Friday, February 8, 2013

Hope You Don't Get Lost...

Game Mechanics - 1/2
Storyline - 2/2
Graphics - 1/2
Soundtrack - 1/2
Replay Value - 2/2
 Total Score - 7/10

Are ya ready kids? I can't hear you? Oh who lives in a pineapple under the....wait a sec wrong intro. Hey guys welcome to another video game review here with your friendly neighborhood gamer ZALGO_COMETH. Today we are going to be looking at  the recently released game titled "The Cave". Not one of the biggest releases for January as it was pretty much overshadowed by the release of the new "DmC: Devil May Cry" as well as "Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch". I opted to review this game because I feel it deserves some spotlight time as it is definitely worth a play; even more so if you are into puzzle solving and platforming. With that being said lets take a look at "The Cave".



The Cave is a platform-adventure video game developed by Double Fine Productions and distributed by Sega in January 2013 on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii U consoles via their respective storefronts and on Steam for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. The game was created by Ron Gilbert, building on an idea that he has had for nearly twenty years about a cave that lures people into it to explore their darker personality traits. The game borrows concepts from his earlier 1987 game, Maniac Mansion, in which the player initially selects three different characters from a cast of seven to explore the Cave. 



What’s Good:
Storyline; The Cave's story is based on a magical talking cave with a set of labyrinthine tunnels within it. Seven characters, drawn from across time and space and harboring dark secrets, have come to the Cave, believing they can "learn something about themselves and who they might become", as stated by Gilbert. As you play through the game you can unlock bits and pieces of each characters past that help the story unfold as the characters path to self discovery takes shape. This spans many areas and scenarios that are so verse that you undoubtedly will find yourself pulled into the story as it unfolds.

Replay Value; many of the game's puzzles require the three characters to work in coordination to complete, while some puzzles are specific to the unique abilities of a character; in this manner the Cave can only be fully explored through multiple play-through. With such a diverse set of characters to choose from and each with their own special ability you are guaranteed a multitude of different play-through experiences as you go about exploring the cave.

What’s Bad:
Soundtrack; honestly didn't really care for it. Don't even really remember feeling any bit of hype or suspense from the soundtrack. Was just there as an unimportant part of the game.

Game Mechanics; don't get me wrong the game mechanics of the game itself are ok but the fact that I had no idea what each persons special ability was even after trial and error to me is a big no no. So i feel like there should have been a better introduction or explanation of each character and what they are capable of so you can better choose your party of three to suit your play-style more. I ended up just picking who I thought looked cool.

What Should Have Been Added:
Not that the game lacked polish but in this day and age I feel like it could have used better graphics to help better bring across the importance of the cave and your surroundings as a whole. Hopefully there will be DLC to include more characters and possibly varying cave locations. They also needed a dedicated button to warp off screen players together because it got really tedious and annoying having to walk everyone together at times. I figure it might have been a better idea to make the co-op play split-screen so players have a better view and control of how they interact with each other.

Final Thoughts:
Overall "The Cave" provides a decent playing experience for anyone who decides to give it a shot. If you enjoy platforming games or puzzles you will definitely enjoy "The Cave". If you are just looking for a new game to try out as well I would recommend this as well. Hopefully if they make another one in the future they pick a better release window so the game can get a fair bit of exposure and not get overshadowed by bigger AAA titles.



3 comments

February 9, 2013 at 11:56 AM

lol i swear watching all the vids i was thinking how much puzzle games just arent your thing at all DWL

February 9, 2013 at 2:58 PM

yep i came to terms with this long ago that i suck at puzzle games most times.

December 7, 2022 at 8:41 PM

Thhank you

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