The world is still mourning the passing of beloved artist Akira Toriyama. His unique world and love of fantastical machines have captured the imagination of fans around the world for decades. At the very least, fans can look forward to the ultimate welcome from Toriyama in the form of Namco Bandai's upcoming SAND LAND game. We were lucky enough to get a preview of an early build of the game.
© Namco Bandai 2024
The SAND LAND game is inspired by the comic series of the same name, reuniting fans with the demon prince Beelzebub and his entourage, his caretaker Thief, and police chief Rao. You will be dropped into the eponymous Sand Land, a vast desert filled with ruined villages and wandering monsters. Belz can fight monsters on his own with a simple combo attack and some special moves, along with some support abilities from friends. However, using hooves and attacking with your bare hands is unlikely to be the best way: even if you train diligently against weaker monsters, Belz will certainly struggle with larger enemies —or enemy soldiers riding Bots, the armored machines of the world of SANDLAND. Luckily, Belz has his own set of Bots that he can summon at will; Belz can carry up to five Bots with him at any time (in capsule form, of course), each with its own set of weapons. There are five types of Bots that Belz can pilot: motorcycle, Walking Bot, Battle Armor, Battle Tank, and hovercraft. Any of these vehicles are faster than walking, and the weapons you can attach to them will make you a match for any soldier on the battlefield. But these Bots are also useful for traveling around the world: the speed of the motorbike helps cover great distances in a matter of seconds, the Walker Bot's jumping ability makes it great for climbing over cliffs or reach high altitudes, and seaplanes are the only craft that can cross bodies of water.
© Namco Bandai 2024
Using Bot also requires a lot of sophistication. Motorcycles run very fast but will cause Beelzebub to fly away after hitting an obstacle. The placement of their weapons also means they can only shoot at things right in front of them. Walkers can rev up the motor to increase jumping speed, but the motor will overheat and deflate if you charge it for too long. Seaplanes are very maneuverable but have no traction. Battle tanks are essentially tanks: they're a bit too big for enclosed areas or dungeons. The same goes for Battle Armor suits, with the added problem that they move quite slowly. The advantage is that there is no limit to how far you can upgrade your Bot. While there are plenty of blueprints for more powerful Bot models, there's also a wide variety of weapons you can equip your Bot with, from Gatling guns, cannons, heavy shotguns and more. Players can even customize the color scheme of their Bot.
© Namco Bandai 2024
While playing the preview, I explored one of the many dungeons in Sand Land; This ruin required me to fly a seaplane to get over, flipping a switch to raise the water level deeper. The puzzles are fun, but I struggled with one particular puzzle along the way (one of the necessary switches was hidden too well in the rubble of the ruins). The destruction culminated in the octopus boss fight, where I had to jump and circle around the tentacles while reloading and shooting.
I was also able to play a fun infiltration mission, in which Belz and company were tasked with sneaking into an enemy castle. This requires some clumsy stealth gameplay; The visibility of the enemy sentinels is not very clear. I accidentally found a way to disable roving guards by sneaking up on them (the game didn't inform me of this possibility). But it's all worth it for the chance to break out of a dungeon from inside a new Battle Armor, blocking tank bullets with one arm while our wrist-mounted Gatling guns go off.
© Namco Bandai 2024
Sadly, my time with SAND LAND was over before I could dig deeper into the preview; plenty of unexplored dungeons, along with the Battle Arena, where Belz and friends can fight against waves of enemies for money, blueprints, and weapons. What little I played laid the foundation for an enjoyable open-world game. A few rough spots need polishing, but even racing the motorbike around the dunes feels fun. Fans can also rest assured that the SAND LAND game continues the manga's story, expanding the world of SAND LAND and the mysterious worlds surrounding it. Fans can look forward to playing SAND LAND on April 25 on PS4, PS5, Steam and Xbox Series X|S.
© Namco Bandai 2024
