The Cave (2013)

I did two playthroughs. With 7 characters total and three playable per playthrough maths forced my hand. Sorry, Monk, you got the short straw.

Anyway. It's a cool game, but it feels a bit unfinished. The core gameplay is serviceable. Good-enough platforming (if a bit too "sticky") and interesting puzzles. As with any Double Fine game, design, humour and voice acting are fantastic. Lots of genuinely funny lines, charming characters and lively animations.

The idea of playing different stories in different playthroughs to encourage replayability is sound, but is not very well executed.

The main issue is that a lot of content is not new. As I was starting the game a second time I was expecting them to either be completely skippable or be different in some way. At least slightly different dialogue that acknowledges that you have gone through this before. But no, everything is exactly the same.

Remember those funny jokes that made the eponymous Cave such a a charming character? Turns out they fall flat when repeated verbatim twice or (three times!).

Those generic sections that are the same regardless of the set of chosen characters? Turns out puzzles are boring to solve once you've already figured them out. Especially when they are set in overly big areas and demands you to move three characters from one side to the map to the other one at a time. The lack of an option to control all characters at the same time (or something like Trine, in which all characters are represented by just one) is baffling,

I you want to see the stories of each character, be prepared to repeat everything not once, but twice. And thanks to the incomprehensible choice of having 7 characters total, in your third playthrough you will be replaying two character-specific areas. And if you're really a completionist, prepare to replay the same areas 5!!! times, because each character story has actually two endings that differ only in two images at the end of the game.

Still, the game is worth it just for the humour alone.

The cave is a puzzle/platform game where you can choose on each play three characters from seven available. Depending on the characters, and what things those characters can do, the solution to the puzzles and areas visited will vary.

The game, by itself, is short. The replayability comes from your choice of characters. The puzzles are simple, but the narrator voice, the stereotypes of the characters, the cartoon-like situations and the story of each character make it up for them. I really enjoyed the stories of each character, the levels and how each part relates to one of them so at the end the adventure is a bit intertwined.

This old game can be found in Steam sales for €2-3 and for that price I wouldn't hesitate again to add it to my library. I had a lot of fun.

One of my favorite games of the last 10 years has to be the 2013 puzzle platforming adventure title from DoubleFine, "THE CAVE". A goofy throwback to the days of old gaming styles, featuring a bizarre cast, a wicked sense of humor and the single funniest sentient cave of all time, THE CAVE is a great look into morality in the simplest sense.

Now that the generic opening is out of the way, let's do things the way I usually do, and discuss this like it's a damn college thesis. THE CAVE is formed around a group of 7 (technically 8, as one of the characters is a set of twins) people, ranging from a knight, a time traveler and a hillbilly to name a few, who can head into a seemingly popular (?) tourist attraction, The Cave, where they are forced to face themselves and who they may become through their actions. The Cave itself is fully voiced, and fully sardonic, often giving some fantastic one liners.

One of the more interesting aspects surrounding the game to me is that it seems from the get go you will get to decide whether or not you want to be a good or bad person. But that is actually not the case whatsoever. In fact, THE CAVE, unlike other games that allow you to make decisions that are positive, negative and shape later plot points, is fairly set in its decisions from the get go about who you really are. Unlike games such as Mass Effect, there's no such thing as making a good decision and then making a bad decision here. There's only one way to go, are you a wonderful angel of virtue, or a slimy piece of crap? The choice is up to yours! That's not a knock against the title by any means, in fact, I'm glad it's that way. Keeps it more direct. Less muddied. But it does mean playing through a number of times to not only get the good and bad endings, but also see every single characters story.

THE CAVE is about morality. It's about being faced with your darkest desires and your innermost wishes, and what path to take to achieve those. Are you going to poison your parents, or are you going to have a change of heart at the last minute? It all depends on the single decision you make at the end. While it's a rather black and white look at morality, as the stories all play out essentially "bad" unless you choose the good decision at the end, it's still an interesting take on the subject. One could even argue that these characters are forced to go through the cave time and time again, only to once again be selfish, ignorant people, and never once felt remorse for their actions. A sort of spelunking purgatory, if you will. One could also make the argument that the cave, instead, is a way for someone to change their actions, recognize who they were and instead choose to be a better person. To gain closure on their life, by admitting their faults and misdoings.

THE CAVE didn't do well. It was met with rather mixed reviews, and over all, the replay value didn't interest people. Which is interesting, considering how often people say they WANT replay value in a game, but at the same time, not when it comes from something so linear and stuck in its ways, so I guess I understand that. It takes a lot of dedication to repeatedly play the game through to the end simply to care enough to see all of the various characters stories all the way through. I did it, but that's because I have absolutely no life whatsoever. I bought and played the game when it came out, and I understand why it didn't do well. Even things I love, I can find the cracks in. First of all, it was drawing on gameplay styles back in 2013 that had been rather outdated for some time, and would continue to be until bigger indie titles on Steam, also using the same sort of gameplay styles, would come to popularity a few years later. While it's an interesting premise for a game, I have always said a premise is not a story. You need more, and frankly, I can see how it wouldn't entice a lot of people. Even though I loved it, I get it.

It also doesn't play particularly well at times, on either the PC or the console. It has some control issues, some general button issues and some stuttering and screen tearing. These don't ruin anything for me, by any means, but it's still something to mention. The game is very pretty, in its cartoony way, and fairly well written for what it is. It's definitely got some rather genuinely funny moments in it, and each character is pretty interesting. A real hodge podge to choose from. I think had THE CAVE come out at a later time, and been a bit more polished, it maybe would've done better? But who knows. In the end, I think it's just a rather niche title. But I'm still going to recommend it to people, and I still love it to death. It's just so damn endearing a quirky that I can't help but feel love for it.

I've always loved stories based around morality, as the people watcher that I am, and THE CAVE is no exception. A bit messier than others, perhaps, but it still lends a perfectly good experience to the question, "If you COULD get away with it, how far would you go?" I totally think, especially if you could get it on sale since it's a bit old and does have the flaws it has, you should pick it up if you can. It's definitely good for a playthrough or two, especially since each run isn't all that long. Backtracking is tedious, but I guess it's gameplay nonetheless.

THE CAVE judges, it mocks, it waxes sentimental, but the one thing it won't do is decide for you. If you choose to be evil, that's on you and you alone. Ain't nobody blaming a bunch of rocks for the mess you've gotten yourself into.

Sorry for a review on such an old game. I hope to finish something newer and review that asap. I just was in the mood to look back at a fun, favorite title of mine. Thanks for reading!

This 2 1/2 D platformer/puzzle/adventure game lets you take control of 7 unique characters who are trying to explore the depths of a sentient cave in order to find something about themselves and their possible futures

The Cave itself (voiced by Stephen Stanton) narrates the game in a dry, sarcastic tone that is well written and acted. making the stories of the characters come to life.

You start by choosing three characters from the seven, each with their own special ability. Then make your way into the cave by completing a series of fairly simple point-and-click style puzzles. All the characters then have a dark secret from their past that will be revealed as they explore their own section of the cave only they can enter. These sections are great to complete as the characters twisted stories are revealed.

The downside is that the sections of the cave that aren't dedicated to a specific character are rather boring and don't change in-between playthroughs. Plus if you want to see all the characters stories you need to play through the game 3 times. Which means you'll be playing through the same puzzles again and again as well as re-playing two characters stories, which can become quite tedious.

A quaint little game with great story, writing and world building but let down by repetitive sections.

All right, this one grew on me quite a bit (and not just because @peter and @bmo told me they liked it). It started me out with the hillbilly's story, which ended up being my least favorite of the three I chose (the other two being the monk and the time traveler). I ended up really enjoying the remaining stories as well as the standard in-betweens. I also liked the game's dark tone and Vincent Price-esque narration.

There were a few elements that almost cost this a star:

• The figurine-like appearance of the environment is fine, but the characters appear a little too small to emote, a problem I noticed more as I started to accumulate "cave paintings" illustrated by the amazing Daniel Krall... I found myself wanting the game to look more like those! 🤷
• The controls never felt exactly right to me. The characters always felt too eager to ledge-grab, yet the fall damage got pretty annoying... I felt like if they toned down both, it'd feel more straightforward.
• Because each story is presented as a cautionary tale and you're acting out some pretty heinous crimes, you never really have a chance to connect with the characters. There's a distance I haven't felt in other Double Fine games.

Overall, I decided on scoring this as four stars because I do think it's worth revisiting to see the other stories unfold, probably using coop multiplayer. And it's also not really like any other adventure game I've played, which I dig.