Insurgency: Sandstorm Reviews
A uniquely excellent team-based tactical shooter that's held back by some design choices and performance issues.
Insurgency: Sandstorm is a solid shooter that offers the series' best intense, tactical thrills, but can't help but feel behind the times in both theme and looks.
Insurgency: Sandstorm's slower, more realistic approach likely won't win over any Call of Duty fans, but then again it's not really trying to. Sandstorm was made with a very specific type of player in mind, and if you fit that mold you'll likely get dozens if not hundreds of hours out of the game. And even if you don't fit that mold completely, there are enough ancillary incentives to make Sandstorm an excellent pick-up-and-play game, especially if you have some friends to recruit.
Overall, Insurgency Sandstorm is a worthy successor, and a great option if you're looking for a more thoughtful shooter. The progression system doesn't interfere with the gameplay but gives you some nice little rewards to help keep people invested. The biggest weakness is the lack of singleplayer content, but if you've got an interest in modern shooters and a few friends to bring along then Insurgency Sandstorm is a pretty good choice of shooter. Insurgency Sandstorm is available now on Steam for with console versions planned to be released next year.
Some nagging issues prevent Insurgency: Sandstorm from earning a pristine Medal of Honor, but it's an easy shoe-in for a Silver Star
A very good game that needs some amount of polishing and balancing to really shine.
Overall, Insurgency: Sandstorm has very few bugs, improved graphical quality, a new game engine, and a large array of weapons to use in battle. Currently, it is available only on Steam but Console releases will be coming in 2019. Watch for the release dates if you are interested in something other than PC. Available for $26.99 USD and ready for war.
It still comes with a recommendation from me, just be aware of the many performance issues and glaring bugs that can pull you out of the experience.
Insurgency: Sandstorm is a really great and realistic shooter for the most demanding players, but the current technical condition of the game is simply poor.
Review in Polish | Read full review
Insurgency: Sandstorm is finally coming to Xbox. It is a fresh proposal for fans of multiplayer shooters with a realistic and tactical aspect. And the adaptation to console meets what was expected at a technical level, with good performance, which was what we were most concerned about.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Overall, I enjoyed my time with Insurgency: Sandstorm, and whenever the mood strikes for an intense, realistic shooter, this will probably be my game of choice. It isn't as punishing as something like Arma, but it still offers fantastic audio and a brutal TTK that forces the player to slow down, think about their steps, and use all the tools the game puts at their disposal. One can't go into this game hoping for a sleek experience. The technical side of the game is just as gritty as its combat. In the heat of an intense battle, your processor will also put out some heat. Hopefully, New World Interactive can devote some time toward the technical side of things and put as much care into that as it did the audio and gameplay. If the developer can fix those issues, Insurgency: Sandstorm would be one of the better competitive shooters available on Steam.
Insurgency: Sandstorm needs a bit more polish to be the outstanding sequel it should be but if you overlook the issues you'll find a fairly enjoyable multiplayer title.
If you are looking for an online multiplayer shooter that is much more realistic than Call of Duty or Battlefield, but is not pain-in-the-ass realistic like Arma series, then Insurgency: Sandstorm is your choice; and with the promise of constant support and free DLCs from the developers, I expect that Insurgency will soon become a big player in this genre.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Insurgency: Sandstorm sees New World Interactive successfully transfer their particular brand of hardcore tactical shooter to a modern game engine with just a few technical hitches, though you'll need to be content with a familiar Middle Eastern setting and somewhat limited set of maps and game modes.
Insurgency Sandstorm offers a more hardcore experience for players who want it but is still accessible enough for newcomers to the franchise.
Insurgency: Sandstorm offers an intense tactical FPS experience, but needs more polish and content
Insurgency: Sandstorm is not for everyone. But if it hooks you, if you like a true hardcore military shooter, this might be one of the best games you will ever play.
The first person shooter market is quite bloated. With FPS titles almost launching on a weekly basis, it’s easy for the odd diamond to get lost in the rough. With Call of Duty still being the FPS king, it’s also used as the benchmark for everything else. One title that’s aiming to take – or at least challenge COD’s supremacy is Insurgency: Sandstorm. Developed by New World Interactive, Insurgency: Sandstorm is a bare-bones multiplayer FPS that aims to highlight the brutal nature of modern warfare.
Insurgency: Sandstorm is a very demanding game and one that is not made for all players. Counting on a correct technical section, but that does not have great fanfare. However, when you take the controls, you are flooded by a unique setting, where every bullet counts and where every wrong move is punished.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
The realistic focus of Insurgency: Sandstorm may be off putting to some, but in practice it features a decent balance of simulation and fast-paced twitch-shooter elements. The setting may be somewhat cliche, but the gameplay speaks for itself in how masterfully everything has been done. Multiplayer matchmaking happens quickly too thanks to the game’s crossplatform nature, and matches can last anywhere between 15 to 30 minutes – sometimes much longer if there is a constant back and forth in certain game modes, making it a nice and easy one to pick up and play after work or during lunch breaks. The game is essentially a mix between Escape From Tarkov‘s hardcore simulation and Call of Duty‘s casual and bum-rush fun. Overall, it is a good game and one that will likely be played by more hardcore fans for the foreseeable future.