Caravan SandWitch

Written by Jason Dailey on 9/17/2024 for PS5  

It feels like cozy games, or at least laid-back gaming experiences, have been all the rage this console generation – not that I’m complaining. After a weeks-long bender of AAA game after AAA game that I’ve been on recently, a nice cozy game sounded like just the thing to settle down with for a bit to reset my game critic brain. Caravan SandWitch checks several of the boxes you’d want from a cozy game – art style, music, heart – but leaves a few big ones unchecked at the same time. It’s not the best game you’ll play this year, but it’s a brief, quaint pitstop on an otherwise long gaming road trip. And if you’re looking for a reset yourself, Caravan SandWitch just might scratch that itch.

The story picks up with the protagonist, Sauge, receiving a distress signal from the spaceship of her sister, Garance. A distress signal in and of itself is cause for alarm, of course, but the fact that Garance has been missing for six years – and presumed dead – sees Sauge rush to Cigalo, the planet where she once lived, and where her sister mysteriously vanished.

On Cigalo, you’re not the only person who needs help. Your former neighbors and friends have all manner of fetch quests they need assistance with, and that is where Caravan SandWitch lost me a bit. There are plenty of main and side quests to complete, but the majority are of the “go here, get this" variety, and over its eight-ish hour runtime, it began to wear thin. Now, with that said, this is an exploration game, so what better way to force the player to explore than to consistently seek out an item or resource for an NPC? I get it. But what you can’t do is combine cozy design with gameplay that becomes monotonous, and despite its best attempt to keep things fresh, Caravan SandWitch unfortunately falls victim to this.

As you explore Cigalo, you’ll be tasked with shutting down signal jammers to reveal new parts of the map and locate your sister’s distress signal. The world isn’t huge, but not small either, instead feeling just right to me for a game of its scope. From the get-go, you’ll gain access to a van from a friend that allows you to traverse the environment with ease. The van is used heavily for puzzle solving, but you’ll be on-foot quite a bit getting your hands dirty with puzzles as well. There are light Metroidvania elements at play, requiring you to return to areas once you’ve unlocked new equipment for your van. Obtaining new equipment requires components scattered around Cigalo, and you can also earn them as rewards for helping your friends. Sometimes they’ll send you out in search of a missing baby toy, other times they need seeds for a garden, but it’s almost always a fetch quest. Despite its lack of quest variety, I still enjoyed solving puzzles through the combination of the van’s tools, and Sauge’s climbing abilities.

The folks of Cigalo are a vibrant bunch, each one charming in their own way, and with their own reasons for sticking around on an otherwise abandoned planet. I won’t spoil the story for you, but 40 years prior, a space agency known as the Consortium abandoned the planet after an unfortunate incident. Those that stuck around did so for the hope of rebuilding, or a general distaste for the Consortium. The problem I had with the execution of the game’s narrative is the complete lack of any spoken dialogue. For a game leaning so heavily into its narrative, not to mention its characters, reading text box after text box put a damper on the experience. I wanted to hear these characters tell their story. I wanted to feel the jubilance, the love, and the concern in their voices, but could not, and it made it difficult to fully appreciate the narrative. I also found some of the dialogue a little too on the nose, or lacking nuance, which again, is something that could be solved with voice acting.

Despite my issues with it, Caravan SandWitch is a pretty game to look at, featuring great art direction. I don’t know how you make a barren wasteland feel cozy and vibrant, but they certainly pulled it off. The art style is gorgeous, and something I would describe as a digitized version of a watercolor painting. Parts of Cigalo look Mediterranean, some whimsical, and others like the remnants of technologically advanced civilization. It’s a shame there is no photo mode at launch because Caravan SandWitch is that good-looking. The game also has a nice, chill soundtrack, with some wonderful original music as well that fits the vibe of the game perfectly. With that said, the game’s camera is extremely finnicky on PlayStation 5, and not something you can easily look past. Getting too close to objects or the ground while panning around will occasionally cause it to flinch and flail like my three-month-old, which I’m sure is something they will get cleaned up with a patch, but right now it’s a bit rough.

Ultimately, I enjoyed my time with Caravan SandWitch despite not being fully captured by its spell. It’s a short and sweet experience that could have been much sweeter with some voice acting to properly flesh out its characters and narrative. Still, it’s worth a go for a weekend to enjoy its wonderful art, chill music, and laid-back exploration.