Caravan SandWitch review

Since the early days of video games, themes of violence and killing have always been the main axis they have been created around, and this has generally been accepted without controversy. After all, the film industry thrived on these subjects long before, and the gaming industry simply followed the well-established trends.

Yet, from time to time, a video game emerges in which you do not fire a single bullet or draw a single blade, where the violence is completely excluded from the equation. Well, one such game is Caravan SandWitch, a game in which you just walk and drive around, explore, gather ingredients, and help your friends solve problems.

Caravan SandWitch is an indie title made to relax you with its beautiful artistic world, stress-free gameplay where the usual actions don't require any special skills or good reflexes, and soothing music that has a therapeutic effect on you while you're playing the game.

Dear Villagers

Caravan SandWitch

The game opens with Sauge, a young woman living in a large city, receiving a distress signal from her sister in their hometown of Cigalo, which Sauge left under mysterious circumstances. When she returns to Cigalo, she finds that not much has changed—the same people, the same town—though many still hold grudges over some of her past actions.

Once she arrives, she must deal with her past and present problems because the entire place is under communication blockade caused by some mysterious circumstances. And that's pretty much how the plot starts to thicken in this game.

Throughout the entire game, your main objective will be to restore communications and find the source of the distress signal. The story has some nice moments and it's intriguing enough to make you go to the end, but to say that the story is something special and that you should play the game for the sake of it would be completely incorrect.

Dear Villagers

Caravan SandWitch

What this game sets apart is definitely the atmosphere and the relaxing gameplay you'd appreciate if you are tired of those tension-packed games where the difficulty of some bosses can make you break a $100 worth controller in mere seconds. It seems Caravan SandWitch is made to relax you with everything it has to offer.

When it comes to gameplay, there's really not that much you can do in Caravan SandWitch, and while some might see this as a drawback, I believe that the developers hit the mark by designing the game this way, because if it were designed in any other way, it would simply blend in the sea of the same or similar titles.

All you actually do in Caravan SandWitch is walk around, climb the rocks and other climbable surfaces, drive a van in which you'll spend the majority of your time, scan stuff with your van, and do the main and optional objectives. The main objectives will be the ones related to the story, while the optional objectives are errands you'll run for your friends—nothing really innovative, to be honest.

Dear Villagers

Caravan SandWitch

Apart from those activities, the main activity you'll be doing is activating towers or destroying jammers on those towers, which will allow you to unlock the map and all its activities. Once the part of the map is unlocked, you'll be able to explore it in a real Ubisoft game manner with lots of question marks ready to be discovered.

The activities range from finding new radios that you can activate and listening to new songs to places where Sauge can sit, relax, and enjoy some beautiful views. As I mentioned before, all the activities are predetermined to serve only one purpose—relaxation and carefree gaming.

The game’s art style improves the overall relaxing atmosphere, complementing its calming gameplay with equally soothing visuals. While not aiming for realism, the graphics are stunning due to the excellent art style and thoughtful colour choices that bring the game world to life. The style is somewhat cartoonish, featuring unique characters and a vibrant, colourful design that adds to the game's charm.

Dear Villagers

Caravan SandWitch

Given that the game has an open-world design, every corner of the world has something inside it. I was very surprised by the level of detail this game possesses, and in that regard, the game's level and graphic designers deserve special praise.

I cannot say that the world is filled with activities, because it isn't, but the way the world is designed, this seems like a huge missed opportunity, because if the developers decided to make a little more effort and put a bit more activities in this beautifully designed world, the game will get a huge jump in quality. This way, it seems a bit undercooked with the world that feels somewhat empty.

The other aspect of the game that can be praised is a very good sound presentation. I already mentioned that one of the activities you can find in the open world is radios containing different songs. Those songs are very good and very well-written, at least for a game of such production level.

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Caravan SandWitch

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for voice acting, which is completely excluded from the game. Yes, the game doesn't feature voice acting, even though you'll converse a lot with people and sometimes even choose different answers in the manner of a true RPG game.

While I understand that engaging real voice actors can be expensive, for a game of such genre and gameplay choices, it was simply mandatory. Let me explain. Since you'll talk a lot with the others because, apart from gathering materials and driving the van, this will be the main gameplay feature, you'll have to read a lot, and that simply breaks the immersion.

Instead of enjoying the game, you'll quickly get bored of all that reading, and on many occasions, I found myself skipping some dialogues that were very important for the story. With voice acting, this problem wouldn't exist, and I believe the choice to not include the voiceover was a huge miss.

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Caravan SandWitch

Conclusion

Caravan SandWitch is a game with a therapeutic effect that truly relaxes you as you play, as everything in it is designed with that goal in mind. However, it falls short in many other apects, with several questionable design choices, such as the absence of voice acting, which feels like a crucial missing element for this type of game.

However, if you're tired of overly intense games and searching for something a little lighter, then Caravan SandWitch might be able to provide you with that.