3 Hours Into Starsand Island |

I have spent about three hours with the Playtest version of Starsand Island thanks to Minimap. Going in, I was worried; I’ve seen a bunch of people talking about bugs they were having. So, let’s jump into my three-hour experience and some information I found out afterward.

Initial Thoughts

Opening the game, I was greeted by a pretty decent customization panel. I liked all the options and was surprised it was so vast for an early access version of a game. I was able to make a cute character from the start, which isn’t always the case in games with customization unlocked later on. 

Starting out wasn’t as slow as I assumed it would be. I feel like most games in this style give you an hour-long tutorial. You’re not locked out of anything, and the pacing is pretty good. The game never left me bored and wandering around looking for something to do. 

There are multiple paths you can go down for skills. Crafting, ranching, fishing, and all the typical skills you expect from a farming game. The game had you begin the path of one skill, get familiar with the bare basics, and then give you the option to start another skill tree. There is no push or time limit that I saw for having to start or continue a skill path. There were very few things that I saw that were time-bound.

One of the few time-gated things is the quest board missions; they will have a countdown and disappear once it hits zero. I never missed a deadline, so I’m not sure if there was a punishment or if you just missed out on the rewards. The rewards do seem good. I got coins, blueprints, and some materials depending on the request. 

Another thing connected to time is crops and animals. Crops will have a countdown as soon as they are planted to show how long til harvest. There are multiple types of fertilizer that will affect the crop’s growth, so those are highly recommended. Animals will need to be fed and will give materials like wool and eggs; these are also connected to your in-game time. The feeding of the animals appears to be the only thing you have to really remember, but you can prepare up to 20 bags of food for the animals to eat throughout the day. 

I do love that all skill paths are open and freely available. I’ve tried games where you are locked to one or two paths, and that cuts out so much gameplay. It gives a sense of freedom. Adding on top of that, the time in a day runs you about 15-20 real-world minutes; it gives you plenty of time to explore, complete some quests, and tend to your farm. There isn’t a sense of rushing, even though you will pass out if you stay up too late, but it’s also not too long that you yearn for the next day to start, so you can tend to your crops or get a new mission. But if you do end up wanting to skip ahead, you can just go to bed and wake up the next morning. 

When you are ready to customize your home and your farm, you can bring up an inventory and quickly place the item. The customization is pretty great. The gride lets you do almost minute adjustments, which I love. I can’t stand grid systems like Animal Crossing, where I can’t get stuff to line up to save my life. There does seem to be a good amount of craftable items to fit in all sorts of themes. The houses that were shown give everything from an old cottage to a modern streamer house. So whatever you desire, you can probably make. 

One of the most useful craftables isn’t a decoration, but a mount. The first one you can get is the skateboard. It feels pretty good. I wish it had a bit more speed, but it’s faster than running, and it’s free, so I guess it’s fine. You can pay coins to rent a mount around the city if you want to ride in style. Scooters, bikes, and all kinds are up for grabs, or you can choose to ride an Osteridge into the forest if you stop by the farm area on your way out. They are paid by the in-game hour, so keep an eye on your time. 

Overall, I enjoyed my three hours with the game. There were story lines happening with each skill path leader, and you even get cool little cut scenes with each new friend. The best part for me was the cute animals and the good pacing. This is not a game that I would go to every day, but it does seem like a fun game to spend a week or two with. 

The Issues I found

Now, a key point in my positive thoughts was that I had free access to the Playtest of the game. I didn’t know how much the game was, but knowing this was a release into early access, I expected around maybe 10 dollars. I was shocked to see the price was $39.99 for the standard version of the game. That seems like so much money for a small farming game. Granted, it’s nice, but it’s early access; this is a time when you offer the game for less than you would a full release title. The players give feedback to help make the game better. I think this is a crazy and unreasonable price to set, especially when there seem to be major bugs still. 

Add on top of that, I fully believe no early access game should have DLC. That should be included in the game, or wait until the full release. It seems like a blatant money grab, and it feels gross. Starsand Island’s DLC is probably one of the worst cases of passing of BS items for too much money. For a whole $20 - the full price of Hollow Knight: Silksong - you can be the unproud owner of a dress and shoes, some furniture, and -an apparently janky- carriage to ride in. This is beyond disgusting to me, and I don’t know how anyone could rationalize buying this. And apparently, neither could they because the DLC sits at a Mostly Negative review score. 

One topic that I saw online was the controversy about possible positive review botting. This was so severe that it was addressed by the company, claiming that they have no connection with the seemingly AI-generated reviews. Even though the company claimed not to be a part of this issue, many fans are not buying this. 

And the last thing that has fans rioting against this game is the issues connected to the Kickstarter. Backers of the game were promised a code for the game and should have received it upon early access release. At the time of writing this script, it is February 19th, and many comments from today on Kickstart say that they still have not received their keys. Many are expressing regret for even supporting this game. 

Actual End Thoughts

After taking a step back to see what a normal experience would be, having to buy the game and the issues widely reported, I can say I would not buy this game. Even though I enjoyed my time in the Playtest, I cannot give 40 dollars to an early access game from a company with no reputation. As it sits, this is an unfinished game and should be priced as such. The fact that the backers are getting ignored only adds to my distrust that this game is worth the money and will have the proper effort put in until and after the full launch of the game. 

If you have the game and are happy with your purchase, I’m glad, but I just don’t think I will ever be recommending this game to anyone unless the company does a big 180 in how they are handling things.