Adventurous (but Repetitive) Spelunking
Plato’s Allegory, The Cave tells us that people have lived their entire lives in caves that they do not understand, and that it is the philosopher’s job to try to describe it to us. Ron Gilbert’s game, The Cave is a lot simpler, mainly that the titular cave holds something that everyone who enters desires. That object of desire is different for each adventurer, and what they do once they are in the cave affects what fate befalls them. This newest entry from Double Fine, a company best known for titles like Psychonauts and Brutal Legend, has a great deal of personality and promise. Sadly, much of that promise ends up buried beneath a thick layer of repetition. It is a little like reading a novel, but having to go back to the first chapter each time before you can read a new one. Clever perhaps, but frustrating too.
The Cave is Ron Gilbert’s return to the Adventure Game, a genre that he helped pioneer with games like Maniac Mansion and The Secret of Monkey Island, classics, obviously. He’s dropped the point-n-click aspect of those games, however, to instead create an adventure game that controls like a platformer. The platformer aspects of the game aren’t particularly engaging, and when you are running back and forth trying different items with different objects, you’ll wish that you could just point-n-click your way around the area or at least have an inventory. The things that The Cave takes away from the genre are the things that would have made for a tighter game. The game suffers somewhat from the way that you interact with the cave itself, and the rest of the world around it.
That isn’t the only way the game gets repetitive. There are seven playable characters, but for each playthrough you have to choose three. Each character has his or her own distinct storyline and series of puzzles that must be solved, so you’ll want to replay through the game in order to see everything. The problem is that there are as many, if not more, puzzles that repeat with each playthrough. What’s even worse is that you’ll have to do this three times to see everything, playing one of those playthroughs by repeating two characters. In my opinion, this keeps the game from being great, though it doesn’t ruin the experience completely.
The puzzles in the game are really fun, and the character-centric content especially. They all have specific gimmicks that are based on the character. For instance the time traveler character actually has to travel through time in order to solve her puzzle. All of the characters have different abilities as well, which allow them to solve puzzles differently by using these abilities. This keeps the game from becoming too stale.
Also on display is the style of the game. The graphics aren’t fancy, but they do have a cool artistic feel. The cave, despite the game’s name, isn’t the only environment, either. Inside the cave there are mountains, jungles and castles. The writing is another strong aspect of the game. It’s not always funny, but it will leave you chuckling at times. It can also be very dark at times, especially as you discover more about the characters and why they have entered the cave in the first place.
The Cave has its flaws, but it is not a bad game. It is funny, attractive and even a little amusing. It’s an easy game to find fault with, though, and to let those faults obstruct what is great about the game. It’s still enjoyable, and if you’re a fan of the adventure game genre you owe it to yourself to check it out. It’s available for $15 on WiiU, Xbox 360, PS3, Mac and PC, and is coming to the Ouya. So if you are reading this you probably have something to play it on.
