Black Sand Drift
Echo Hall Studios · 2016 · Casual, Indie, Shoot 'Em Up
PC
Mixed62% · 71 📉 Recent reviews down 49%
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Screenshots
About Black Sand Drift
✦ AI summary
Fight back against an army of mechanical invaders across 25 story-driven levels packed with character, dialog, and surprising narrative twists in this PC-built shooter. Black Sand Drift stands out with responsive keyboard controls, 15 unique special weapons, a full original soundtrack with vocals, and leaderboards for every level—making it a refreshingly character-focused take on the shmup genre.
For over 300 years, the five planets of the Kotiro galaxy and its citizens have struggled under the heavy hand of maniacal, mechanical bots called Spiral. As the metallic army's relentless pursuit of the resource Black Sand begins ramping up exponentially, a few brave heroes decide to fight back.
Enter Black Sand Drift: A wholly unique shooter built from the ground up with the PC in mind. So what makes this SHMUP stand out from the crowd? Well, to begin with, there is a heavy emphasis on characters and story; and through the 25 levels spanning 5 different locals, the dialog driven narrative will play out with lots of interesting and strange revelations culminating in a spectacularly whimsical finale.
Created with the keyboard in mind, using the WASD in combination with the SPACEBAR feels tight and responsive; a must for any game challenging you with leaderboards. And because there are 25 separate local and online boards to tackle, you will appreciate the smooth controls. The ARROW keys and CONTROLLER support are also available as alternatives!
The music consists of 25 tracks—1 for each level—featuring guitars, bass, drums and vocals; a rarity for such games of the same creed. Every aspect of Black Sand Drift has been intentionally tweaked to present you with something wholly unique from anything you've played before.
Between the music, controls, graphics, breadth of story and overall experience, I hope you find something here that truly inspires and evokes the emotions we all crave as dedicated gamers. Thank you for checking out Black Sand Drift!
The Tilda’s default weapon's system fires an automatic stream of bullets, giving the player a means to fight the deadly Spiral forces. However, this is not the only weapon at your disposal; there are also 15 powerful Special Weapons spread out among the 25 levels.
Characters:
Extras:
For every level you beat (without cheating), you will unlock a special image accessible from the main menu; everything from concept art to alternate versions of characters and more, all straight from the pages of our sketchbooks.
Enter Black Sand Drift: A wholly unique shooter built from the ground up with the PC in mind. So what makes this SHMUP stand out from the crowd? Well, to begin with, there is a heavy emphasis on characters and story; and through the 25 levels spanning 5 different locals, the dialog driven narrative will play out with lots of interesting and strange revelations culminating in a spectacularly whimsical finale.
Created with the keyboard in mind, using the WASD in combination with the SPACEBAR feels tight and responsive; a must for any game challenging you with leaderboards. And because there are 25 separate local and online boards to tackle, you will appreciate the smooth controls. The ARROW keys and CONTROLLER support are also available as alternatives!
The music consists of 25 tracks—1 for each level—featuring guitars, bass, drums and vocals; a rarity for such games of the same creed. Every aspect of Black Sand Drift has been intentionally tweaked to present you with something wholly unique from anything you've played before.
Between the music, controls, graphics, breadth of story and overall experience, I hope you find something here that truly inspires and evokes the emotions we all crave as dedicated gamers. Thank you for checking out Black Sand Drift!
The Tilda’s default weapon's system fires an automatic stream of bullets, giving the player a means to fight the deadly Spiral forces. However, this is not the only weapon at your disposal; there are also 15 powerful Special Weapons spread out among the 25 levels.
Characters:
Extras:
For every level you beat (without cheating), you will unlock a special image accessible from the main menu; everything from concept art to alternate versions of characters and more, all straight from the pages of our sketchbooks.
DLC & expansions
🎁 Complete the collection
Base game + 1 of 1 DLC at today's best prices.
$2.98
to own everything
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
shooter game where you, as the hero, fight enemies on multiple levels, exploring various planets ✅Very good, hand-crafted music, perfect for this game ✅You have 3 lives to complete a level ✅A wide variety of maps ✅15 different weapons ✅Simple graphics ✅25 levels ✅Very good price for the content ❌In my opinion, the difficulty level is quite high; I lost 2 lives on level 2. Verdict: [strike] Terrible [/strike], [strike] Bad [/strike], [strike] Mediocre [/strike], [strike] Decent [/strike], [strike] Good [/strike], [b] Very Good [/b] (Rating scale for tested game) If you want to see more of my reviews, you can find me on my curator page: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45994324/ and on my group: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/CuratorKingViking If you have any questions about my reviews, feel free to ask. I'm happy to answer them. All reviews are my own!! Best regards, King Viking Bezimienny, Polish Game Reviewer.16 found this helpful
It's a okay game at best. I have played some real bad games recently and this isn't one of them. If you can score this game for free I say why not.10 found this helpful
Outdated2 found this helpful
Fun for a few minutes, but quickly becomes boring. There are so many better options out there.1 found this helpful
Bad
Black Sand Drift is an indie vertical shoot-’em-up that wears its ambition openly, even if its execution occasionally falls short of its vision. Developed by Echo Hall Studios and published by Sometimes You, it follows a familiar science-fiction setup—an interstellar threat, dwindling resources, and a lone pilot fighting to push back against an overwhelming mechanical alien force. While that premise may sound conventional, the game approaches it with surprising earnestness, attempting to turn a genre often defined by pure reflex into something with narrative presence, character, and a universe worth caring about. It doesn’t reinvent shmup storytelling, but it does try to give players more context and atmosphere than a brief text scroll before the action begins. The gameplay adheres to classic vertical shooter fundamentals: weaving through projectile patterns, managing screen space, reacting to waves of enemies, and unleashing powerful weapon upgrades at key moments. Controls are responsive and immediate, making it easy to slip into the rhythm of dodging and blasting. The ship feels adequately agile, and the game offers a wide selection of temporary and permanent weapon upgrades, e…
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