Developer: 5 Lives Studios
Platform: PC
Genre: Adventure, Casual
Publisher: 5 Lives Studios
Cozy Caravan is a cosy adventure game. This game was developed and published by 5 Lives Studios. There are many games similar to Cozy Caravan, such as Fae Farm, Ikonei Island, Coral Island and many more. Cozy Caravan is currently in early access, and the review was done on the PC.
Cozy Caravan is a single-player casual indie game where you get to explore, craft, gather and complete quests whilst meeting many characters on your journey. The game introduces a ‘Happiness’ system where you can raise happiness levels and upgrade your caravan and your cooking abilities. The game is set in a peaceful world where nothing is much of a worry besides the items you plan on selling during market day. You start the game off with a brief tutorial that sets you on the path to explore the land. At first, you meet your pal Bubba, from whom you take on your journey to becoming a travelling merchant.
The controls for the game are very easy to get a hold of. When playing the game, interaction buttons are highlighted, which makes it accessible for players to know what they can do with certain objects. I tried the game with a keyboard/mouse and a controller. There was no lag nor delay in any of the controls, but I found that playing with a controller made the experience much more relaxing as it allowed you to play the game from wherever you like. The controls work quite smoothly. When starting the game, I absolutely loved the customization option where you can design your character by choosing from a range of animals such as a red panda, otter, fox, etc. It is not just limited to these characters, but it seems that as the roadmap continues, more characters will be added for you to choose from. Besides this, you can also change the voice, name and colour of the outfit for your character.
The art style features a charming cartoon feature, which is stunning and very unique. The game consists of plenty of adorable creatures for you to interact with, each with their intriguing personalities. I think the top-down view angle of the game is perfect for this gameplay style as it emphasises the exploration aspect of the game. There is also a usage of stop motion effect for the animations of the characters, which seems to effortlessly create a cosy feel to the game. I love how vibrant and pleasantly pleasing the colour palette of this game is, which goes hand in hand with all the little details brought to life. The art aesthetics of the game perfectly reflect the overall aesthetic of the game. Alongside the visual charm is the soundtrack that is featured in Cozy Caravan. It consists of melodic lo-fi beats, which create a calming environment. What I really like about the soundtrack is how well it indulges you on the journey, as it creates an instrumental rhythm that feels so peaceful. The music gives off a happy, bright and poppy feel, and it goes so well with the cute interactions and animations. The soundtrack compliments the sound effects in the game, which adds to the charm and makes the game feel more lively. Things like the whistling of the wind, the text speech bubble noises, the waterfall, footsteps on a bridge and much more captivate the player into the environment. I find it quite charming that the characters have a mumble-gibberish type of speech, which makes the game so much more adorable.
The game offers a lot of gameplay and heavily focuses on the aspect of the marketplace and character interactions. At first, you interact and meet with other characters who send you on quests to look for certain items. The quests keep on coming, and that in itself keeps the game interesting to play. Each quest allowed for further upgrades and unlockables that could be used for my caravan to make it an exciting place for people to visit. A lot of progression is delved into the game, which leads to unlocking further recipes to help you on your travelling merchant days. I personally found the mix in the quests to be really fun as some were more well-versed in the surroundings, whereas others were quite straightforward. There is so much to do, and you uncover more as you explore the world, which makes this game so much fun.
One of my favourite parts about the game would have to be the market day you set up on Saturday and Sunday from your caravan. The success of the market days helps you with further upgrades as it fills up your heat level. The market day event at first is quite hectic as the interactions with the characters are a bit confusing, but after a few trials, it starts to piece together. The game does not seem to have any negative sides to the market, in the sense that if you do bad, you do not get a penalty, which adds to the cosiness of this game.
Besides exploring, cooking, selling, interacting and filling up your heart level, the game offers other features which I find quite fun. One of the features I enjoyed messing around with was the floating camera, where you could take pictures of anything and yourself. I was so fascinated by becoming a red panda in the game that I was thrilled to take cute pictures of my red panda and the stunning environment. This mechanic seemed quite similar to Animal Crossing, and in some ways, the game does share a slight bit of similarity. Another thing that I really liked was the minigames for when cooking, which added to the gameplay and made the cooking aspect so much more enjoyable. Overall, the game was very enjoyable, and I believe with further updates, it will become even more cosy. It is a great game to pick up on when you want to relax after a long day, as it is quite stress-free and has charming visuals.
If you are looking to play a fun adventure game where you can interact with the unique characters, learn new recipes, craft and set up your caravan to the utmost cosiness to make it a success for a market day, then this game is just for you.
Overall: 8/10
This is S & S. We are world game explorers. We play games. We have played over 10,000+ games! We travel, we write reviews AND we play more games!!!!
