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About UNDER the SAND - a road trip simulator
Set in an alternate 1980s where global warming has turned the planet into a boundless desert, *UNDER the SAND* puts you behind the wheel of an old pickup truck on a quest to fulfill your late father's final request. The world is rendered in bright, low‑poly graphics that sit between cartoonish and semi‑realistic styles.
Gameplay focuses on driving, vehicle tinkering, and personal survival. You can customize both your character and your vehicle, adjust difficulty settings such as hunger, thirst, fatigue and fluid consumption, and listen to cassette‑style music while exploring a procedurally generated desert that stretches over 200 km of unique road sections.
01 / THE GUIDE
Infinitely Generated Path
The desert highway is procedurally generated, offering over 200 kilometers of distinct asphalt and off‑road sections. Forks and crossroads let you choose which direction to travel, creating a different route each playthrough.
More than twenty points of interest appear along the way, including roadside stores where you can sell collected junk. Your journey continues as far as you can keep the truck fueled and supplied.
- Experiment with different fork choices to discover varied points of interest.
- Keep an eye on fuel and water levels before long stretches.
02 / THE GUIDE
Assembly, Maintenance and Tuning of Cars
An expandable fleet of cars of different classes can be found while traveling. Almost all car parts—wheels, doors, hood, steering wheel, engine, battery, roof headlights, dashboard figures and more—can be removed and swapped.
Vehicle physics react to surface type, and the car will not move without gasoline; without water in the radiator the engine overheats. You may install an economical engine for calm rides or a racing engine for aggressive drifting, and paint various parts.
- Swap to a racing engine if you want higher acceleration on open stretches.
- Monitor both gasoline and radiator water levels to avoid stalls.
03 / THE GUIDE
Create Your Character
Character appearance is fully editable, from hair style to eyebrows. Several archetype classes—wanderer, punk and others—are available, each with its own characteristics.
The game lets you customize the degree of damage, thirst, hunger and fatigue that affect the character, as well as the degree of vehicle damage and fluid consumption, letting you set the overall challenge level.
- Use the appearance editor to give your avatar a distinct look that matches your vehicle’s style.
- Adjust the hunger, thirst and fatigue sliders to match the survival intensity you prefer.
04 / THE GUIDE
Music Cassettes and Ambient Details
The game features a cassette system; you can insert tapes into your car radio and choose from genres ranging from calm lo‑fi to hard rock, creating a personal soundtrack for each leg of the journey.
A cat at home needs feeding, reminding players that the focus is on travel and routine rather than combat or hostile encounters.
- Swap cassettes to match the mood of the terrain you’re traversing.
- Remember the cat at home needs feeding, so check on it periodically.
05 / THE GUIDE
Platform Features and Accessibility
*UNDER the SAND* runs on Windows and offers partial controller support, adjustable difficulty, and the ability to save at any time. Steam Cloud keeps progress synced, and both stereo and surround sound options are available.
Additional quality‑of‑life features include camera comfort settings, commentary availability, and family sharing, providing flexibility for a wide range of players.
- Enable camera comfort settings if the default view feels disorienting.
- Use Steam Cloud to continue your desert trek on another Windows PC.
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