Game Preview

IRONSAND, the new dynamic FPS rogue-lite by developer and publisher Renderise, is a refreshing take on the genre as a whole. After getting my hands on the demo, I can confidently say that the team behind this game knows what their players want. A wide variety of weapons, destructible environments, plenty of perks to choose—the list goes on. After hitting 10,000 wishlists on Steam, what is all the hype about?

With the variety of weapons, perks, and abilities to make you ungodly strong, however, comes enemies that actually make you put them to use. Fighting alien bugs, cyborgs, and massive robot death machines, you and your friends (up to four players!) will have your hands full fighting back the horde.

The rogue-like fps genre is a tried and true formula, but IRONSAND adds light elements of class-based gameplay to freshen things up. Whether you're an assassin who can turn invisible or an engineer throwing turrets down left and right, your weapon choice won't be restricted in the slightest. Cloaking yourself with invisibility and sneaking up on a group of enemies with a rocket launcher? Absolutely possible and encouraged.

The game still keeps that classic FPS, shoot-em-up game style that has had gamers hooked for years, even with their new formula (even paying homage to games like Deep Rock Galactic with their resource looting system.) Teamwork is a necessity, of course, whether it be with your friends or tiny little NPC characters you're given to fight with.

Don't expect the same map every time either. The environment changes for every run, making sure to keep you and your team on your toes. It's quite the fun combo with the dynamic destructive environment the game boasts.

We got our hands on the beta, but you can still grab the playable demo while the game is in development. Give it a shot, and keep an eye out for updates; the developers are constantly evolving the game!