Caravan

I played this for 10 hours hoping it would get better. It didn't. This is a mostly mindless "strategy" game that barely requires any thought and is barely connected to Arabian mythos. The trade, the focus of the game, is barebones. Trade items are divided into 5 different categories, with each town having a value for each category from Very Cheap to Invaluable. At random intervals, merchants get restocked and the value of the categories is randomly changed. There's no discernable rhyme or reason to why prices change or where things are in supply or demand. Trade is a matter of constantly checking the map for nearby deals rather than figuring out good trade routes. If you have high enough Haggle stats, you don't even have to do that: you can just buy goods at a 20% discount, then immediately sell them back at 20% above the market price. Haggling and combat checks are similarly mindless. Each character has 3 different stats, and the actual results are determined by a Rock-Paper-Scissors comparison of which ones are higher, but all you really need is a higher stat total than the enemy. Although there's 5 different types of companions, 98% of your haggling and combat checks will be made by a single Mercenary (highest combat stats) and a single merchant (highest haggling stats). I rarely felt any actual strategy was needed to win these checks. Traveling itself quickly gets boring. Each route between towns has 1-3 random encounters, and there's only 1-2 dozen different encounters in the game. Expect to repeat each encounter 15+ times before you finish the game. None of them are particularly interesting or make it feel like an Arabian setting. Even the main questline barely uses the Arabian mythos. The only mythological creatures are ghouls and djinn; the ghouls act like zombies, and the djinn spend most of their time possessing people. It doesn't feel like a Sinbad or Scheherazade tale. I spent the whole game waiting for it, and the game itself, to get exciting.

The point I decided "enough is enough" was this: Just after leaving a town I lost most of my water in a random event. But I couldn't head back to refill, the only option was to press on to the originally selected destination despite the fact that I wouldn't make it even halfway with the remaining water. This is so bloody stupid I quit and uninstalled at once.

I've gotten past the first chapter and so far have been enjoying the game. The pros: -the writing is nice and it keeps you engaged: I like the subtle world-building through some of the events -art is nice, the game has an atmosphere and is visually consistent -there is a risk-reward cycle that keeps things interesting -failing resets you to last checkpoint which is nice The cons: -I've found some parts of the UI to be a bit confusing - it's not obvious that you can (and should!) click on the icons around you when the caravan is moving to trigger extra encounters. Also I've had some minor issues with resolution and the world map not moving around properly. -there isn't a huge variety in gameplay -no replayability Overall, I think the game is good if this is your cup of tea. It's very zen, calm, something to sink into after a long day.

---------- ENGLISH REVIEW ---------- Despite the opinions of others about this game, I like it. It took me almost 15 hours to finish it, playing with calm. The game is very easy, you just have to buy and sell goods, travelling in different towns, an easy concept. You have your group made by some specialists, like merchants, warriors, healers ecc plus animals and helpers for the heroes. I got this game with the Pinata event on GOG and I'm happy because otherwise probably I'll never know this game. See it for what it is, a small game, with beautiful music and an enjoyable story, for some people it can be boring maybe, but in my opinion is a nice little game. ---------- RECENSIONE ITALIANA ---------- Indipendentemente dalle altre opinioni riguardo questo gioco, a me è piaciuto. Ho impiegato quasi 15 ore per finirlo, giocandoci con calma. Il gioco è molto semplice, dovete acquistare e vendere beni, viaggiando da una città all'altra, un concetto semplice. Avete a disposizione un gruppo composto da specialisti, come mercanti, guerrieri, guaritori ecc oltre ad animali ed aiutanti degli eroi. Ho ricevuto questo gioco con l'evento Pinata su GOG e ne sono felice perchè altrimenti è probabile che non avrei mai saputo dell'esistenza di questo gioco. Prendetelo per quello che è, un piccolo gioco, con una bella colonna sonora azzeccata ed una storia godibile, per alcune persone potrebbe essere noioso, ma a parer mio è un piccolo gioco piuttosto carino.