The Siege and the Sandfox

Really interesting game and whilst I did enjoy my couple of hours at the beginning, I sadly cannot progress. I can concur with other reviewers, the game is riddled with bugs and my lack of progression has been tied to this. Getting killed and teleported to another area of the map without the necessary upgrades to escape is very problematic. If the game is fixed and I am able to replay without these issues, then I will change my review. Though in its current state, I cannot recommend this game.

broken and abandoned. it looks pretty but don't let that deceive you. can only hope dev returns to clean it up... there's potential here.

This is a hard game to review. Even harder to recommand. [h1] The pros [/h1] [list] [*]The game is beautiful (if you're into pixel art visuals), the backgrounds are stunning) [*]So many different biomes to visit, each with their own inhabitants [*]The mix of infiltration, metroidvania and plateformer is a great idea [/list] That said ... [h1] The negative[/h1] [list] [*]The infiltration is weird. You have to crouch to make less noise, but you can jump and land behind someone and he won't notice you. You make a lot of noise going through vegetation and yet enemies won't notice you either. [*]The story is meh, and the game makes no effort reminding you why you're playing [*]The first 2/3 hours are exhausting as you have no capability (or just the whack) and you basically have to wander for so long to discover all the paths that are blocked. [*]The side quests are dumb and provide nothing, no rewards. Also no menu panel for ongoing quests. [*]The fast travels are completely broken, half of them don't show up but you can still get to them by selecting another one if you scroll enough. [*]It's a pixel perfect plateformer, and sometimes inputs just don't register. As it's also a parkour game, you can end up with a 5 minutes parkour and just fail at the last jump because the game didn't register the input. [*]All metroidvanias require you to go through all the zones over and over, with a reward being some currency, or energy, or whatever when you kill an enemy, that you can use to improve yourself. Here, there is no killing, no currency, so you just go through all the paths just because you have to. [*]The narrator is the most annoying i've ever gotten in a game. She speaks slowly, explains mundanities, basically describes your actions as if you're a five years old 'the sandfox hides in a box' god i know i'm the one who performed the action! And tells you when characters are friendly or not, when there is danger or not, which basically kills most of the surprise. It's plain dumb. [*]Lastly, game has been abandoned by the devs as no update has been made in a year. [/list] So, while i kinda enjoyed the last 5 hours of gameplay, i can't recommand it.

I really enjoyed this game. It is buggy, as other reviews state, but I believe a lot of work has gone into fixing it. I never encountered any game breaking bugs, just things like stuck sprites and repeated audio. The story is told by a narrator who does a wonderful job and really is the highlight of the game, her performance is stellar and I looked forward to whenever she talked, barring the repeat dialogue mentioned above. Visually the game is excellent too, every new environment has a different feel, and the pixel art/16 bit style is diverse and beautiful. Gameplay wise, the platforming is technical and fluid but not difficult. Think pre-Ubisoft Prince of Persia. The main challenge comes from paying attention and figuring out where to go. Metroidvania games can be extremely demanding, but this is not one of them. It is frustrating to accidentally pass a point of no return in an already-cleared zone and be forced to run all the way through the one way platforming challenge for a second time. A lot of this could be resolved by implementing a "teleport to fast travel point" feature as seen in other MVs. Since this is a stealth focused game, progressing through a combat zone is generally a claustrophobic and slow process. A sort of fog of war covers areas of the screen which the player character sprite doesn't have line of sight of which adds tension in a visually satisfying and beautiful way. I definitely got spotted by carelessly opening a door without checking who was on the other side first. There are only six or so enemy types in the game, and you quickly get used to them. Again, this is not a difficult game. Finally, my complaints: The map really needs a key to show which coloured icon means which obstacle. Even after 11 hours with every ability unlocked, I was wondering which one was which. There is little optional exploration. You will basically visit 100% of the map by completing the story. It never triggered that "what if there's something good up there" feeling that other MVs have all over them. The ending is a one way trip through a very simple area. You have to manually back up your save game in order to return to the main palace. This is mentioned in the forums but I had already saved outside and there's no way back. I would cut the save points from the final area and make the player do it in one go. That way, reloading the save would put you back in the palace to finish up any missed achievements. Oh and it runs perfectly on the Steam Deck. Definitely a recommend from me!

Clunky controls, loads of bugs, uninspired level design, there's not much to recommend about this one. Because of how the game works, any mistake either has you instantly die (which with the loading times and checkpoints means you'll be waiting a while) or have to run and hide and then wait for a while anyways. This leads to most of your time with this game being spent waiting and not having fun. And that's not getting into the situations where a guard's AI will bug and make progress impossible unless you reset. The devs released one patch and then dipped, so this is unlikely to change. Combine that with the level design ranging from bad to just ok and this isn't worth it, even on sale. Also that "never get spotted once" achievement is absolutely terrible achievement design and I'm shocked that anyone put the time in to accomplish it.

This is an enjoyable experience now. I'll state up front. I didn't play the game at launch and any dev who launches a buggy game deserves what they get. I skipped on it due to how everyone mentioned the bugs, but I had someone mention it recently and they said bugs weren't a problem so I gave it a shot and they're not. It's not bug-free, but I only really experienced one bug that hampered the experience during my playthrough, although it happened with some frequency and is not one that's good for a stealth game to have. Basically it is possible for enemies to get "stuck" and their alertness meter doesn't go down. This can be fixed by showing yourself to them and hiding again to jostle them free or reloading the checkpoint. It's not a good one, but I can't say it was particularly a problem for me either. I had some other issues with the game that wasn't bugs, for instance the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ gliding mechanic I've ever seen - and some instances of enemy placement (although that gripe is not unusual for stealth games). Ok, to the game itself. This is a no-combat MV, it's all stealth in the "ghost" style, AKA remaining undetected. It's not stealth until you get caught and it's not stealth to kill everyone in sight. There isn't even any bosses, including a final boss (which is a mistake many stealth games fall into, e. g. Aragami). You have one offensive move, where you can knock out *some* enemies if you catch them unaware, but even that can't be used all that frequently due to enemy placement - your goal here is to keep moving and remain undetected. As someone who enjoys 2D stealth games, I found the stealth to be incredibly good. It's probably on par with Mark of the Ninja, Gunpoint, and possibly Wildfire (probably not Wildfire). So how is it as an MV? It's actually pretty good. After a linear section the world opens up and there are at several points in the journey different locations you can explore in any order. The abilities are for the most part pretty unique here since they're focused on parkour and remaining undetected. There is however not much exploration to speak out outside of it being enjoyable to explore the world and make progress. There are no stat upgrades - you have 1 health, you get hit you die - there are collectibles where you'll get a bit of lore about the world and the order the Sandfox belongs to, but that's it. Platforming is a big part of the game so if you don't like that well be aware. It's not all that difficult or anything, but it is a big part. All in all, my verdict is this is an incredibly good game. As a fan of stealth games and MV's I'd give it probably on 8.5-9.0 and A-tier as an MV, despite the odd issue I have. Almost tempted to give it an S-tier ranking, but I really cannot because that one bug that remains, while I don't consider it a critical issue, it's still something that is something you have to navigate that you shouldn't have to.

I'm a fan of stealth games and I like Metroidvania games (even if they don't like me). This one has a lot going for it. Pros: - The music, narration, and graphics are really nice; they don't distract from the game (besides unclear pronoun reference by the narration at times). - I like the stealth and parkour. - The controls feel rather smooth (probably more so for better gamers. I'm using a wired Switch controller. I think a keyboard would be agravating. - The biomes are interesting to travel through. They aren't as explicitly unique as say Hollowknight, but there are dungeons, libraries, rooftops, slums (a tiny bit so far), catacombs, caverns, temples, palaces. There are some different foes in them and different types of platforming challenges too. - I really like the little colour-coded tick-marks on the map to remind you about the power-ups needed to get through different areas. Cons: My biggest cons are with the map presentation and a stylistic choice of PC pronouns. Map:As you explore you reveal the map. Standard fare there. However when you visit the fast travel points and are selecting where you want to fast travel to, the game reveals all tunnels all around each location you've unlocked. It spoils so much of what is connected and how to get there. PC Pronoun: I realize they/them pronouns are a thing. Maybe the devs are just trying to be trendy and trying to make a character that can be more accessible to more people. Or as some sources think online, it's to make the Sandfox more mysterious. But with how often I need to do mental gymnastics to figure out who the narrator is talking about (Are "they" the people I followed who revealed the password when I eavesdropped or is "they" the singular PC?) Some is that I'm not hip and worldly enough for alternate pronouns, and some of it is just plain, unclear pronoun reference. When pronouns are unclear, it's up to the writer to be more clear in the writing. Meh: there are indeed bugs. I haven't encountered the soft-lock problem or anything else gamebreaking that some reviews mention. When guards were inexplicably detecting me when I was in an urn or box or crouched in shadow, I just restarted from the last checkpoint (which are plentiful); even with my older computer, reloads were only a few seconds. It wasn't a big deal, but some of those points took several reloads to manage. Sometimes AI needed several reloads to get fixed. The most drastic bug I found was when I clipped through the ground on death and trigged a later checkpoint. If it hadn't been advantageous for me, it would have been especially frustrating. As it was, I felt like a dirty cheater not having to earn the advancement. Another point against this game related to the bugs is that seemingly the devs have abandoned it. There are indeed bugs, and besides one update in the first month (in May or June 2025), there don't seem to have been any further bug fixes. The various sites I've referred to for info on the game don't seem to realize that the game is out yet. Obviously the missing bug-fixes are more dire than a lack of online info. However, the lack of follow-through by the game company / publisher bodes ill for future updates.