Level Up: the Cave

The earth has rotated around the sun once more since I have been born and I am reminded of my mortality: and I celebrate this by reviewing a PC game! Yaaaaaaay! This year is a little different though, as I’m reviewing my first steam game. And by that, I don’t just mean that it’s the first time I talk about a game available on Steam, but also it’s the first game I bought on there. As a matter of fact, the game was even released to Steam on my birthday in 2013. Let’s take a look at The Cave.

I typically make a purpose of mentioning the companies involved in the making of a game, in this case Double Fine Productions are the Developers and Sega is the Publisher. I do this not just to give credit to them, but because it can give people an idea of what type of game you might be in for. In this case the name Double Fine might have been a hint, but I think it would be better to mention the game was created, directed and written by Ron Gilbert, who is mostly known for his work on The Monkey Island series and the Maniac Mansion games. That is pretty much the linage that leads us to this game and heavily influences the style, but I might be getting ahead of myself.

The game stars 7 archetypal characters: a Hillbilly, a Knight, a Scientist and so forth. You start off at the entrance to a Cave knowing practically nothing about them. However, The Cave itself is apparently magical (and sentient), as it promises that it will deliver what you desire most. However, as you adventure into the cave, you’ll find that there is a section that represents a scene from the past of each character. Here’s where you learn about the characters one by one and what they have done to land them in the Cave. There are also cave paintings which show these scenes in better detail. As there are 7 characters, the stories don’t run TOO deep, but it is enough to give you an idea of how different the Aventurer and the The Knight are.

Package all that with puzzles and NPCs full of just odd humor, and you get a weird story that kept me coming back for several playthrews.

While the game has 7 characters to play as, you only pick 3 characters to use per game. This means having to play at least 3 times to see the full game (as the sections for the characters you aren’t playing as are locked off), and as every character has a good and bad ending, you’ll need to play through at least 5 times to see all of them. However, since this game is sort of a point and click adventure, parts of the game you’ve already played through will go faster making each run shorter due to already knowing what needs to be done. Yeah, while there are 4 sections of the game that are mandatory no matter what character you are, there are only one or two times where something  feels like a chore.

Also, some of the characters can help make those sections easier. While most of the time, your three characters are like pawns- strategically placing them so that they can get the most done the fastest, having them carry items and interact with their environment- each character also has a special skill you can use. All of them are used heavily in their respective sections, but people have found ways to use them creatively to skip certain sections of the game. While not all are as useful- the Twins’ power don’t have much use while the Knight is almost invaluable- they do have their moment and change the game enough to keep things interesting, even if it is just for one section.

The Cave is one of those games that I have played over and over again and keep enjoying due to the quirky humor of it. The game play balances having to think and having to do well for a point and click inspired game. True that the characters might as well be chess pieces in some cases, just to be set in certain locations. But, in a way, that’s what I enjoy about the game: controlling the characters, placing them in the right spots and using their skills the right way. The graphics also look pretty good (making the characters look like figures, back to the chess pieces thing) and it even runs well on a relatively bad computer like my old laptop was. It may not be a perfect game, but I think I’ve proven with Spider-man Shattered Dimensions that I’ll take a really charming game, fun game that makes me want to play through again and again, over one I can’t find a flaw in. I give the Cave for the PC 10 levels out of 10.