Insurgency: Sandstorm Reviews
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.
It is a demanding title that requires the player's patience and willingness to collaborate in order to be victorious in the confrontations against the AI and in the multiplayer mode.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Overall, if you know what you’re getting into with Insurgency Sandstorm, I am confident it will be an enjoyable game. It is a competent and decently fleshed-out mil-sim shooter that is rarely found outside of the PC space. Otherwise, you might just end up playing in silence, get sniped a few times from an unseen enemy, and decide to spend your time elsewhere as the game doesn’t do much in terms of catering to solo players thanks to its hardcore nature.
Insurgency: Sandstorm is a tactical shooter with enough realism where it is not necessary to empty an entire magazine to finish off an enemy, it is enough with a bullet and good aim to eliminate the target.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Insurgency: Sandstorm offers a brutal, satisfying and bleak FPS experience for those willing to immerse themselves in its tactical, punishing offering. Despite some glitches and slightly repetitive design, it stands tall as an inspiring shooter that will improve not only your skills as a player, but will also have you thinking like a soldier. The desert may be a Hellish place to be, but damn is it a rewarding and satisfying experience too. If you enjoy multiplayer shooters, there are firefights here you need to engage in for yourself.
Insurgency: Sandstorm was a bit of a mystery to me going into it; I grew up playing countless hours of Team Fortress (the original!), Counterstrike, and Unreal Tournament, leading all the way through to modern shooters like Call of Duty, Player Unknown's Battlegrounds, Arma, and Battlefield, so I was not sure what to think going in. Boy was I shaken to my core; my daughter would often pop her head into the room to check up on me as I giddily laughed or made some exclamation at the awesomeness that will be found throughout the entirety of Insurgency: Sandstorm. Well done I say, well done indeed.
All in all, Insurgency: Sandstorm is a competent, exhilarating tactical shooter. Even after countless hours of capturing objectives and eliminating aggressive AI, each battle maintains its high level of tension. The weapon behavior and audio work beautifully in tandem to provide an offering that is difficult to find elsewhere currently. The small flaws that crop up occasionally do little to detract from the overall experience, although they don’t go completely unnoticed. New World Interactive has crafted a quality FPS that builds emergent war stories in every battle. Here’s hoping they someday release the cancelled single player/co-op story mode. One could only imagine what their advanced grasp of sound design could do in a structured, nail-biting narrative.
If you're a staunch fan of tactical shooters like CS: GO, Rainbow Six Siege or the former Insurgency, you're likely to enjoy this game. It features a fun challenge, strategic gameplay and realistic fights.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Insurgency: Sandstorm aims for the hardcore in a way that’s hard not to appreciate. The frighteningly realistic weaponry, excellent sound design and mechanical reinforcement of communication and strategy make it a winner for those who may be tired of the more whimsical and approachable shooter staples available today. While it may currently be a bit thin on the ground in the way of actual maps to play on, there’s plenty of meat on Sandstorm’s PTSD-addled bones, with tight, tactical combat that’ll have your nerves shot but your mind sharp by the end of each match.
Insurgency: Sandstorm blends a fast pace and simple objective-based gameplay with a low time-to-kill, authentically modeled weapons and gear and an immersive, brutal and visceral style of combat to create the perfect intersection of competitive and tactical online shooters. Some graphical hiccups and at-times poor character models only slightly mar an otherwise fantastic experience.
Insurgency: Sandstorm sits between two worlds. In one hand, it tries to make more approachable to newcomers. On the other, its matchmaking system, lack of interesting and unique maps makes it a game only for the most dedicated players.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Insurgency: Sandstorm is one of the most immersive shooters on the market, and perfect for anyone that comes to the genre looking for grounded tactical combat. Variety can be lacking in some areas, but every round spent in-game is a standout experience.
Loud and brutal, Insurgency: Sandstorm's dedication to a more realistic approach often pays off.
Scratches an itch rarely reached in recent years.
Insurgency: Sandstorm is one of the most surprising games of this generation. With amazing sound design, solid gunplay and original ideas, it has become perfect game for FPS gamers.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
Developer New World Interactive have plans for post-launch support, and possibly a campaign in the future. There’s a limited number of maps and modes here, but there’s a lot of game all the same. Insurgency: Sandstorm is heart-pounding in every match and mode, and there’s little room for error. New World Interactive’s vision is unmatched, though notably niche. You’ll not find another first-person shooter in a hardcore setting than what Insurgency: Sandstorm provides.