thieves. Tramplers are inherently more tactile, though, with huge legs that crash down into the sand and make loud thuds that are dulled by the surrounding dunes.
You spend most of your time wandering the top of your Trampler, keeping an eye out for the telltale exhaust fumes of other players in the distance and seeking out small contracts to complete around the game’s vast desert. Every contract you finish awards you with useful items for your Trampler, such as ammo for a turret, meaning the more you complete, the better your chances when you finally encounter one controlled by an AI or another player.
Trampler fights are, of course, the highlight of Sand. These hulking goliath mechs range in size and speed, with the smaller ones being more agile and the larger ones less so but with more space for weapons. You fight it out by using your turrets to damage the enemy Trampler and firearms to try to take out as many of its crew as possible. Sometimes, though, it’s just easier to let your Tramplers collide and duke it out with fists or whatever guns you have to hand.
The goal of every round is to explore, thrive, and survive, similar to Escape from Tarkov. You and whoever you’re playing with are both predators and prey. It pays to run and guide from larger Tramplers, but you want to take out any that you can so you can complete as many contracts as possible.
If you like feeling like a pirate, even if it’s only on land in Sand, then we’ve got a great list of pirate games you should check out. If you’re more into deserts and alien worlds, our guide on the Dune Awakening release date is a great way to keep up to date on a game with very similar vibes.
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