Boring gameplay kneecaps Caravan SandWitch

I cruise comfortably in my caravan, traversing an area reminiscent of Provence in France. At the side of the road, a Reineto waves to me. That’s the indigenous population of the planet Cigalo, a race of anthropomorphic frogs. He’s lost his newborns and wants me to help him find them. Sure, who doesn’t want to plunge headlong into adventure for an oversized amphibian?

I meet the first kid just around the corner. But he only wants to come with me if I bring him a mushroom. So, I activate the antenna on my vehicle and search the ground for mycelia. That saves one Reineto youngling, leaving five to go.

The quests in Caravan SandWitch are similar to those in other Metroidvanias or open-world games. However, they feel different in this game from French studio Plane Toast. I can neither fight nor die. The cosy Metroidvania impresses with an exciting, well-told story about loss. However, I’m not convinced by the gameplay.

In search of Garance

I play a young woman named Sauge. She lives on a space station in the orbit of Ciaglo, where she’s being trained as a pilot. Suddenly she receives an emergency call from her sister Garance. That’s tragic per se. The fact that she’s been missing for six years and is presumed dead makes it even more alarming.

Sauge immediately sets off for Cigalo, where the distress call is coming from. She explores the planet in a caravan, which gradually offers more opportunities for exploration thanks to upgrades.

As with the land around her, Sauge reveals the secrets surrounding her sister’s disappearance. She also revisits her own childhood and her relationship with her father. The whole thing is embedded in the story of an apocalyptic planet, shamelessly exploited by a faceless consortium. In addition to personal and socially critical topics, economic and ecological issues are also addressed.

Caravan SandWitch succeeds wonderfully in combining all these themes with little dialogue and a lot of atmosphere. The likeable characters are all well written. Time and again, things are mentioned in passing that complete the picture of the story and characters. Now that’s good storytelling!

Despite all this praise, certain side missions lack narrative depth. Want an example? Okay, I’m travelling with an NPC for a job. He asks me: «Do you want to hear a good story?» Me: «Sure.» Him: «We once sabotaged a consortium convoy.» Done. Since the story is usually told so well, irrelevant conversation like this is particularly noticeable. More polish would’ve been needed here.

Rough gameplay

More polish also would’ve helped the gameplay. I explore the world either on foot or in a caravan. Not only am I faster on the road with the latter, I can also buy most of my upgrades for it.

Apart from moving, climbing, jumping and the skills I acquire over the course of the game, which can be counted on one hand, the Cozy Caravan offers nothing. I constantly solve the same puzzles using these skills, always on the lookout for components that allow me to develop upgrades for my vehicle. Thanks to them, I can venture deeper into the world, to where Sauge’s sister Granace is meant to be. There’s only variety in the order in which I have to do things. It quickly feels like work, not pleasure.

I’m also annoyed by the poor automatic camera control. And since I can’t see well, I keep crashing or getting stuck between rocks with my caravan. At some point I switch off the automatic camera and operate it myself. Still, if I get stuck, the game notices and I can teleport back to the garage. This makes game breaking bugs impossible.

The controls generally feel too spongy, I always dread platforming passages. Unlike other genre representatives, for once it’s not my lack of skills that causes me to crash.

At just under six hours, the game is relatively short. I couldn’t have endured the repetitive and dodgy gameplay much longer – despite the exciting story.

Between Provence and Tatooine

The explorable world of Caravan SandWitch is just the right size for the scope of the game. In typical Far Cry fashion, I quickly deactivated the transmission towers to give myself an unobstructed view of the map. Getting anywhere doesn’t take too long. I rarely travel more than two minutes from A to B.

Sauge’s home village serves as a hub. The only other inhabited areas are a nomad camp and a base for renegade robots. Despite the barren landscape, there’s plenty to discover. The ruins of the consortium’s high technology are the highlight. The whole thing reminds me of Tatooine from Star Wars, mixed with a bit of French Provence.

Thanks to caravan upgrades, places you’ve already been to offer more to do on a second visit. However, backtracking isn’t really necessary that often in order to make progress. If I complete the manageable side missions, I already have enough resources to progress.

The presentation is functional but aesthetically pleasing. I like the art direction, however, the game wasn’t yet optimal at the time of testing. I regularly encountered performance losses, various glitches and texture errors. According to the publisher, these problems will be fixed before release.

The soundtrack is just as sparse as the landscape. It purposefully offers little background music. I often don’t even notice it, and when I do, I unconsciously hum along to the catchy melodies. I’ll definitely remember the main track Pensée Dérobée by Antynomy, which I also listened to outside of the game.

Caravan SandWitch was provided by Dear Villagers. I tested the PC version. The game will also be available for PS5 and Nintendo Switch from 12 September.