Sandwalkers has arrived on Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch, sending players into a world where monsters, pirates and extreme weather are just some of the problems standing between an adventuring caravan and its ultimate goal.
This turn-based roguelike exploration game puts the fate of the Mka tribe in your hands as you attempt to survive the Phithi and help bring an end to centuries of wandering.
At A Glance
- Game: Sandwalkers
- Developer: Red Art Games
- Publisher: Red Art Games
- Formats: Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch
- Price: £16.74
- Genre: Turn-Based Roguelike / Exploration
Into The Phithi
Every decade, the Mka tribe sends a caravan of adventurers into the Phithi, a region plagued by meteorological chaos that has kept the Uwando tribes separated and made life beyond their refuges extremely dangerous.
Your expedition has some fairly lofty ambitions. Establish diplomatic and trade relations, explore lands overrun by monsters and pirates, rescue refugees and, ultimately, establish a new tree city that can provide a home for the Mka and their allies.
The problem is getting there.
Acid rain, storms and heat waves can all disrupt your progress, while pirates, wizards and monsters are waiting to make an already difficult expedition considerably more uncomfortable.
Failure Isn’t The End
Sandwalkers takes a slightly different approach to the roguelike formula. When a caravan falls, the journey doesn’t simply come to an abrupt end. Instead, the knowledge gathered by one expedition can be passed on to a new caravan. Memories are sent back towards the capital using crystospheres carried by travelling beetles, meaning even a failed expedition can contribute something to the next attempt.
That makes every journey part of a much larger push towards the ultimate objective – finding a way to resurrect the Mother Tree Umama and repair the broken climate.
Build Your Caravan Carefully
Different members of your caravan bring different powers and abilities, allowing you to shape your expedition around the challenges you expect to face.
You might send an archaeologist into lost ruins to uncover what has been left behind, or put a hunter on the trail of enormous creatures. Along the way, decisions can affect future expeditions, while rescuing refugees and finding potential allies can strengthen your chances of making progress.
Combat is turn-based, but the environment can be just as important as the enemies themselves. Weather conditions influence how caravans move and can even affect the outcome of confrontations, meaning ignoring the skies could prove considerably more dangerous than ignoring a pirate.
A World Worth Fighting For
Sandwalkers backs its harsh setting with colourful pixel art and a console-focused experience that includes a reworked UI and full controller support.
The result is an expedition where simply reaching the next destination isn’t necessarily the biggest achievement. Every discovery, decision and piece of knowledge can help shape what comes next, with the long-term objective of ending the climate crisis that has left these tribes wandering for generations.
Sandwalkers is now available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S (via the Xbox Store), PlayStation and Nintendo Switch, giving console adventurers the chance to lead their own caravan into the Phithi. With the world itself seemingly determined to make your life difficult, getting everyone home might be only the beginning of the story.
