There sure are a lot of cozy games in Early Access, so it can take a lot to stand apart from the rest of the pack. Starsand Island debuted last month, bringing with it a large island paradise to explore, lots of things to craft, and new friends to make. The game’s set to spend at least three more months in Early Access so that it can attain a higher level of polish and more content. There’s already a hell of a lot to do, though, so the question stands: is Starsand Island worth it in Early Access, or is it better to wait for the 1.0 release before your visit?
Starsand Island surprised me by how quickly it walks you through what you’re meant to do. A brief cutscene shows your potential protagonist moving to the titular landmass before you choose their sex and appearance. Once you do, the game wastes no time telling you what you’ll be doing. There are five questlines tied to different focuses: crafting, farming, ranching, fishing, and exploration. The game suggests you start with crafting, but you can pick any. It’s worth noting that you can seek out the mentors associated with each discipline in the game’s map to start the other quest chains at any time.
I did indeed start with crafting and was immediately hit with incredibly clear quests that tell you exactly where to go and what to do. Starsand Island absolutely throws a ton of information at you in a very short amount of time, too, so it’s great that it holds your hand so closely for these early quests. In case it isn’t clear, the game is very much in the same vein as My Time at Portia, and much of its content is focused on crafting. You’ll be going and grabbing tons of materials and then putting them through devices in order to turn them into something else, only to put the resulting objects into another device to make another item.
I don’t really care for all the standing around and waiting these games do, but at least there’s a bit more variety due to Starsand Island‘s questlines. After spending a while crafting, I did some fishing for the fishing questline, then went and did some of the farming quests too. There’s a lot to do and see, really, plus there’s even a bit of combat, although it appears you mostly just fight with a slingshot that uses different types of ammo. There are basically little dungeons you can go into for uncommon resources, which you’ll harvest in typical ways (using an axe, a pickaxe, etc.)
One area I really like about the game is that you can craft various means of transport. Early on, the crafting questline has you make a skateboard and roller skates, plus you can rent a moped to get around more easily. The game’s island is decently large and there are a lot of NPCs to interact with, which will also raise their affection levels. In the end, though, you’re going to be doing a ton of crafting more than anything else, so you really do need to love that in order to really enjoy what this game has to offer.
As for whether Starsand Island is worth it in Early Access, if you are indeed into all the crafting, the game is seemingly mostly feature-complete and has a nice level of polish. Therefore, it’s very possibly worth the purchase if you’re so inclined. For me, I don’t see myself really digging deeply into it since I don’t enjoy standing around as timers count down, but I still walked away mostly impressed by the breadth of the game’s features in many ways.
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