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This game demands an active effort of creativity on the players part (it's a painting game so no Sherlock), and a few of the commissions in the campaign mode - well thought out and well crafted as they are - can and will turn a rigid player's attention away from the game (I.E. making anything but a cool warzone scene featuring tanks and bombs and bombs and guns when you want to); but here's the exception concerning this game's expectations: The objectives you receive are always just mere suggestions, and you can easily find creative ways to circumvent any given objective; so don't turn it into a job and try to fulfill each request to their full extent through absolutes. That said... It is sometimes more convenient and challenging to use these requests as a form of scaffolding towards that complex fractal mesh we term choice. Your creativity and ability to make choices on the fly will be tested and expanded upon; but that's also just called conceiving ideas and then executing/realizing them... Which is the prime essence of any creative field. I think.

The advancement system in this game is simple yet engaging. You will unlock colors to mix with other ingredients rather quickly, and will have to be patient when it comes to acquiring the other collectible assets (adorable, abstract, abominable, there's a lot of pieces at your disposal that are intended to be used bizarrely). The tragic portion of having collectables in a game like this is that some players have been conditioned by collect-athons to focus all of their efforts towards unlocking everything or getting every achievement as fast or efficiently as possible, making the acquiring of these relatively minor things the prime goal and core focus of the game... This is obviously an imprudent approach, as this will turn what should be a relatively fun and chaotic brain exercise into a linear chore where you spend more time spamming out parts to get an objective done than you do actually trying to create a cohesive or abstract final product; To summarize: You will suffocate your interest in the game by ignoring its core gameplay loop, and then move on, unsatisfied. Worrying about the collectibles AFTER you get your fill of the content (such as beating the campaign) will deliver to you a more consistent and enjoyable experience not just for this game, but for many other choice-orientated games as well...
...Not that I'm some videogame guru, enlightened gamer, digital connoisseur, or entertainment savant that you need to hear me tell you how to digest your media, but here lays one person's perspective, and so there you have it as it is in its fullness and as it is as it is what it is... AI wouldn't write anything so unorthodox: We keeping that distance from the source tight out here.

Final thoughts: If you have the patience to read past the above madness, or you are wise enough to always skip to the end of a review featuring walls of text, then you should try this game's demo out if you haven't done so already (The quality of a product is best ascertained after it has been acquired and sufficiently consumed by the consumer); it kind of makes this review and all of the other reviews redundant unless you are reading these for the creative writings they have and/or the diverse perspectives. Bump maXXing meta tidbit: If you ever get a game and thoroughly enjoy it, make sure to write a review; This helps developers so much so that buying five copies usually doesn't amount to the value of just one review... (I made that up) And who knows, your review just might help someone else with a purchase or inspire someone. Just write something till it feels right and make art till it's sufficient and ship it. Constructive criticism and encouragement are as two parts of a crowning gemstone to anyone who not only perceives them, but receives them - and like a precious gemstone, they are both highly valuable and rare.

Surface review:
This is a retro-style game with a physics system thrown in. Similar to the games that it has drawn inspiration from, this game rewards planning ahead, and one mistake can easily lead to another. Don't lose your cool as the sand in the hourglass fills up, lest you'll find yourself quickly running out of time.

Matching patterns, mastering mechanics, beating the goals set by the developers and other players, setting a high-score, and then beating that score is a good summary as to what you can expect from the game.



--- Now for a more detailed review over the mechanics of the game and the way it plays. ------


Before I get into the different modes of play, I would like to address the three different difficulties, going by color:

Green: Blocks fall at a slightly fast pace, and the play-space goes to the bottom of the screen.

Yellow: Blocks fall at a faster pace and 1/6th of the play-space is removed.

Red: Blocks fall much faster and 1/3rd of the play-space is removed.

Note: Due to the way sand falls over time, higher difficulties will change the way you play the game.


--- The color modes:

Color Mode Four:
The standard, introductory experience to Sandtrix. In this mode there will be four colors: Red, Yellow, Green, and Blue.

Color Mode Five:
This mode introduces a fifth color: Purple.
A soft increase to challenge. Maybe orange will make it to the big leagues one day.

Color Mode Multi:
Pieces now fall with a chance of having two colors, divided into two equal halves on the shape. Thanks to gravity, trying to match colors might require you to place the color piece you want to match right-side-up so it can cover more area. This one is a lot of fun and offers a good challenge.

Color Mode Veiled:
My personal favorite. This mode adds a memory game. Colors are hidden as soon as a piece is placed. Colors will still blend in with another, so if you do lose track of a color, use the good ol' process of elimination to see if a nearby color piece you placed fuses with the whole or not.


--- The game modes:

Endless: How far can you go? For me, a score of 73.595 G.CMFO

Highscore: You have three minutes to place a score or beat a previous score. I gave it a try and have 51.587 G.CMFO

Clear 40: You must clear 40 colors off the screen. This one is fun, I have a score of 05:12:333 G.CMFO

Sandbox: Exactly what it says on the tin, although, this is unlike the other modes since it is a 2D physics simulator.
It would be awesome to see some of these more sandbox-y elements introduced into challenges in the future if this game sees further development, as the game has a lot of potential. A timed mode where acid is slowly eating away at the bottom would make for an interesting challenge. Or perhaps a score-based mode where water is pouring in by one pixel layer a second, and clearing pieces will remove water pixels by the amount of sand pixels removed with the goal being to keep the water from reaching the top. Maybe there could be a mode where wooden blocks are spliced in with regular sand and clearing a group will burn the wood away? Maybe plants slowly grow in from the bottom where pieces are placed and can divide once-connected colors, only being removed when a touching color is cleared? Maybe cleared colors will convert into oil that only burns away upon touching the bottom, and it will result in a loss if the oil reaches the top? Fun experimental stuff like that.


--- Tips and trivia:

The color of the incoming shape piece is in the tube on the right.

There is a colorblind option under the menu's settings in case you are colorblind.

Electricity travels through metal.


All-in-all the game is a solid product and would be a great game to play on a long ride. You should try it if you are interested, and if it isn't up your alley, you will be able to see all that the game has to offer and can refund the game well before the three-hour mark.

I rate it two jives out of twelve bumpkins. It's good, try it out for yourself.
There's a free trial version of Sandtrix on the site hosted by the game's developer -- you can find it on the title-screen of the steam game. You can check it out over there if you don't want to deal with steam-related shenanigans.

Test 2

Sandbox heaven. Get this.