Six Years Later, Insurgency: Sandstorm Still Slaps

They, by whom I mean the punk band Red City Radio, said that a good man never walks away. They also said that they’ve never seen a good one stay. And until New World Interactive dropped the latest in a very long series of small updates for its six-year-old Insurgency: Sandstorm about a month ago, I was inclined to agree with one of my most listened-to artists on Spotify. However, after using the three new weapons included in its latest update against console players despite me not owning a console, and equipping its handful of new clothes for my character, I’ve realised that it’s possible good men (and women, and non-binary people, and whoever else makes up the development team who also made Day of Infamy) can in fact stick around. And by doing so, it’s possible for them to do great things, or at least continue to make an amazing first-person shooter enjoyable despite its age.

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I can’t say I blame anyone who hasn’t heard of Insurgency: Sandstorm before. It was released at the tail end of 2018 after a stint in Early Access without much in the way of fanfare. Although it was originally supposed to have a single-player campaign, its developers nixed that idea, and so instead it launched with two modes: online co-op and a player-versus-player component. More importantly, though, it also launched with all the core elements necessary for an amazing tactical shooter: astoundingly good gunplay and movement mechanics, a rudimentary progression system to unlock cosmetics, great visuals, the ability to talk with your teammates both in proximity chat and over a radio, and a lot of really cool guns. And, most importantly, it never tried to be the “next big thing”.

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If you pay attention to gaming news, you’ve no doubt read stories about video games made by developers who thought they’d overtake Call of Duty, Destiny, Fortnite, Counter-Strike, or Rainbow Six: Siege’s place in the industry. And a few months after the likes of Concord or Skull and Bones released, you’ve probably read about how they were abject failures that may as well as have never come out. However, you haven’t read any such stories about Insurgency: Sandstorm, because it wasn’t marketed as the next evolution in first-person shooting, or even a serious competitor to the likes of Squad or the aforementioned Counter-Strike. Instead, its trailers showcased a sequel to a relatively niche indie game that aimed to improve upon the original Insurgency. Which is exactly what it did. 

Insurgency: Sandstorm took what made its predecessor mildly popular (the ability to enjoy realistic and tactical gunplay in short 20-minute-long matches), refined or updated all the core elements of the 10-year-old title, and…well, that’s really it. The title didn’t reinvent its genre’s wheel, or even improve on it all that much. Instead, it used a concept that appeals to a small subsection of gamers to make a simply good game based on that concept. Although Insurgency: Sandstorm does have a few unique elements, like its point-based loadout creator and animations that actually impact gameplay, it doesn’t really do anything that other titles also haven’t done. It’s a great game whose developers are self-aware about what they created, and as a result, their title is still being played almost a decade after launch. The number of people playing it isn’t a lot, mind; at the time of writing, Insurgency: Sandstorm has an average of about 2,500 players on Steam (and presumably a similar amount on consoles). However, that isn’t a drastic drop from the roughly 4,500 who booted it up back in 2018, and you can still easily find a match at any time of day. So, in other words, Insurgency: Sandstorm has cemented its place in its genre. That’s something that can’t be said for the vast majority of video games, indie or otherwise.

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Now, just to be clear, Insurgency: Sandstorm isn’t a success solely because it’s a good game. The one thing its developers have done that seldom few others do is release constant content updates that continually breathe new life into their title. There have been 17 major ones in the game’s history, and none have been very big. The bulk of them only added a few free weapons, a map all players can enjoy, some paid cosmetics, and occasionally a new mode. They’re not substantial by any means, but they don’t have to be. Insurgency: Sandstorm was good enough at launch that if its developers had abandoned it, people would be playing it just like they do Rising Storm 2. However, because there’s always new toys for players to kill one another, or AI, with, there’s always a reason for players to keep it installed on their harddrive. And, although this isn’t very important for people who enjoy shooting realistic depictions of firearms, it is very important for developers who enjoy paying for luxury items like rent and food because it encourages players to drop a few bucks/pounds on a skin pack occasionally.

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You, and my editor, are probably wondering where this rant of mine is going, so I’ll get to the point (besides trying to encourage you to play Insurgency: Sandstorm, obviously). It may be a stretch to call the title a case study on how to make a “sustainable” video game. It’s anyone besides its developers’ guess how much money the title has made, and whether or not that offset the costs of its perpetual development. New World Interactive was bought out by Saber Interactive in 2023, and Saber was sold by Beacon Interactive in 2024. So, financially, the game may or may not have been a success. But in video gaming culture, it’s achieved something that few others have by doing something that should be simply common sense. Insurgency: Sandstorm’s developers released a great shooter knowing it was never going to be the next Call of Duty, then continued to release free, if small-scale, expansions to keep its players playing. And as a result of both of these things, Insurgency: Sandstorm is still a great shooter with an active player base despite being over six years old. It certainly couldn’t hurt for more games to follow its example.