Listen to the Wind
—
Listen to the Wind
Game
Game2025
The Siege and the Sandfox
Developer Cardboard Sword
A 2D stealth Metroidvania with parkour platforming. Explore the majestic palace and ancient prisons of a kingdom under siege. Don the mantle of the legendary Sandfox as you venture into the ruins below, and discover the true threat from a sand-borne evil. From the Steam store page
172 reactions from 4 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Lemmy, Mastodon) · newest Oct 25, 2026 · last updated Nov 4, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
63
Fresh
96 positive · 57 negative
95% range 55–70%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 96 | 57 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 6 | 0 | 10 |
| Lemmy * | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 1 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Mixed
100 of 157 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
63% recommend · 97 yes, 56 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 153 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Mixed (139 of 222 positive).
Players praise the game's beautiful pixel art, narration, and stealth-metroidvania concept. [1][2][3] Many reviewers report that the game is still plagued by bugs, including stuck enemies and progression blockers. [4][5][6] Some players note that recent patches have improved stability, but others still find it unplayable. [7][8][9]
Liked
Representative posts
- [4]
Beautiful game. There was clearly a lot of love put into the art and audio. Regrettably, some of that love should have been reserved for QA. This game released in an incredibly broken state, and even after a major patch, the game still largely does not function well. Enemies regularly either get stuck or their pathing becomes confused in a way that breaks gameplay. Sometimes this means they become impassible …
- [5]
It started of good but the more you play the more bugs appear. Enemies stuck in random places. you get constantly spotted even thoe you are hidden. Instakill mechanics that have bad hitboxes. the same cutscene happening 3 times in a row. etc. its a pretty and interesting concept but there is just so much ducktape in the background that you are bound to get ♥♥♥♥♥♥ over by some weird bug during your playthrough.
- [1]
Everyone Knows: Sandfoxes hide in Boxes. The Siege and the Sandfox has seamlessly added stealth to the Metroidvania genre. Truly following the stealth motto of "the best way to win a fight is to avoid it all together". Watching the blissfully unaware guards stroll past your hiding spot as you return to an area you've already been to with a new power up is what the last Metroidvania game I played was missing. The …
- [2]
10/10 - If you're a lucky Sandfox THE UNFORTUNATE To get that out the way. People are having technical issues with this game. Myself I only had one crash and guards being permanently locked into a state of alertness a couple of times within the first hour. Now, 7 hours into the game, nothing but smooth sailing and lots of joy. THE GREAT Where to begin... everything, absolutely everything about this game is amazing. …
- [3]
I'm a fan of stealth games and I like Metroidvania games (even if they don't like me). This one has a lot going for it. Pros: - The music, narration, and graphics are really nice; they don't distract from the game (besides unclear pronoun reference by the narration at times). - I like the stealth and parkour. - The controls feel rather smooth (probably more so for better gamers. I'm using a wired Switch controller. …
Summarised from 34 of the 172 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 10, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
63% of the 153 Steam reviewers we collected recommend The Siege and the Sandfox. The complaint that keeps coming up: frequent bugs, including stuck enemies and soft locks. Deal-breaker or nitpick?
Reactions
60 of 172 · most liked first🍄 Sam couldn't stop talking about how much of a "me" game The Siege and the Sandfox is and now we're sponsored to play it for a bit! Yeehaw! We're live y'all #ad twitch.tv/dexbonus
positive · AI labelView post →Ever played Mark of the Ninja? It's the same concept but with the OG Prince of Persia flair. Extremely cool game. There's also a terrific voice narrator that narrates (excuse the repetition) the hero's actions, journey and also NPC's. Unfortunately, as of right now, I cannot recommend. This game is very buggy. Upon launching it, I was unable to get this game to render on my screen until I Alt+Enter to force it back into a proper resolution. This glitch may happen to you too. Enemies' alert…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Beautiful game. There was clearly a lot of love put into the art and audio. Regrettably, some of that love should have been reserved for QA. This game released in an incredibly broken state, and even after a major patch, the game still largely does not function well. Enemies regularly either get stuck or their pathing becomes confused in a way that breaks gameplay. Sometimes this means they become impassible entirely. Sometimes this means they vanish or otherwise become locked up in a…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Our game is finally released today! The Siege and The Sandfox is a 2D #metroidvania with gorgeous pixelart; stealth-based gameplay; and lots of dynamic music and game audio by meee. 4pm GMT on Steam, Epic & GoG for PC store.steampowered.com/app/653060/T... #indiedev #gameaudio #unrealengine
neutral · AI labelView post →🚨 NEW GAME ALERT!🚨 Get ready to meet a very different Narrator... Yes, I'll be your guide through a mysterious tale of adventure and exploration... The Siege and the Sandfox! I can't wait for you to experience just how beautiful this game is. www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjhl...
neutral · AI labelView post →This is a hard game to review. Even harder to recommand. The pros The game is beautiful (if you're into pixel art visuals), the backgrounds are stunning) So many different biomes to visit, each with their own inhabitants The mix of infiltration, metroidvania and plateformer is a great idea That said ... The negative The infiltration is weird. You have to crouch to make less noise, but you can jump and land behind someone and he won't notice you. You make a lot of noise…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Two a half months after release game still has soft locks and other bugs heavily impeding or blocking progress, and no word from the devs on an update
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It started of good but the more you play the more bugs appear. Enemies stuck in random places. you get constantly spotted even thoe you are hidden. Instakill mechanics that have bad hitboxes. the same cutscene happening 3 times in a row. etc. its a pretty and interesting concept but there is just so much ducktape in the background that you are bound to get ♥♥♥♥♥♥ over by some weird bug during your playthrough.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is one of those games that could be really good, but it's held back by quite a few serious bugs. Graphics: The game is full of beautiful pixel art, especially the views of the desert when you're high up in the map. However, those views feel like there should be more there. In the beginning of the game you see the besieging army march towards the city, so I feel like they should show up at least as campfire in the night when the desert is visible. The animations are nice and fluid - I…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Everyone Knows: Sandfoxes hide in Boxes. The Siege and the Sandfox has seamlessly added stealth to the Metroidvania genre. Truly following the stealth motto of "the best way to win a fight is to avoid it all together". Watching the blissfully unaware guards stroll past your hiding spot as you return to an area you've already been to with a new power up is what the last Metroidvania game I played was missing. The atmosphere of the game is superb. The various areas of Traitor's Fall feel…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm writing this review on 5/29/2025, with full knowledge that the game has only been out a short time and some of these concerns may be addressed in updates. As it stands right now, I don't think I could recommend it to other players, at least not without some serious caveats. The core concept of the game - a stealth-based metroidvania - is a really interesting one, and for the most part it's well-implemented. A lot of the game is really fun. That said, the enemy behavior is often kind of…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Lots of bugs. UNPLAYABLE. It would be a great game, very interesting and beautiful. Sadly, bugs started to appear during gameplay, until the point I can't progress anymore.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not sure about the negative reviews. Possibly due to an earlier state of the game? I think i'm around midgame and so far it's living up to my expectations. Beautiful pixel art, great map and sense of progression, great setting, awesome narration, not the most original plot maybe but who cares. Happy I got this despite the negative reviews. Only encountered 1-2 minor glitches so far.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Really interesting game and whilst I did enjoy my couple of hours at the beginning, I sadly cannot progress. I can concur with other reviewers, the game is riddled with bugs and my lack of progression has been tied to this. Getting killed and teleported to another area of the map without the necessary upgrades to escape is very problematic. If the game is fixed and I am able to replay without these issues, then I will change my review. Though in its current state, I cannot recommend this game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →broken and abandoned. it looks pretty but don't let that deceive you. can only hope dev returns to clean it up... there's potential here.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Yes, it's a good game : beautiful pixel art, interesting gameplay, good level design... But I can't recommand it. More than a year after it release, it is still full of bugs. Yes you can play it, you can even finish it. But the huge number of bugs is very annoying.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →10/10 - If you're a lucky Sandfox THE UNFORTUNATE To get that out the way. People are having technical issues with this game. Myself I only had one crash and guards being permanently locked into a state of alertness a couple of times within the first hour. Now, 7 hours into the game, nothing but smooth sailing and lots of joy. THE GREAT Where to begin... everything, absolutely everything about this game is amazing. The narration, which feels like reading a book of One Thousand And One…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Super buggy and hard to find out where you have to go. You can get softlocked in some areas. If they fix their bugs and make the game easier to not get lost or get stuck I would change my review to positive.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Movement is fantastic in this game. The concept is excellent. I was sucked in on the first play and look forward to making it though to the end. I am very impressed with the quality. :-) I can see this becoming a classic!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Siege and the Sandfox, a pixelart steal-based metroidvania, has announced a May 20th release date on PC. >A 2D stealth Metroidvania with parkour platforming. Explore the majestic palace and ancient prisons of a kingdom under siege. Don the mantle of the legendary Sandfox as you venture into the ruins below, and discover the true threat from a sand-borne evil. 🌐 [Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/653060/The_Siege_and_the_Sandfox/?b1)
neutral · AI labelView post →This is not how you release a game. I had issues trying to launch it (it gets minimized as soon as you start it). I managed a workaround by spamming Alt+Enter while the game is launching, but then it crashes if you try to access the display settings. Fair enough, I’ll play it anyway... or so I thought. Unfortunately, the character got stuck on a platform 30 seconds into the game and I had to start over. I did, and played for a while, but then I had to close the game. When I started it back up,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There’s a lot going for this game that others have noted—great design, voice acting, cool atmosphere, etc—but it’s kind of just boring. I think not having combat coupled with some of the other issues are what really bring this down for me. To be clear, I am ok with games without combat, but they must be done right—there must be some other feature or gimmick to keep me interested. If that was it, I probably would have kept playing, but there are bugs. Nothing major, but they are there, and I…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The concept is really nice. The graphics, the art, they're all nice, in game mechanics are cool too. That's about the only positive thing I could say about this game though. Its riddled with bugs, guards are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ annoying and sometimes their alert state will be triggered for no ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ reason. The map is atrocious, there's no in game tracker as to know which quests you've completed and which still remain. The ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fast travel points are bugged as well. You'll find plenty of them in…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really enjoyed this game. It is buggy, as other reviews state, but I believe a lot of work has gone into fixing it. I never encountered any game breaking bugs, just things like stuck sprites and repeated audio. The story is told by a narrator who does a wonderful job and really is the highlight of the game, her performance is stellar and I looked forward to whenever she talked, barring the repeat dialogue mentioned above. Visually the game is excellent too, every new environment has a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Clunky controls, loads of bugs, uninspired level design, there's not much to recommend about this one. Because of how the game works, any mistake either has you instantly die (which with the loading times and checkpoints means you'll be waiting a while) or have to run and hide and then wait for a while anyways. This leads to most of your time with this game being spent waiting and not having fun. And that's not getting into the situations where a guard's AI will bug and make progress…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game still has many glitches and a possible softlock while there is no sight of the promised patch, even after well over a month. Even besides the severe technical issues a stealth metroidvania simply doesn't work if there are some places which require you to wait for traversal and backtracking is a common event if you do not explore the map in the intended order.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As someone who loves the Prince of Persia series and is an avid consumer of indie metroidvanias, I am the target audience for this game. Unfortunately, as the target audience I have seen every part of this game done better and in more cohesive arrangements. Movement is stiff not in a way that begets a stealth game's precision but instead a faltering stutter that leads to missed pole swings and failed wallruns. Enemies have inconsistent and extremely buggy behavior, which makes navigating around…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →far too many game breaking bugs that makes progressing in the game very frustrating and difficult.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I have this furry friend and he's awkward to have around at parties. I need to babysit the guy like a hawk, else he'll drink too much of the fruit punch and will start to approach people to tell them about his inflatable fox OC. Fortunately, The Siege and the Sandfox is not a furry game and you don't play as a purple Sandfoxboi either. Those are two positive points about it. Now, let's talk about EVERYTHING else. Appearances can be very misleading, because Sandfox got what it takes to give…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As a stealth game fan, I’m not the best judge here—unresponsive platforming controls are holding me back. It could be a skill issue, as I’m still new to 2D platformers. I got stuck early on at a wall jump in the tutorial and repeatedly missed a ledge grab. I’ve ruled out controller problems—I'm using a Gamesir Cyclone 2, which works fine for me in precision-heavy games like Celeste. That said, I really like the concept and atmosphere, and I’m holding out hope for a patch to improve movement…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm a fan of stealth games and I like Metroidvania games (even if they don't like me). This one has a lot going for it. Pros: - The music, narration, and graphics are really nice; they don't distract from the game (besides unclear pronoun reference by the narration at times). - I like the stealth and parkour. - The controls feel rather smooth (probably more so for better gamers. I'm using a wired Switch controller. I think a keyboard would be agravating. - The biomes are interesting…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is an enjoyable experience now. I'll state up front. I didn't play the game at launch and any dev who launches a buggy game deserves what they get. I skipped on it due to how everyone mentioned the bugs, but I had someone mention it recently and they said bugs weren't a problem so I gave it a shot and they're not. It's not bug-free, but I only really experienced one bug that hampered the experience during my playthrough, although it happened with some frequency and is not one that's…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The idea is great, I was really anticipating this game, and I'm loving most of what I found: - The artstyle is great, the music fits perfectly and accompany you in an environment dark enough to feel secret but not so dark that you can't see where you're going - The experience is nice and fluid, except some minor things, moving around is nice and easy, with enjoiably challenging platforming sections. - The exploration is open enough to nonlinearly go around the map, with a good set of power…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Really great game marred by a ton of bugs, and strange design decisions. I cant currently recommend this game. When it works its a great game but because of all the bugs currently thats hit or miss. Check the current state of the game before buying. From what i see in the forums the devs seem very responsive. So hopefully in time it will get fixed
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game feels like Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Thief: The Dark Project combined, there's even a narrator turning your actions into a story told long after the events. Gameplay-wise, it's both shadow-based stealth and platforming, which is a lot of fun Its reputation for being buggy is way overblown, there's the occasional goofiness but nothing game-breaking or that isn't fixed by reloading to any of the frequent checkpoints
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is quite a gorgeous game, that oozes out atmosphere that I really like when it goes well, but there are some issues, some minor and some I imagine will either never come or come months from now in a big patch that focuses on QOL and feature additions. First, there is just far too much backtracking. The game has a noble task of gating off sections which really amplify your progression once you get to them. This is a tried and true metroidvania mechanic. But there are times where this joy…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The world building and the mood is great but too often, you reach a state of flow that ends up interrupted by bugs and glitches: Clipping through doors and walls, entity sprites inside walls just chilling there, enemy spotting you 3 screens away through multiple doors and walls. The music and the storytelling are great but every time you start to feel the immersion, a bug pulls you back to reality.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →**FRAUD ALERT** To advise, this company pushed out a broken game, and refuses to take accountability for their deception in the form of a refund. Sadly, the game breaking glitch did not occur until past the point of Steam refund parameters, and their only suggestion is to just start over and hope it doesn't happen again. I am done supporting them in both metrics and future investment.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has both The Siege and the Sandfox, what more could you need? 10/10
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Stealth metroidvania game The Siege and the Sandfox launches on May 20. Wishlist on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/653060 #indiegames #indiegame #steam
neutral · AI labelView post →I dropped into a cave to avoid some guards and there appears to be no way out? just a checkpoint, a collectable, and a quest giver down here but I can't get back up. I could restart the game from the beginning but I wasn't really having fun. Very pretty art though.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has so much potential, but after over 5 hours of play I just had to give up. The last hours I've done nothing but wandering around the map and tediously backtracking in all directions with no indication on where to go or what to do next. Everywhere I go I end up at inaccessible areas, because the required skill is missing (cannot grab metal rails, and cannot pas through the small metal "gates". The map doesn't even indicate (many of) these points or let you place enough tags, so it's…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Unplayable on ultrawide = Fix attached = A heads up for anyone playing on ultrawide (21:9 and especially 32:9); the game is zoomed in to a point where you can barely make out your surroundings without constantly moving the camera up and down. There is no zoom option and selecting any other than the native resolution will result in a distorted view. It's really a shame since the game looks and feels very promising but it's not fun to play like this. For anyone looking for a fix:…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Gameplay is solid fun. Recent Patch seems to have fixed alot of bugs.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A fun platformer with a heavy emphasis on stealth mechanics and traversal. The stealth is well developed and there are some clever mechanics at play, I get subtle Thief vibes from the game. The movement mechanics that I have discovered so far are interesting and well implemented and the level design is good from what I have played so far, I'm looking forward to what I'll discover next. The art is lovely, so much detail has been poured into the pixel art and levels tile set, I'm looking…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Crazy good pixel art. I like the narrator format. Decent story. Interesting level design. Plays great on my Steam Deck. Good price, could easily be 15 quid!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Only played the game for a little bit to get the feel of it and honestly....wow? It's got fantastic voice acting, very immersive gameplay of a stealth based metroidvania so far! Will update soon
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Refreshing take on the metroidvania through the stealth twist, with great graphics and beautiful sound work. The kind of game that will keep the genre alive.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I held off playing the siege and the sandfox for about a year after the poor reception, hoping for a patch to smooth things ou. That patch never came so i figured i might as well get it over with and clear it off my backlog. Turns out the game was much better than the ratings had led me to believe. Doesn't mean this game is flawless though, it has many issues that no doubt contributed to its mixed reviews. It's just that for me it does a few things very well, particularly the 2 things that i…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Where do I even begin? I really wanted to like this game more. The concept, the setting, the art style, and the atmosphere are all fantastic and immediately drew me in. But... The game is unfortunately held back by a surprisingly large number of bugs. Some are minor inconveniences, while others crash the game faster than the Sandfox after a failed jump. And failed jumps happen more often than they should because many platforming sections require very precise movement. That wouldn't be such…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I liked the game but, honestly, I expected more. It is far too short and I thought, it was a more articulated game. I don't even think it should be called a metroidvania. That said it is a good game and had fun playing it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is beautiful. I lover the retro metal slug classic look, with prince of persia, a lil of assassns creed and a metroidvania. All of my favorite things combined to make an epic love child. I hope they make part two, cause the gameplay is so smooth and simultaneous. I just want to know how to make those big guys go night, night.lol Love the voice actors and story so far. The naration makes you feel not so alone in the dark. I knew this game was coming because I seen their tutorial vids…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm on the fence about recommending this but I decided I had a good time in the end. A very buggy but fun unique game with a strong art style, movement, and story. Pros are that its a very beautiful game, the movement is really fun, the level design really plays into what a player can do and how they feel like playing, and the story and the way its told is very interesting. A narrator narrates what the Sandfox (you) does and its rather charming through most of it. The Narrator they chose did…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Stealth metriodvania The Siege and the Sandfox from @cardboardsword.bsky.social reminds me of classic Prince of Persia in the best way. Fantastic, beautiful game with a story narrated by @ameliatyler.bsky.social (Baldur's Gate III). #pcgaming #steam #indiegames 🎮 On @thegeeklygrind.bsky.social --
positive · AI labelView post →Absolutely lovely gem of a little game. I've played more than my fair share of indie metroidvanias, but something about Sandfox stands out- it's one of the special ones for sure. I think a large part of it has to do with the presentation- instead of the usual silent storytelling of most of these games, there is a narrator who speaks as if they are recounting the game as some sort of bedtime story. It is warm, it is charming, it is human. (Playtime is low because I played a lot on Steamdeck in…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Oh well. I got high expectations about this game cause of the fusion between stealth and one of my fav kind of games(metroidvania). My almost 2 hours of game reminded me back to the days I tried castlevania sotn on ps1, I simply couldn't stop playing. Even if the game got some minor bugs(sometimes the platforms look far and impossible to reach but you manage to, and sometimes they look close but if you don't do a perfect jump you can't get them)absolutely acceptable at the day 1, I strongly…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →While I enjoyed The Siege and the Sandfox for several hours, I did not complete the game and will not recommend you purchase this title. It needs work that the developer doesn't seem to be able to give, especially with fixing bugs and QoL improvements. The premise was solid: A modern Metroidvania style of the Prince of Persia formula. Our protagonist, The Sandfox, must navigate the sprawling (both vertically and horizontally) city with his fancy footwork (parkour) and a few extra tools…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Got stuck in the wall when using the elevator, checkpoint put me back a long way. Shame, cause it could be decent.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is incredibly fun! Really love the Metroidvania style, the pixel art is beautiful, the mechanics so far have been super fun and engaging. At times it can be difficult to know (or rather, remember) what your next objective is - sometimes there's a marker, other times there aren't, so definitely feels like a game you should pick up and keep playing, rather than coming back to after long periods because you're potentially likely to forget what your next objective is. But overall,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →support small studios
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