Normally, when someone says the word Metroidvania, my eyes start to glaze over and I begin to long for the sweet release of death. There’s nothing wrong with Metroidvanias; I just play a hell of a lot of them, and see a hell of a lot more. If you spend enough time in this space, you’re practically inundated with Metroidvanias, especially in the indie space. So when I sit down to play one, I look for something a little more than trying to ape Super Metroid and Symphony of the Night.
The Siege and the Sandfox manages to do it, to find something to differentiate it from the deluge of Metroidvanias populating every storefront on planet Earth. Yes, it’s got beautiful pixel art and a stunning soundscape, but those things are a dime a dozen in the modern era. This isn’t a knock against The Siege and the Sandfox, but it’s not what I look for when I ask what makes something special.
Our story begins in Kariman, a shining jewel in the desert, the city of stories. But the impossible has happened: an army has marched across the desert to lay siege to the city, and the Sandfox, the latest in a legendary line of protectors and servants of the crown, has ventured to the palace to offer their aid to their old friend the king. When the Sandfox arrives, they find that the queen has poisoned the king. She blames the assassination on the Sandfox, drags them before the court, stabs them in the heart with their own dagger, and throws their body into Traitor’s Fall, a deep pit that leads to Kariman’s underground prisons.

The queen nearly gets away with it, but somehow, the Sandfox survives, and is determined to take revenge. You spend your time in The Siege and the Sandfox working your way back to the surface, navigating damp caves, treacherous prisons, and ruined mausoleums, parts of the city abandoned and forgotten. This is more than a simple tale of revenge, as you might expect. When you plumb the depths of a place, you’re always going to find the unexpected. But it’s a pretty compelling yarn all the way through, complete with narration that talks about what you’re doing at any given moment and, from the beginning, reminded me of a bedtime story. So the setting is cool, the music is wonderful, and the story intrigues. But that’s not what endeared The Siege and the Sandfox to me.
What endears it to me is that it’s a stealth game. You don’t really fight in The Siege and the Sandfox. If you see a guard, you hide, you run, you sneak past. If you get behind them, you can knock them out with a blackjack, though that doesn’t work if they're wearing a helmet. Mostly, you’re trying to avoid being seen.
The Sandfox can run up walls, pick locks, climb walls and ceilings, slide under low overhangs, and glide. You unlock all of this by finding equipment in the world — this is a Metroidvania, after all — and each opens up new areas of The Siege and the Sandfox’s massive map.

Hide in a box or a vase as a guard passes, then extinguish a torch and sneak past him. Wait on a ladder as one walks over the wooden planks above you. Be patient. Be cunning. A fox, and you’ll succeed. Sometimes, the enemies are too clever, or in strange places, or discover you and won’t leave until you get caught, but, by and large, the focus on stealth works, and I was grateful to play a game where my main interaction with the world wasn’t violence. I could put people to sleep if I needed to, but it was better if they never knew I was there at all.
As you move through the world, you’ll befriend various people. One man asked me to find his pet rat, and when I brought it back to him, he ate it in front of me. The Underking asks me to fix a fight in an underground arena to best his rival. She asks me to deface a portrait of him. A man losing at a game of chance asks me to set up a mirror to help him fight back. It would be a better idea if he weren’t playing dice. Each interaction, while short, is unique. Every character is a stepping stone along your journey.
Traversing as the Sandfox is largely a joy. Platforming and running has weight, but it’s not heavy. Running up a wall, jumping from column to column or from surface to surface, and climbing are all satisfying. If I have one complaint, it’s that sometimes The Siege and the Sandfox requires you to drop off a ledge and slide down a wall to get in range for specific jumps, and it’s easier to walk off the edge completely and then have to climb back to where you were than it should be. I wish there was a button that would simply let me drop off the edge and grab it instead of having to do it myself manually, but it’s a minor gripe.

I enjoyed my time with The Siege of the Sandfox. I loved exploring its world, solving its puzzles, and learning which of my new abilities would get me where I needed to go. It was immensely satisfying to wonder if I could climb something, make a jump, run up something, find out that I could, and discover a new world as a result. The Siege and the Sandfox never loses that sense of wonder as you explore it, and I appreciate that deeply. It also doesn’t overstay its welcome. The entire game will probably take you between 6-8 hours, unless you’re really into the collectibles, which are little stories that flesh out the world. You don’t need them, but I was always happy when I picked one up and learned more about Kariman and the people who lived there. Like the Sandfox itself, this game gets in, does its work, and gets out, and I rarely noticed how long I’d been playing.
It’s a rare Metroidvania that feels different, that knows what it wants to be and manages to pull it off without feeling overly indebted to the games that inspired it. I enjoyed it, but most importantly, I felt like I was playing something with its own identity. Like the Sandfox themself, it could not be here without what came before it. But like the Sandfox, it charts its own path forward.
This review is based on a PC code provided by the publisher. The Siege and the Sandfox released on Steam on May 20th, 2025.
The Siege and the Sandfox
- Incredible pixel art
- Beautiful music
- Uses the ideas of the Metroidvania to try new things.
- Satisfying stealth and platforming
- Movement feels weighty and precise
- Doesn't overstay its welcome
- Enemies sometimes get "stuck" focusing on you
- Platforming can occasionally be frustrating
-
Will Borger posted a new article, The Siege and the Sandfox Review: Fox on the run