Open-faced
Better check those desert dunes againCaravan SandWitch, someones buried the lede.
Anopen worldyou can explore in a few relaxed evenings?
Ok, rain check on that last point.
SandWitch cant help but eventually funnel the freedom of ambling around in your chuffy yellow van into restrictive collect-a-thons.
Still, for much of its breezy runtime, this ones a real panacea for gamings more bloated map-scourers.
Sidequests and storytelling crumbs are deliberately scattered throughout, and each building is a thoughtful concrete puzzle box.
It is, in brief, a nice time.
Cigalos a cheery place, though economically and environmentally devastated after being exploited by an evil spacecorp named TheConsortium.
Everythings friendly, as it goes - even gravity itself.
Case in point - the towers.
Reductively put, thats still what youre doing here: scaling structures to reveal more of a map.
The difference being that each of these buildings genuinely feels like its own thing.
Riffs on a formula, sure, but tasty ones.
Im having real difficulty trying to put into words why I enjoy these puzzles so much.
Theyre both very easy and very satisfying at the same time, which feels like witchcraft.
They dont demand any real lateral thinking, or any fiddly thumb-jiggery.
I like them a lot.
I dont always want my brain teased.
Also, why look a gift chicken in the mouth, eh?
Ive seen whats inside those beaks, and its not pretty.
Not like the views here.
SandWitchs world is one of dead and disused things made vibrant, and discarded things brought back to life.
Dull concrete enlivened splashes of painterly weathering, a little reminiscent of a brighterRevacholianimpressionism.
Solar panels bend their necks graciously and hopefully toward the sky.
Right, the checklists.
Components arent hard to come by.
Theyre everywhere in the world, and also doled out for sidequests.
Your mates worry loudly about food supplies over a table bountiful with loafs and fruit.
The problem with immaculate vibes, I guess, is that even creases are basically just an aesthetic choice.
It is - a thousand words later - a nice time.
I took last week off work because I was thoroughly burnt out.
