Sansar

Game overview

Sansar is a free to play virtual universe MMO that allows players to create their own avatars and explore creativity and social activities together. Featuring fully 3D worlds, characters and environments, Sansar is graphically excellent and gameplay involves no combat, instead opting for social interactions. You can manipulate objects to recreate scenes at parties, or get creative and enter its excellent build mode to create your own disco for you and your friends to chill at. The game offers near limitless sandbox social experiences, but suffers from low player count currently.

➔ Main points:

• Free to play virtual online world that looks gorgeous.
• Limitless amount of creativity tools to help players build, explore and create.
• A great marketing and merchandise tool for influencers.
• Plenty of live events to attend hosted by real people.
• Somewhat low playerbase currently.

Full review

An Introduction To Sansar

If virtual online worlds where you get to hang out and socialize using made up avatars with your friends and strangers sounds like your idea of fun, then you've probably heard of Sansar. If you haven't, let's get you up to speed. Sansar is a free to play virtual MMO that takes place in a sandbox universe, made up of whatever your creative mind can cook up. Want to chill out in a space-themed bar floating twenty stories above ground? Sure. Want to host a rock concert on the beach? Go right ahead. Like most other virtual online worlds, Sansar started out as the ideal escapism MMO to help players mingle with other players. At launch, there was VR support for Oculus and VIVE but that's been removed. The good news is, you can still play it normally without VR via Windows download or through Steam.

How Gameplay Works

Your virtual avatar can do most things needed to get a social life up and running.

Getting started is relatively simple and only takes a few quick steps before your social adventure begins. You'll start with creating your virtual avatar character. This first step also highlights just how limitless the game allows you to be with creativity. You can either pick from a pool of created avatars, like a skeleton or the princess from Frozen, that's all up to you. Alternatively, you can also create your own avatar and upload them to the game instead. Once done, it's time to get out there and mingle.

Sansar isn't just one world. The game is made up of multiple biomes and environments, that's contributed by both developers and players alike. Expect to see places like floating palaces in the sky, beaches and night clubs. You can move freely between them by walking using WASD, or by using teleportation tools which is convenient if you're in a rush. Once you get to where you want to go, now what? That's up to you. You could use your emote abilities and start dancing. Or if you want to showcase your creativity chops, hop into the game's excellent build mode and make your own party pad for you and your friends. Either way, it's easy to get so lost and engrossed in Sansar thanks to the sandbox elements in place and the good graphics too.

Putting the S in Social

While gameplay in Sansar is open-ended, there's no escaping the social aspects of the game, which is why you're probably playing it in the first place. If you and your friends are not on apps like Discord or Skype to communicate or socialize, worry not. There are in-game systems to help you socialize with others. Firstly there's the vicinity voice chat that works well, and secondly there's an in-game chat tab too that let's you say hi to everyone or plug your next DJ music performance to fellow party-goers in an area. It's as simple as they come but simple in this case is good, as you can instead worry about other things like creation or having fun. Where it slightly disappoints is perhaps with the socializing mechanics that holds you back. Your avatar can manipulate objects and the environments to mimic an outgoing party, like picking up a beer can or dancing, but you can't do more realistic things like a hug another player, or join group synchronized dances, or high-five someone. That's minor annoyances but you can't help but feel held back in such scenarios that makes sense to do those things.

However, from a community standpoint, the game gets plenty of plus points. Fellow players of Sansar have been incredibly welcoming and that's great. Players are happy to point you in the right direction of where to go, what to do and most importantly, how to find something you're looking for in chat. In virtual online games like these, community is king and it's safe to say that Sansar does have a lively and helpful community where and where it matters.

Where Sansar Stands Out

Dance with your favorite DJ at the club if they're online.

The one unique factor that Sansar has is that it's already a staging ground for influencers, artists and social people. For example, we've witnessed a popular radio DJ log into his avatar, and host a music party event with his friends and entourage at the night club recently, and that's what the game does very well. Sansar is a platform for artists to share their work, music and voice with their fans virtually, and what's cool is the in-game calendar helps you see all the upcoming events from these artists. Even better, there are tools in-place to help creators market their merchandise, be it for art or their podcast website, Sansar offers influencers a unique way to reach their audience virtually.

It Needs Help

While all that influencer marketing on an online world is great, when you take that away, Sansar does suffer. If there are no artists or influential folks online at any given time of the week, then the entire game almost feels like a ghost town. It's as if the game's population right now is made up of fans of one or two popular players and artists who do have avatars on Sansar, and that's dangerous for the health of the game's population. Needless to say, Sansar needs more of the casual common player who just want to log on and hang out with friends in creative hubs or on the beach for an hour or two.

Is Sansar Worth Playing?

For a virtual online MMO, Sansar covers most of the basics adequately. From having good graphics to excellent sandbox creation suites, the game definitely lets you pursue your inner creative desires and a second virtual life. The social aspects of the game does its job well, but in order to keep that part of the game consistent, it needs more players and that's where Sansar suffers with. For more popular people, having an avatar and using Sansar as the virtual meet up place for fans is a really good idea, since you can host events, launch shows and even live audio shows in-game to connect with fans. The fact that it even lets you be entrepreneurial and sell merchandise is also a plus point. But beyond that, the average player may find it hard to stick with Sansar in the long term if there isn't an active player-base beyond just the fans of artists online.

Review summary

1. An Introduction To Sansar
2. How Gameplay Works
3. Putting the S in Social
4. Where Sansar Stands Out
5. It Needs Help
6. Is Sansar Worth Playing?