Within the first few minutes of playing Cozy Caravan, I was telling myself, ‘This is better than Animal Crossing. Yet, as a professional and alleged grown-up, I surmised that playing the game longer than a few minutes would give my opinion a bit more weight than a sudden statement. Also, I haven’t played Animal Crossing in almost five years, so it doesn’t seem entirely fair.
The immediate comparison is undoubtedly the cuteness and wholesomeness (is that a word?!) it brings, pushing forward the concept of community as if the firstborn daughter being married off to a nearby prince that will form a good alliance for the kingdom, or something like that. The world of kindness was instantaneous, with the little ‘Ohayou!’ sounding greetings to locals, or the abundance of happiness it brought, where everything was simply… harmonious.
That opening statement about Cozy Caravan was a white lie. It took me about 40+ minutes to get to that stage, as that’s when I finished with the customisation screen. Without any hint of a paywall or ‘you have to defeat the dragon on level 34 of the fire pits with nothing but a spoon made of Play-Doh’, you have the luxury of selecting a huge selection of cute animals and their associated attire and how they sound from the get-go. As a monkey lover (nothing dodgy), I was a little disappointed with how that looked and eventually opted for a fox.
Once past the first challenge of cosmetics, you’re introduced to the Guild and how you will be travelling around in your custom, cosy caravan, preparing dishes and servicing the community through kindness. It’s sort of like Fruitbus, but in the guise of Animal Crossing. There, we’ve mentioned it yet again, as there’s no possible way to avoid it. That said, the game isn’t marketed that way; it’s just the immediate levels of presentations and feel-good that make you observe the pair.
Instead of building houses and moving around furniture, you travel around with your driver, Bubba, by way of a giant bee named Rigby. Like The Littlest Hobo, you wander from place to place, performing random acts of kindness before moving on. On the flipside, you can stay for as long as you like and revisit the villages to natter with their townsfolk at your leisure. However, if you want something a bit more directed, you essentially travel during the week and open up a market on the weekend to sell your produce. It’s a simple setup, but a thoroughly rewarding one.
When visiting local farmers and whatnot, they’ll ask you to gather some of their produce for them, and in return, they’ll give you a fraction of the haul. You don’t always need to speak to them, though, as you can revisit areas (pending items have regrown) and effectively help yourself. It’s not stealing. Simply wave at someone, and it makes it all better. In addition to picking out fruit and veg in the wild, you take it back to your inventory chest and can either sell it at the market, or better: prepare some dishes.
Through exploration and good deeds, you’ll learn more recipes. In a short space of time, you’ll acquire a shopping list of sorts and then start making a mental note of where to grab strawberries, lettuce, or perhaps an easy apple or two. Retiring to your cozy caravan, you then perform simple QTEs to chop, dice and mix up new dishes to sell in the market, which is initiated by ringing the bell on the side of your caravan during the weekend.
Punters will step up and buy whatever you place on the tables, with the odd option to read their mind by way of a thought bubble, and perhaps lay down a dish or ingredient they’re after. After making a sale, you earn a few coins and by the end of the working day will fill your happiness gauge. Every time this is fulfilled, it restarts again, awarding you with a token to spend at the guild to do up your cozy caravan, buy new recipes and equipment that improves workdlow and profit.
What’s so damn delightful about Cozy Caravan is the lack of demand. While there is a day/night cycle that forces you to sleep rather than pinch everyone’s produce, it moves a heartwarming pace where you find yourself forgetting what the hell fast travel actually is and instead, heading back to a town you visited a couple of days ago as you remember seeing some carrots up for grabs that a local wants to trade you for a bottle of milk or something. And while Rigby is a gent, and Bubba, while hard to understand, is a decent bloke, you can pick up passengers as part of these low-demand side quests.
My youngest had the privilege of playing Cozy Caravan first as I streamed the PC to the lounge (take that, elusive Steam Machine!), and it was a joy to watch. The low demand, leisurely pace works just as well with young gamers as it does with battle-hardened oldies. It can be played with a controller, keyboard and/or mouse, and whichever you opt for, everything is intuitive and just… wonderful.
There’s not much to dislike about the game. I could comment on the pace, but that’s what I want/expect from the experience. Equally, the stop-motion aesthetic is incredibly charming, but in recent days, since playing, there’s been an update where you can disable it, as some killjoys have been moaning about it. Gamers, eh? And, in fear of this starting off as clickbait, my initial thoughts were right: Cozy Caravan is better than Animal Crossing, but I must stress that they are different games, though with some uncanny resemblances. Nevertheless, I can’t help but recommend this game from 5 Lives Studio as it puts your faith back into the community spirit.
