82

Worth the Trouble

bradleytown503 | May 4, 2013 | See all bradleytown503's reviews »

This game is really enjoyable. The stories are actually pretty hilarious, and the gameplay and puzzles are enough of a challenge to warrant replay.

Admittedly, playing this single player is the lesser of two possible experiences. Having to constantly switch between characters is a bit of a hassle. It is completely worth it, and the controls and graphics really help make it more manageable.

Multiplayer is the ideal way to play this game, and if you use controllers, having more than one can really help if you're a local multiplayer like myself.

All-in-all this game is fully worth picking up even to play alone, as the gimmick of having three characters becomes second-nature pretty quickly.

67

Bad game designs is it's demise

MDuh | May 4, 2013 | See all MDuh's reviews »

So What is the cave, well it’s a coop puzzle platformer made by double fine productions. Double fine is responsible for games like pyschonauts, brutal legends, costume quest and etc.

Gameplay: The game supports up to 3 players locally. So you start on the game by picking 3 of the 7 characters introduced at the start. You are greeted by the cave’s a charming voice, yes it is a talking cave. Each of the characters has their own dark and deep story behind them and also, a counter dark story if you chose to. So there’s replayability potential on this game, completionist rejoice! Basically the game asks you to uncover the secrets below the cave. Riddled by numerous puzzles and also levels on the character you picked to learn more about his storyline. Each of the characters has its own special abilities so there will be instances that you need a specific character to reach a part of a level, adding more replayability points for the game.

The puzzle in this game ranges from logical to annoying, most of the puzzles are designed to utilize all 3 characters in solving the puzzles. Sometimes it’s just a smooth breeze solving it, but also there are times where it is annoying enough that you wouldn’t expect to solve the puzzle in that manner. Another factor that adds to the annoyances on this game is the lack of split screen support. It was supposed to be a coop game but they purposedly lock the camera to a certain distance. If one of you ventured far enough on the camera, it will prevents you from doing so OR, the worst part is, it will move the camera focus the one guy. You can imagine how annoying that is for the other 2 players playing with you. Another annoyance on the game is it doesn’t have any AI. Yes, If you are playing it alone, you are required to control the 3 of characters 1 by 1. At least they should add a follow mechanic for the AI right? Since it is a platformer, you are guaranteed to jump a certain ledge 3 times, climb the stairs 3 times, swim to 1 point 3 times and etc. The lack of AI also means replaying the game becomes a hassle. But the main gripe for me in this game is the lack of inventory feature, you are only allowed to hold 1 item every character, so you are wondering, how this becomes an annoyance? Well, in some larger maps that involves puzzles, there are instances that you need to use an item and also need to station one of your characters to an area ready to press the button or pull a lever. If one of your character holding an item required to do a task in another end of the map, it becomes a chore to walk your character to the other side of the map to drop that item and bring back him again to that lever or button.

Gameplay score: 5.5/10

That’s all for gameplay, lets head to graphics.

Graphics and performance: The game has its own unique style and graphics on it, Graphic style is really good and I don’t seen any levels that is poorly made and designed graphically. The atmosphere of the game fits the game and story surprisingly well, they managed to fit a carnival, a castle, a forest and many more in the cave and it doesn’t look weird at all. The game has some performance issues though, fraps says that I’m running the game @ 60fps, but it doesn’t look like it, it feels and plays like a 30fps game. I’m not sure if the devs have already addressed this issue because I know at release, the game was locked at 30fps.

Graphics and performance score: 8/10

Sound and Dialogues: The fact that I didn't think about the sounds while I’m making the review means it’s good. If it didn’t bothered me at all, then it means it fits the atmosphere ad motif of the game really well. For dialogues, nothing much to say, the characters are mute, but the humorously good narrator makes dialogues fun to hear garnering a perfect score for this department.

Sound and Dialogues score: 10/10

Final verdict and Is it worth it?: The game was released in multiple platforms. But since it is a PC review, we are only concerned on PCs. The game was released on the steam platform on January 22 2013 and since then, the game has dropped below 5$ since the release of this review from nuuvem and gamersgate.

For what’s it worth, me and my sister finished one playthrough in around 4.5 hours, right exactly from the average time that howlongtobeat.com has posted. As I said earlier, there is replayability potential in the game. The game can be replayed up to 5 times to unlock all the story behind of each character. There are 14 stories to be unlocked 2 from each character branching out. It’s hard to replay the game though since it feels doing 3 of the 6 puzzles again becomes a major chore annoyance (the game has 6 levels, 3 of which is given regardless of the characters you chose, and 3 from each of the character). If you can tolerate the annoyances in the game and it’s repetition, then this will be a good buy for you.

For 15$, I think it’s a good experience playing the game and also with its unique atmosphere. but I suggest to get the game at least on 50% sale due to its design flaw and repetition. For that price, I think it’s worth it.

Final score(60:30:10 ratio): I give a 60:30:10 ratio for this game because gameplay is much more important for a platform puzzle game netting the game a final score of:

Overall Score: 6.7/10

85

Solid Fun

pswan77 | April 29, 2013 | See all pswan77's reviews »

I recommend it. The game is fun. It reminds me of a blend of Limbo and Trine. The puzzles aren't too hard, but there are some really good ones in there that had me stumped for a while. There are seven characters to choose from, but only three can be chosen for each run thru the game. To see the whole game, it will need to be finished at least twice. I did complete all the character-specific levels. The Scientist and the Time Traveler levels were my favorites. They were all good, though, except for possibly the level for The Monk and The Knight. They were too short and too easy. They were still ok, though. There are several sections that are a part of every run-through regardless of the characters chosen. The writing is funny and the voice acting is really well done. It took about 12 or so hours to see all of the game. The art style is cartoony and pleasant. The graphics are serviceable, but nothing special. The first time dynamite blew up, the explosion crashed the game. Other than that, it ran flawlessly at a smooth 60fps throughout. My biggest gripe with the game is the amount of back tracking. There is so much back-and-worth when trying to figure out the puzzles for the first time and climbing ropes takes forever. It's not a huge deal, but its something that's ever present. Overall, The Cave was a really enjoyable experience.

70

Good atmosphere

warnold | April 28, 2013 | See all warnold's reviews »

I've been waiting for this game as a fan of the point and click adventures by Ron Gilbert. The game's sense of humor, as well as the settings, and the overall atmosphere are great. However, without an inventory the puzzles tend to be a bit on the easy side. Another issue that others have mentioned as well is too much backtracking. It's no fun to run through a huge level for the 4th time to pick up that one item, then all the way back with it...

The game's built to encourage multiple playthroughs to get all character's stories and endings, but tbh I did not feel like starting over after my first playthrough.

Overall, not a bad game, if you pick it up for a few bucks.

70

Good for a Playthrough

canfortress | April 25, 2013 | See all canfortress's reviews »

The cave is an interesting game in it's own way, but quickly gets repetitive. The characters are great and their own individual stories are different and make the game a little more varied. Each character has different powers that help to alter how puzzles are solved. However, even though the game changes depending on what three characters you pick, there are still three levels that are always in the game that never change. Those three puzzles are the only things keeping from giving me this game a better score as they are the most boring and annoying of all the levels in the game. Another factor that lessens the appeal of the game is that The Cave (the voice) doesn't have too many comical remarks. There are a few good jokes sure, but nothing outstanding. The Cave is somewhat short, but it is well worth the price to at least playthrough the game once.

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