Caravan SandWitch Review: A Casual Yet Entrancing Open-World Sci-Fi Adventure (PS5)

I’m a fan of open-world exploration games with a little bit of adventure and storytelling thrown in. Perhaps that’s why I was drawn to Caravan SandWitch, which does just that. I’ll admit that I’m not a big sci-fi person. I’ve watched Star Wars once or twice and loved the original Terminator movies, but otherwise sci-fi games don’t generally appeal to me. However, I was too attracted to Caravan SandWitch to let it pass by. Now, I’m pleased I got to play this interesting title. I think it’s one that will stick in my mind for quite a while, adding to the growing list of memorable and intriguing games I’ve played during my time at KeenGamer. Here, I’ll share why you should check out Caravan SandWitch for yourself, without giving away any spoilers.

Caravan SandWitch is now available to play on PC, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch for $24.99.

Story – Looking for a Lost Sister in a Strange Storm

Here’s the general summary for Caravan SandWitch, the driving force behind the game and your motivation to keep playing. The game is set sometime in the future. You play as Sauge, who resides in Space City, training to be a pilot. She returns to a Provence-like world called Cigalo, where she used to live with her two dads and sister Garance. She has returned to Cigalo because she received a distress signal from Garance, who went missing six years ago after venturing into a mysterious apocalyptic storm called TARAASK. Her dad Cèpe has also gone missing. Sauge sets to find them both, and also discover a way to stop the destructive storm.

At Cigalo, Sauge is aided by long-time friend Neflé, a mechanic, and a bunch of other characters she encounters. Cigalo may have affectively been abandoned and left to ruin after the TARAASK arrived, but it does have a small community of people who reside there, either living in a small village, based at camps, or in the case of the Reinetos, a group of frogs, in a mushroom-populated cave. Each of these characters have their own motives, purposes, lives, backstories, jobs and skills. You get to know them more as you work through the game and help them in their individual smaller errands.

Sauge also has encounters with a mysterious figure known as a SandWitch, who watches over Sauge and her adventures in Cigalo. There’s a strange but also sinister undertone to the Witch. What do they want and why are they spying on Sauge? Are they a friend, a foe, or neither? Do they have something to do with the TARAASK that appeared 40 years before the events of the game? And just what did happen to Cigalo and Garance? All these are questions you’ll be inadvertedly asking yourself as you play Caravan SandWitch, propelling you to play on. In terms of storytelling, this game is pretty solid.

On an additional note, something you should know about Caravan SandWitch is that its cast is made up of LGBTQ+ characters. Some characters are referred to as “they/them”, while the game also contains same-sex couples, such as Sauge’s parents, who are both dads. It is good to see LGBTQ+ characters being used, and they don’t make a huge deal out of it either.

Gameplay – Exploring an Excellent Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi World

To sum up Caravan SandWitch‘s gameplay in a nutshell, it’s set in a huge post-apocalyptic sci-fi world, where you travel around in a indestructible van which you upgrade throughout the game. The game mainly consists of fetch quests, interacting with different characters, and exploring the world. The key thing to note though is that Caravan SandWitch contains no combat in any form whatsoever. There are no enemies to battle. This isn’t like Breath of the Wild where enemies are everywhere and ready to pounce on you. There’s none of that. You can just concentrate on exploring, gathering, and solving puzzles in the world of Cigalo. Sauge also has no health meter to watch out for; she will not die.

One other thing I will add is that you can expect to spend around 10 hours playing this game, depending on how much exploring you do, side quests, collectibles, etc. It will keep you going a while, but won’t take forever to finish (like Red Dead Redemption 2, for example, which for me takes about 2 months just when doing the main story, side quests, and a few collectibles and exploring).

Sauge, the protagonist and playable character of Caravan SandWitch.

The Indestructible Van

The van you drive around in across the world of Cigalo is the key part of the gameplay. You obtain this van at the start, and use it for the rest of the game. I keep using the word “indestructible” to describe it, but it really is immune to damage. I trash so many cars in GTA V, but that’s not the case at all in Caravan SandWitch. No matter what you do with this van, whether you crash it into a wall or rock or other obstacle, or even drive it off a tall cliff, you will not damage it. This makes exploration and traveling so much easier, and you can enjoy driving around freely and focus on the other stuff. I might also add that Sauge herself is somewhat indestructible as well, as she can fall from great heights without any apparent harm or even being stunned or falling over.

One thing I really liked in this game was you can warp back to the village garage at any time, to either save time driving back there, or if you happen to get stuck. It was a good idea to add this feature in. It’s easy to access as well; you just jump to the game’s settings and use the Return to Garage option, and just like that, you’re there!

The van is the coolest thing ever in Caravan SandWitch. It’s immune to damage and destruction and you can get useful upgrades to help you in your quests.

As you progress through the game, you unlock new upgrades with your van, which allows you to access new areas in the world and generally make exploring easier. For example, the very first upgrade is for a scanner, so you can scan the environment around you to pick up on notable objects and mark them. Later upgrades include a grapple hook to pull open doors and attach to poles to zipline across. These upgrades are very handy and worth working towards. Plus, you need them to work towards the ultimate goal of finding Garance and venturing into the TARAASK. In fact, they’re so significant that at each upgrade, a new chapter of the game is marked.

In order to upgrade the van, you need components. These are found in the world and are also earned from completing tasks assigned by characters. There are four types of components: common, uncommon, rare, and exceptional. Common and uncommon components are more easily found and obtained, while exceptional components are much fewer in numbers. For each upgrade, you need a certain amount of each type of component. As the upgrades go on in the game, you’ll need more components, including rarer ones. However, I did discover that you don’t need to get every single obtainable component, as after the last upgrade, there are plenty left over, even for the rarer ones, so you’ll never run out. It certainly makes it much easier this way, if for example you were unable to do the last upgrade and ultimately progress to the end because you couldn’t find that last component somewhere in the vast world.

Offering Assistance

Regarding tasks and quests, Caravan SandWitch has 3 types of missions; the main story missions that lead to Sauge upgrading her van and getting one step closer to finding her sister, continuous side quests that may involve collecting or finding certain items, and time-limited mini side quests that disappear at the end of the chapter if not done before the next upgrade. With this mission system in place, it’s assured that you won’t run out of things to do anytime soon, from the start of the game right up to the end.

As mentioned earlier, Caravan SandWitch features no combat at all. Instead, when it comes to completing missions, most of the time you’ll be asked to find something, drive somewhere, or speak to someone. It may sound mundane on paper, but each mission feels distinguishable from each other, as you’ll be exploring various places, dealing with different people, and looking for a variety of things. Also, each task you do feels significant to the story and lore of Caravan SandWitch, even if they don’t offer rewards like components. 

On the surface, side quests are straightforward, but they’re still interesting and insightful.

TOASTER

I’m not talking about a toaster as in something you use for cooking. TOASTER is the social media app used in Caravan SandWitch, which the characters including Sauge uses to communicate with each other. It’s also the place to find and track all missions. Timed tasks are noted with a clock symbol, while main missions are found at the top. TOASTER is a good place to remind yourself of what you need to do, tracking active tasks. It even has a handy feature that allows you to switch between the mission log and map, so you know where to find a character to speak to regarding the task or where you need to go.

Exploring Ruins and Talking to People

A big part of Caravan SandWitch is exploring, hence why you have the van to traverse across the vast world of Cigalo. It really is a big place. It’s not as big as the map in games like GTA V, Red Dead Redemption 2, or Breath of the Wild, but it’s big enough. It’s sizable enough to feel vast, but not so much that it’s overwhelming and you can easily get lost. The map is also useful for helping pinpoint your location. However, to unlock the map, you need to deactivate devices called signal jammers, which also interferes with TOASTER and reading messages about tasks. This can be annoying, but it’s all part of the experience, plus, dealing with the jammers is pretty easy and done quite early on in the game, so you can get on and access the whole map.

Continuing with the topic of exploring, as you might expect in a post-apocalyptic environment, Cigalo has a lot of abandoned ruinous buildings to explore. You’ll be doing a lot of urban exploring in missions, so you’ll get to see a lot and make discoveries about the world. Exploring and climbing may not be on the exact same level as, say, Uncharted, but it’s not far off. There’s a lot of climbing, jumping across ledges, pushing levers and buttons to activate platforms and open doors. Sometimes there’s so much to do you feel spoiled for choice, not knowing where to search first. At first, you may not have access to everywhere, but with more van upgrades, everywhere will be reachable. You even need your van to fully explore places. There are also spots where you can sit and enjoy the view, giving yourself a moment to take a breather from the game.

You’ll also be required to speak to people in Caravan SandWitch to start missions or progress. Sometimes, you’ll be given multi-choice dialogue, deciding how Sauge should respond. I discovered that it doesn’t make much difference regarding the story or gameplay what you choose. It just gives you a little more freedom with input.

Caravan SandWitch is appealing to those who like urbex (urban exploring), where you jump and climb around ruined and abandoned buildings.

A Small Caution for Players

Before I wrap up the gameplay section of my review of Caravan SandWitch, there is something I feel I should mention to make you aware of. It’s not so much a bug or glitch, but advice on playing the game: make sure you pay close attention to the dialogue and follow the instructions given in missions carefully. This might sound odd saying this specifically, but I’ll explain why. In my first playthrough, somehow or another, I ended up becoming stuck, in terms of progressing in the game. Without giving away too much so I don’t spoil the story, I wasn’t sure where I was meant to go, or what I was meant to do to progress. I tried everything I thought I was meant to do, but got nowhere. It began to feel baffling and frustrating. Eventually, I decided it was best to just start the game all over again and see where I’d gone wrong, what I’d missed.

I had far better luck in my second playthrough. Strangely enough, when replaying, the main mission logs were different. This time around, I had a better understanding of what to do, did the right things, and was able to make it to the end of the game. I realised that one small yet important thing I’d missed had messed up my progress. I could blame lack of design or direction on this issue. However, I’m willing to put my hand up and admit that in my first playthrough, I rushed the game too much, too eager to finish and get things done. This meant I didn’t pay enough attention to things like the dialogue, which tells you what to do, where to go, reminding you of your tasks, etc. Then again, the game could have prevented something like this happening by having characters give more reminders of tasks, as well as providing hints for when you get really stuck. You can’t go back and repeat dialogue.

Although I overall enjoyed playing Caravan SandWitch, this I felt was the only significant flaw in the game. It’s generally pretty good at telling you what you need to do, but it could do with more reminders or hints for when you get lost or stuck. It can be easy when playing a game to forget what you’re meant to be doing or miss something important, especially if you’re, say, tired or hurrying through dialogue, not fully taking it in, or if you take a break and don’t play for a while. The chance to repeat dialogue and current task objectives would be helpful.

It can be easy to miss important objectives or key information in dialogue, so pay attention!

Graphics & Audio – Wonderfully Immersive

Caravan SandWitch has a slightly cartoony yet also very real look about it. In a sense, it reminds me a bit of a comic book come to life. The striking yet organic look matches the game well. I like the way the characters have been designed too, distinguishable from one another. One standout visual for me is the TARAASK storm. It’s very reminiscent of Calamity Ganon’s presence at Hyrule Castle in Breath of the Wild. Throughout the whole game, as you go about your business, the storm is there, an ominous vision that’s hard to ignore. Like Calamity Ganon at the castle, it’s a constant reminder of your ultimate goal. It’s a subtle yet powerful vision in the game, seeing the swirling dark storm clouds in the distance of Cigalo.

The soundtrack for Caravan SandWitch was very fitting for its setting and theme. It changes based on whether you’re driving around or exploring an old ruin. I also liked the song that plays over the opening titles (created by Antynomy). The sound effects themselves were also pretty good. However, I did encounter a few issues when it came to sound playing in the game. Sometimes, for whatever reason, certain sound effects would stop playing. This happened a couple of times for me, and meant having to reboot the game to fix it. To be honest though, I didn’t find this too irksome, as it’s quite quick to restart the game (Caravan SandWitch, I should mention, has an excellent autosave feature).

Talking about the soundtrack, you can purchase the music for Caravan SandWitch, if you enjoy listening to it and wish to have it for chillout music.

Caravan SandWitch was reviewed on PlayStation 5 with a key provided by Jesus Fabre.