Similar to Insurgency, Sandstorm features a minimal HUD, lacking a health bar, ammunition count, or minimap. The Insurgency series has "slow" and realistic gameplay, with moments of intensity. Weapons are accurate and extremely deadly, putting an emphasis on teamwork. Improvements from Insurgency include the addition of a player progression system, character customization, and cosmetic unlocks, as well as larger maps and driveable vehicles. Lead designer Michael Tsarouhas aimed to "find a balance" between military simulator games, such as ArmA, and action games such as Call of Duty, to provide both action and realism. At the beginning of a match, players can choose classes. Players have supply points to spend on weapons & modifications, impacting physical weight & speed. Players are separated into two teams: 'Security', based loosely on United States SOCOM and KurdishYPG, including female fighters, and 'Insurgents', based loosely on ISIL, though both factions are fictionalized.
Push: The attacking team must capture three or four territorial objectives in sequential order. For every objective captured, more reinforcements are made available and more time is given to capture the next objective. The defenders must protect the objectives from the attackers. If the attackers are able to capture all three or four objectives, they must find and destroy the cache. At this point, the defenders only have one life to fend off the attackers. The game ends when either team runs out of reinforcements and players or time.
Firefight: Both teams must battle each other to capture all three territorial objectives. Each player only has one life and can only respawn after their team has captured an objective. A team wins when either the entire other team is eliminated, or all three objectives are captured.
Frontline: Described as a "two-way push mode", the teams have to capture objectives one by one and then destroy the enemy cache. Each team has to capture the enemy objective, while also defending their own. Every time an objective is captured, the capturing team will gain reinforcements waves and will respawn their team. This game mode was added in the 1.4 update.
Domination: Similarly to Firefight, there are three objectives which can be captured at all times. However, teams receive victory points for each objective held, and the team which reaches the point threshold wins. On death the players respawn immediately on a random location on the map. This game mode was added in the 1.5 update.
Competitive: Firefight in a 5v5 ranked queue, with higher equipment costs and different class structure.
Limited time playlist - Added in update 1.4 and intended as an iteration of the Arcade Mode. This playlist features a different game mode every week. The game mode is usually an already existing one, however modifications are added such as "bolt-action rifles only" or "drop a live grenade on death".
Checkpoint: Players are grouped into one team and must complete mission-based objectives against AI. Every completed objective will grant fallen players another life.
Removed Game Modes
Skirmish: Like Firefight, there are three territorial objectives that both teams have to capture. Each team also has a cache to protect. If the caches of both teams are destroyed, the game will be played like Firefight. To win, the cache must be destroyed and all three objectives captured. As of patch 1.4.1 this game mode has been removed. The developers claim the Skirmish playlist hasn't been very popular with the player base, and removing it would decrease queue times, and would allow the developers to focus on maintaining the more popular game modes.
Arcade: Arcade includes casual modes that are rotated out with updates, such as Team Deathmatch. This mode was replaced with "Limited Time Playlists" in update 1.4.
Reception
Insurgency: Sandstorm received acclaim from critics for its realistic gameplay and atmospheric sound design. VG247 rated Sandstorm as "one of the best multiplayer games of the year", giving repeated praise to the voice acting: "I’ll never forget the screaming." Sandstorm received an 88/100 from IGN, writing " nails the balance between realism and fun", though it criticized unclear map boundaries. PCGamer rated the game 85/100, calling it "terrifying". Sandstorm's optimization received some criticism, with Worth Playing writing "In the heat of an intense battle, your processor will also put out some heat." A more critical review came from PCGamesN, who felt the game was "behind the times in both theme and looks" with "nameless locations with nameless conflicts", lamenting the removal of the planned story campaign, which would have featured "two Iraqi women crossing a war-torn land" - "It’s a shame to miss out on a potentially refreshing perspective." Insurgency: Sandstorm received "generally favorable" reviews according to review aggregatorMetacritic.
