Sand: Raiders of Sophie Early Access Impressions

If you’re tired of the usual backpack stuffing, endless walking, and typical shootout interactions found in current extraction shooters, then Sand: Raiders of Sophie, developed by Holygryph and TowerHaus and published by Tinybuild, is definitely something to try. An exhilarating cinematic experience of an extraction shooter that will have you dominating the dunes and ruins of Sophie! Group up as a squad of up to six players, or ride solo, and make your mark. Now sit back, relax, and let's take a look at what Sand: Raiders of Sophie has to offer. 

Sand: Raiders of Sophie is an open world PVPVE extraction shooter that I think smashes expectations on multiple levels. As someone who has played around in the extraction shooter genre, there really is nothing like this on the market. The difference maker is you're not running around endlessly on foot but instead traveling on big machine walkers known as Tramplers. Joining an expedition with a fully custom-built or pre-made Trampler and arming it for the battle ahead is thrilling, and almost a game in of itself. The reactor or engine of your Trampler is the heart and soul of your creation and must be protected at all costs or if your rig is destroyed, you’ll be unable to respawn and find yourself on the losing side.  

Sand: Raiders of Sophie shares a lot in common with Sea of Thieves, including the fact that much of the game isn’t really built around solo play, making it harder than it needs to be given all the spinning plates you have to manage. A lot of this is made easier playing with at least another player, but the game is truly meant for a full squad, given the fact that even as a duo, you are matching with other teams of up to six players. At least with solo, you are only matching in solo queues. 

Now, In Sand: Raiders of Sophie, your primary objective is to extract your Trampler with loot gathered on the map and from taking out and scavenging from other players. Board enemy Tramplers to kill and hijack it away from them, which is extremely hilarious if pulled off cleanly, leaving them in confusion as they’ve suddenly lost their mobile base. With your map, you must locate and safely extract your Trampler and yourself to collect the goods. Now don't you think for a second extracting is easy! You must call in an airship and a big plume of green smoke shoots from your Trampler alerting enemies to contest and take you out. You are very vulnerable in this position and it has cost me my loot in many games. Also, you’ll need to be off your Trampler at this moment as you’ll then need to seek out ziplines to then extract.

Alright, now you can build your own Trampler using base parts and specialty parts unlocked through the tech tree using the game’s currency. I love how user friendly this is and also pretty expansive, allowing you to build multiple variations to protect your reactor or position guns strategically for the edge on your opponents. From sleek and nimble Tramplers to building Fort Knox on a set of spider-legs is something the genre hasn’t given us. Speed and Weight are key factors to making either a brute powerhouse that moves slow, or scout-like base that is easier to outdistance your attacker. 

Building Tramplers via parts can be expensive but pays off in many games that I’ve gone through. The cannons are your way of protecting or stealing valuables, from 80mm naval cannons to the much lighter 40mm auto cannons which come into play for different ranges. You must mount your cannons on your rig at the beginning of the expedition/dive and be sure to load them right off the bat or it could cost you the game. The smaller firearms such as shotguns, rifles, and revolvers, are necessary for boarding or fending off boarding scavengers. While I find the gunplay a little bit janky, it's pretty simple and not hard to obtain a kill which makes it okay. 

Resources are key to keep your Trampler going and up to speed with batteries needed to power the engine. There are upgraded batteries that can result in a huge boost to speed, bridging the gap as you close the distance to your prey. As you receive damage, you will need to repair certain elements and pieces of your trampler. It is best to have someone doing repairs mid fight to give you an advantage. From repairing your engine, to doors, pipes, and parts of the frame, it can keep you alive in the fight for that extra moment to destroy their reactor. 

Now, as stated there is a PVE aspect to this game which includes ghouls, zombie-like creatures, and other small Trampler-like enemies called Ironclads. Ghouls and zombies spawn at landmarks and other looting areas, such as the Dreadnaught; a haven for some high-tier loot. I found the fodder-like creatures to be a good distraction to the game, causing them to be annoying at times when you’re trying to grab high tier loot while they harass you. The ones with guns can deal significant damage, so be sure to deal with them first!

The future of the game looks promising, with streamers such as TheBurntPeanut, Gingy, and xQc, giving plenty of viewership to the game and attracting new raiders. And, speaking of Raiders, this game certainly moved into the spot once held by Arc Raiders as that fresh and rewarding take on the genre that is at the top of plenty of most-watched streamers. I found an official roadmap concerning the future of the game and updates to come. This includes plenty of fixes and quality of life changes, new Tramplers, parts, world bosses, and my most anticipated addition; new biomes, and points of interests, keeping the game fresh, and new, from run to run.  

Performance wise I get a stable 180fps on a 4k monitor with my NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 and 32 Gb vengeance corsair ram. Performance has been rock solid, despite the game being in early access, and can only imagine the optimization is about to get even better as the game goes on. Visually, with the world being drained of water and seeing the remains of a once flourishing planet, the dunes and decay of this civilization results in a very unique look to the genre, one we really have seen. The Tramplers themselves are towering, impressive, and imposing, especially if you encounter one twice your size. 

Currently, the character creation is extremely basic, and very limited, but that is likely something we will see vast improvements on as the team hits additional updates and milestones. Even with choosing another character type, there is a lot of similarities from one to the next, given there are only five archetypes, with none of them being female. 

During my time with Sand: Raiders of Sophie, I’ve made plenty of memorable moments and have found even the early access of the game to be genuinely fun! I highly recommend squadding up to hop in at first, given everything the Tramplers are capable of, as this is, in my opinion, the best experience the game can offer. I really look forward to seeing what the future holds for this game with high expectations and excitement as we get closer to its 1.0 release.