Every once in a while, an indie strategy game comes along that doesn’t just want you to win—it wants you to feel the grit in your teeth and the dry heat in your lungs.

That was my immediate takeaway within my first hour of Sandwalkers, the turn-based roguelite exploration RPG originally brought to life by Goblinz Studio and ported to Xbox by Red Art Games. Billed somewhere between the caravan-managing despair of The Banner Saga and the tile-by-tile resource dread of Curious Expedition, Sandwalkers throws you headfirst into an ecologically shattered world and asks a simple question: How far into the storm can you push before your faith runs dry?

Having spent the past week shepherding caravans through acid squalls and monster ambushes on Xbox Series X, here is my honest look at how this atmospheric trek holds up on the couch.