Double Fine’s most recent release, The Cave, certainly
embodies their quirky reputation. It has
the high production value we’ve come to expect from the company, but by its
nature as a puzzle game, it’s not likely to keep gamers entertained for more
than a few days. Here’s what it has to
offer:
The Cave is the tale of 7 fortune-seekers (well, 8 really,
as one of the seven is actually a pair of twins) who descend into the titular crevasse
in search of what they desire most. Each
character has a backstory told through cave paintings, the game’s collectibles,
and they’re surprisingly detailed and interesting for short series of still
images. The game’s narration describing
the characters’ quests in the Cave is similarly entertaining, as it is both
sharply written and fabulously presented.
The overall story is therefore quite impressive.
And the presentation is incredible. Beautifully animated, the protagonists travel
through a variety of gorgeous environments.
There are wonderful and subtle details adorning every room and corridor,
making for a fantastic journey through the Cave. The sound quality is equally high, with
brilliant voice acting all around and sound effects that successfully
accentuate the action. The music,
although also very good, is usually not noticeable. That’s not entirely a bad thing because the
ambient music does a lot to set the tone of each area, but it still would have
been nice to get some epic tracks during some of the game’s emotional climaxes.
Sadly, despite the awesome premise and presentation, the
gameplay is little more than ok. The
Cave struggles a bit against its genre in this respect. It’s a puzzle game in the style of some
old-school adventure titles, so it’s kind of a one-shot deal; once you know all
the solutions, there’s not much left to experience. What’s worse, the Cave is much shorter than those
classic adventure games that have clearly inspired it because it can be
completed within a few hours easily.
The Cave does mitigate some of those problems with the genre
with a clever variability in what the game has to offer. Although there are 7 characters, and each has
his or her own puzzle to solve, you may only use 3 of those characters at a
time. It’s actually a pretty cool
mechanic, as the Cave itself is linear, but you’ll get diverted to avoid some
of the puzzles. As a result, the overall
experience is different depending on which characters you use.
Now, this format isn’t without its downsides. There are, for example, a few generic puzzles
that you’ll encounter whatever characters you select, resulting in a tedious
and time-consuming obstacle in every playthrough. Also, although every character has a special
ability, those abilities are really only used in their individual puzzles. There are very few opportunities to use one
character’s ability to help with another character’s puzzle, eliminating a
chance for interactions for the characters.
As such, the specific team makeup doesn’t matter, it’s just a question
of which individual puzzles you’ll see.
My final complaint is that the puzzles themselves aren’t
nearly as expansive as their areas might lead you to believe. There’s a ton of backtracking covering large
areas, which gets to be very
annoying. For the most part, the puzzles
aren’t hard to figure out because there are only a few pieces to each. The one really difficult puzzle I found was only
difficult because I didn’t do something exactly as the game intended, causing
me to go searching for another answer that didn’t exist.
In the end, the Cave is a decent game with excellent
atmosphere and limited replayability.
Like most adventure games, the story (and humor) is the driving force,
and the puzzles are just there to challenge you along the way. If you’re interested in an amusing tale, it’s
worth checking out; otherwise, you’re better off spending your MSP on something
else.
My rating: 6/10 – decent.
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