Topic: Sand Land Demo

It's been out for a few days now. I'd like to get your thoughts. What do you think? I myself have mixed feelings, but ultimately negative, which is a shame because it was one of my top games of "E3" last year. Combat is sort of fun. Driving is pretty fun. I'd be excited to unlock new vehicles. World feels empty to me though, and enemy mobs are lifeless. I guess it's the structure that feels hollow, at least from the demo. Also, if a conversation is interrupted, they repeat the whole thing when the encounter is over. Playing it, I couldn't help comparing it to ReCore, which I enjoyed a lot and is grossly unappreciated, despite it's flaws too.

@Gryffin Noooo that's such a bummer I haven't tried the demo myself but I had high hopes for the game. Would you say it just seems low quality or could it be a preference thing? (Like do you think it'll overall be fun or is it a wait for full reviews situation)

@chiiizu I'm sure some of it is my preference and that plenty of people will love it. But to me it seems that they didn't have a structure planned to fit the combat and vehicle mechanics, so they just threw enemies into random bunches around an empty map. I'm confident I won't play it. I always always recommend waiting for a game's full release to consider buying it. In fact, I'd recommend waiting a month or so to patch out launch issues, even if you decide you want it.

I do wonder if the levels of the enemies in the game are a little off in terms of challenge. I think it's definitely a fun game, but it might just be a bad demo? Some of the issues are obviously going to be with the game itself, but I think they might have just tossed together a demo last minute, and while that could be an issue with the game itself, I suspect they're really just focusing on the game and told a few people to piece together a demo and that's why it feels a little off.

@chiiizu that's absolutely possible and a good theory. Hopefully true too

@NeonPizza This is really just arguing for the sake of arguing, but honestly, that's kind of the point of a forum sometimes so ignore me if you like: I am floored that such a scathing review could be uttered for the glorious soundtrack you claim is "a horrendous cringey' vocal-riddled soundtrack tailored for gen Z".

First, what's cringy about it? Based on my guess of what you mean by that, the songs can definitely have silly lyrics or lyrics you feel aim to be something they're not, but from my perspective, it's not asking you to take it too seriously. Either way that's just a guess, but imo, calling something cringy often either is a bit of a slapped-on criticism that is in reality rooted in something more specific and fleshed out, or indicates you have a problem with the people who like/enjoy said thing, rather than a problem with the thing itself. (which then wouldn't actually be a criticism of the soundtrack)

Next, you said it was vocal-riddled. I mean... that's kind of just music? I occasionally feel like music could do with fewer words but it's simply just how it's made. Now that I think about it you might mean that you don't want words in videogame music, in which case I get that, but I think fighting games are definitely high-intensity which often causes you to get in the zone and the music fades away. Also, the vocals don't stand out too much imo and are definitely more like an additional instrument. (much more of an opinion-based argument)

Finally, tailored for gen-z. If you just mean that you think the music appeals to younger people and not you that's fine, imo media can't really be limited like that, but each to their own. But in the larger context of the internet, I'd guess you simply feel like younger people have bad taste, which I heartily disagree with. Their taste might be different from yours, obviously doesn't make it bad, and the pattern of "younger than me enough to have a different culture = bad" is generally annoying and baffling how each generation has their likings looked down upon by adults, and then promptly turns around and mocks the younger one. (gen-z is also old enough to start turning around and making fun of Gen Alpha which baffles me further like that was you 10 seconds ago???)

Ok that was a lot, also to again clarify please ignore this if you want to, I just like the music in GGST quite a bit and felt that your criticism didn't quite make up a strong/clear argument, so I thought I'd break it down to see what you think.

I had fun with it for about 10-20 minutes, but then I got tired of it. It felt empty and aimless and the two guys with you just repeat the same damn things over and over.

@chiiizu Far be it from me to try and explain what others mean in a post, but I'm going to anyway 😂 I don't think @NeonPizza had an issue with it being a "vocal-ridden" soundtrack - as you said, that's just a song - rather that they thought the vocals were "horrendous cringey J-rock".

@NeonPizza I stand corrected 😂 , no vocals in fighting game music at all then! Now that you mention it, I can't think of many games in general (that I've played at least) that have original music with vocals - apart from maybe on the title screen or something - definitely not in-game though. It's obviously different with licensed music and games like Forza Horizon etc.

@invisibot it took me a while, but I think what's happening is that if combat interrupts a conversation, they start it all over again from the beginning when you're clear again.