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The Cave
PC (Steam)
A Cave Worth Exploring
4/5 stars
A three-player local game (kind of an interesting choice) The Cave is short, sweet and pretty well put-together with plenty of (not-to-difficult) puzzles, some platforming and an interesting angle to the story. It doesn't surprise me this came from the minds that brought us Maniac Mansion - as it has a nice, twisted feel about it - from the booming "Cave" narrator to the visual style. It's a fun diversion - good enough to play alone or with friends - and if you get it at a good price, it's worth the time to work through each scenario.
Presentation: The colors are quite vibrant and there is plenty of variety to the settings (from a medieval castle to an amusement park, a museum of the future, a temple, an island, a creepy mansion and more) so nothing ever feels stale. The game has a cartoonish look - but the style feels right on the nose for a game that takes some dark turns for the way it looks. The game is essentially a 2D platformer with enhanced 2.5 graphics - fully polygonal background while you side-scroll your way through the levels. The music is pleasant - and the voice acting that there is is pretty hilarious and worthwhile (especially the narrator - played Stephen Stanton - a name you might not recognize, but he's one of the many talented voice artists who has worked on a ton of games and series).
The only time we ran in to an issue was when we encountered a bug - one that had us scratching our heads for a long time before we finally investigated and found it to be a known issue that essentially broke an entire level until we shut everything down. Other bugs are there too - though this was by and far the biggest one and you know if something this important got by, there are other, lesser ones just lazing about. But despite this fact, the rest of the game played out just fine.
Story: Essentially each character (Knight, Explorer, Hillbilly, Monk, Time Traveler, Scientist, Evil Twins) has their own story to tell and a reason for exploring "The Cave". Scattered throughout the levels are hidden icons that reveal the back story (usually leading to something terrible on the part of said character - and usually backfiring on to said character in retaliation) and the item of desire takes on a new meaning. Now, The Cave has two different endings for each character. If you leave with the item you desire you get the "bad" ending - but if you leave your item of desire behind and exit the cave, you get the "good" ending. Unfortunately we never got to see any of the "good" endings yet, but considering how twisted things are for each character, I have to hope it winds up as a true happy ending. It's not deep, but it is interesting in a Monkey's Paw kind of way.
Gameplay: Each character has their own ability and is given their own level to show off this talent - from the Hillbilly being able to hold his breath, the Knight's invulnerability (while standing still), the Time Traveler's phasing through certain things, the Twins ghost clone, the Adventurer's hookshot, the Monk's telekinesis and the Scientist's hacking. We played through every character except the Scientist. There are also a few levels that appear regardless of the character - the same each time, including helping an irate miner, a hunter with a hair-trigger and a crazy island hermit (and his pets). Some of the character-specific levels let all three people play, some you have to do alone for the most part. The three repeated levels do get a bit repetitive after awhile - though there are certain tricks to beating them fast if you don't have the patience to wait them out each time.
That being said, there is a nice variety to the characters and level design - so if you do play with a couple of friends, you won't get too bored. The puzzles aren't difficult - and you can never die (you just float back as a puff of smoke and respawn if you fall too far or get eaten by a beastie or whatnot). This isn't a game that punishes you - some may find that off-putting, but overall, I would rather have fun than go through hell.
Replayability: Whether you play alone or with a few friends, with the variety of characters and the multitude of endings, you get your money's worth out of this one, even if things do get a bit repetitive after awhile.
Overall: A nice diversion from 40-hour long slogs, shooting things in the face or grinding for hours on end. An adventure game that combines excellent narrative, good platforming and just enough head-scratching to be a fair enough challenge. Do you dare enter The Cave? Why yes, yes you should.
Presentation: 4/5
Story: 4/5
Gameplay: 3.5/5
Replayability: 4/5
Overall (not an average): 4/5
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