Caravan SandWitch

Game Title: Caravan SandWitch
Released: September 12, 2024
Game Length: 10 Hours
Grade: B

Mechanics

Upgrades: Chapters 2 through 6 will have you going after an increasing number of components to upgrade equipment for your caravan. Some upgrades will come after you accept a quest. Your friend will first give you a device that will help identify where the signal jammers are coming from. This device does a lot more than that. It will help you identify where the energy flows through generators and doors. Eventually, you'll be able to hack into pads to read old messages from your sister and locked doors. A grappling hook can pull up buried treasure and container doors. Create a line for your pulley by attaching it to hooks. This pulley will allow you to explore underground passageways, shortcuts, and hidden areas high above the ground. A virtual space will act as your tutorial as you receive each one.

Collectibles: There are a ton of things to collect while exploring the desert. Question marks will generally show a spot where you can sit down on a cushion and watch the camera pan very slowly for 30 seconds before showing you a picturesque viewpoint. They might also lead you to finding radios that will play some very experimental music within the area. You can collect a number of stuffed animals for the baby. A nomad will want you to collect 10 wild flowers, 10 triangle sandwiches, and 10 vending machine snack bars. The frog people will want you to rescue 5 tadpoles while the robots want 5 of their kind. All of this is in addition to the four colored components you'll find on old technology.

Conveniences: To smooth out your gameplay experience, there are plenty of things that maintains a cozy atmosphere. You do not have to worry about dying from a great fall or being careful not to hurt your caravan. While there is a figure everywhere you go that might give you a little bit of a scare, it will not hurt you or jump out around the corner. You can mark your map with different colors that show up on your mini-map. Whenever you have a passenger, a path will show you where to go for your destination. You can return to your caravan no matter where you are, return to the garage in the village from the main menu, or use the teleporters between the sites once you unlock them. Your game will automatically save if you quit the game (manually or forcibly). 

Gameplay

Story: The game provides you a number of quests where you explore and communicate with each individual on the planet. These quests aren't essential to advance the timeline. The only requirement is turning in the necessary components for the next upgrade. However, you will not be able to reverse course for these quests if you continue to the next chapter. You will be notified if there are any of these quests before upgrading your caravan. 

People: The desert has a number of beings who have lived through the tough times. You have your friends and family who have decided to leave behind the corporation and live on the planet. There is a band of nomads who have tried to live off the land. There is a group of frogs who have tried to keep to themselves in the mushroom forest. There's also the robots that the company left behind who have tried to take matters into their own hands. As you figure out how to reach your sister, you'll learn how these different groups made use of each other to live after the company's disaster six years ago. 

Review

Summary: While the story and setting of Caravan SandWitch is compelling, you'll quickly realize that there isn't a lot of substance in this limited game space. You'll be backtracking to the same locations and learning a little more of the overarching story until the epic conclusion that leaves you bewildered on your entire journey. The developers did their best by creating shortcuts that loop you back to each of these ruins as you progress each chapter, but there is still a level of discontent when you find yourself visiting the same location only to discover that one place you couldn't explore now unlocked with your new upgrade. Driving around in a van without worrying about survival mechanics was certainly a good choice, but requiring you to turn your graphics up to the maximum to read the posters on the wall wasn't really helpful. In the end, I don't recommend this game.