Alternate History Western Shooter SAND Announced At The PC Game Show
SAND, a co-op sandbox multiplayer shooter, was developed by Hologryph and was announced at the 2023 PC Gaming Show by the publisher tinyBuild. The game is an alternate-history steampunk game where players will fight for survival in an unforgiving desert wasteland. The setting is an alternative history where the Austro-Hungarian Empire reached space before World War I started. It’s not clear how this leads to the desertification of the world but that will most likely be explained in the future.
Players will either work solo or in a crew aboard a Trampler, a sprawling mechanical vehicle that crawls across the desert floor. Exploration into long-forgotten urban settlements to salvage for goods is a big part of the survival gameplay. Tramplers are customizable and can be decked out with extra plating and attachments to reduce pollution or filled with comfort items and purely aesthetic pieces.
The desert is procedurally generated which provides a chaotic and explorative feel for each new playthrough. The islands in the world consist of urban areas that are hand-crafted and provide unique environments for salvage and interesting shootout locales. Other players can be encountered on these islands or on other Tramplers as the two mech behemoths clash, simulating a steampunk desert pirate experience.
SAND has yet to receive a release window but will be available on PC via Steam.