Get cozy on a dying world.
Caravan SandWitch is an odd game. It combines themes of returning home to loving friends and family, with a somewhat melancholy feeling of impending doom as the world around you struggles to survive. It is cozy, so long as you don’t look too deep. As such I was enthralled by the world Caravan SandWitch created. However the biggest challenge you’ll face isn’t a dying world, but rather an aging Nintendo Switch.
You play as a young woman named Sauge who receives a distress call from her sister who had long been missing. This prompts Sauge to return to her home planet of Cigalo, which had been largely abandoned after a major corporation pulled out and took all the work with it. Here she’ll reunite with what remains of her old friends and family. Much of Caravan SandWitch is built around helping the small community of people still on Cigalo as you search for signs of your sister.
This is all done through a social network that serves as an appealing take on a quest log. Quests are split into threads with the various characters involved occasionally posting messages as you make progress. Of course you have your primary quest, but alongside that are a constant feed of optional side quests. I found myself doing pretty much all of these as they’re an easy way to gather resources you’ll need to progress in the primary quest line. The underlying goal is to upgrade a van that you’re gifted early on. By gathering resources to add new tools to the van you’ll be able to explore more of the open world around you. Explore more and you’ll find more resources to make new upgrades and access new places. The van itself makes exploring a breeze, and prevents regular trips to and from the central town from becoming grating. It’s a smoothly implemented loop and the side quest design naturally pushes you out into the world to explore.
The characters and world of Caravan SandWitch are extremely endearing. Engaging with the people of the town and the various characters that wander the world around it is always worth it. I do wish that some of the human characters had a bit more variety in personality. Almost all of them are just effortlessly kind and happy to see you. As a result several of them tend to blend together, lacking many of their own unique traits. That being said, the various non-human species you’ll encounter, such as the native frog-like inhabitants, are much more interestingly written.
I was surprised by just how big Caravan SandWitch was. This is an open-world adventure with enough terrain to justify travel by van whenever possible. The Switch version holds up okay in the desert biomes of the map but struggles as you get closer to the center which is full of trees, foliage, and the primary hub town. The town itself is especially bad, dropping the dynamic resolution quite low and essentially never hitting a stable frame rate. More contained environments such as caves and buildings run significantly more smoothly but for the vast majority of the time you’ll be dealing with constant frame rate struggles. Now there is no combat or threat of death in Caravan SandWitch, so the frame rate rarely affects moment to moment gameplay, but it does severely impact what is otherwise an excellent presentation. I found myself pushing through regardless, but I’m also aware I have a higher tolerance for unstable frame rates than many others. This is really the one area where Caravan SandWitch struggles, but it is significant.
If you can get past the technical issues, Caravan SandWitch is an incredibly unique adventure game. It is simultaneously a very pleasant world to exist in, while not shying away from its inherent post apocalyptic themes. Driving around, exploring the world, and helping the characters you meet forms an excellent gameplay loop that can be surprisingly difficult to put down. This is an endlessly charming game, but one that comes with somewhat severe caveats if you choose to play on Switch.
