PHANTOMS OF SAND: Undo a Bizarre Curse in this Adventure Game

Phantoms of Sand is an indie first-person exploration and adventure (and a little bit of Horror) game produced by Fabian Velander and published on July 24th of that year on the indie gaming platform "itch.io". In the game, you are in the shoes of a simple traveler who, after waking up beside a statue, discovered that the place was taken by a terrible curse. To undo it, you must find golden totems scattered around the place, but you must be quick: there are ghosts that are lurking, and you can only escape them by seeing their footprints in the sand.

Right away, I can say that the game is very democratic: it has two versions of the look. One is the original, with low-poly, low-resolution graphics that draws inspiration from the games on the first PlayStation console. And the other, in the HD version, features a higher resolution and a slight improvement in textures and fonts. Gameplay is simple: you just move around and look around. Your role here is more to collect the totems while avoiding the ghosts. The soundtrack alternates between relaxing and tension depending on the situation you are in (calm or chase).

In my opinion, the only negative point I could say about this game is that it's a bit... empty. Yes, you just go around the place, find the totems and return to the place of origin, and that's it. There could be more going on during the game, even though it's decorative. This is a shame, as it reminded me a little of Shadowgate 64: Trials of the Four Towers in the atmosphere. Maybe the developer might come up with a sequel or similar game that's a little longer.

You can check the gameplay of Phantoms of Sand by clicking on the links below (both links have the same gameplay, but with different endings) and, if you are interested, you can download the game on the page below:

Download Link: https://velander.itch.io/phantoms-of-sand

Gameplay with GOOD ENDING: https://youtu.be/6eSIf38oByw

Gameplay with the BAD ENDING: https://youtu.be/IjyGvIQfumE