The Cave

A note from Ash: I swear that one of these days I'll get back to writing these things myself, but in the mean time, enjoy a review by Sarah

Genre: Adventure, Indie

Developer: Double Fine Productions

Publisher: SEGA

System: Windows, Mac & Linux

Written by Sarah Davis

Welcome to The Cave; a quest fulfilling, soul searching, puzzle solving, sultry amusement park attraction. 

You are introduced to the game in the most pleasant way possible; with a beautiful shot of the night sky, treetops, a lovely crescent moon and a wonderful, luscious voice to listen to as you pan to the ground and get your bearings. Once on the ground and fully introduced to this mysterious, and very single, Cave, you notice seven very different characters standing in a line. You have The Knight, The Hillbilly, The Time-Traveler, The Scientist, The Adventurer, The Twins and The Monk. On my first time through, I decided to choose The Knight, The Hillbilly and The Twins to be my corrupted adventuring party. 

Soon, with one member of your party leading the way, you venture into a platformer’s heaven; complete with movable boxes, ropes to climb and descend, as well as plenty of ledges to fall off of. Thankfully, as I found out early due to my lack of platforming skill, you can never fully die. You simply turn into a puff of smoke and ascend to the point where you clumsily threw yourself from the ledge you were previously standing on. Second chances are exactly what a group of darkness filled, ragtag adventurers really thrive on. (If you didn’t catch on to the darkness thing, you might want to take a second look at those Twins again and rethink your definition of good first impressions).

Once you fall down a massive hole in the cave, complete with a breaking bridge and puddle at the bottom, you venture to your right to find a strange little gift shop; you know, the kind with postcards, outrageously priced souvenirs, and the entrance to where you thought you were this whole time. Turns out The Cave isn’t just a bunch of abandoned, bat filled mining tunnels to explore, but instead an attraction for tourists who seek to send a kitschy postcard to their relatives afterwards.

Well, that’s what I certainly thought anyway.

Turns out, the sleazy cashier wants you to go find him some shinies in, not The Cave, but instead the employees only cage? Why you would need bars and a giant skeleton key to protect your employees beats me. Either way, the cashier gives you this over-sized key in order for you to venture into the employees only cage and off you go in search of something that might be valuable enough to allow you to pass into The Cave and actually get on with your intended adventure. God forbid you just pay him like a normal person.

I found this game very enjoyable though very frustrating at parts. There were many times where I found myself staring blankly at my screen, frantically running around, attempting to use every object I could to get myself to the next part of the level.

Happy Thoughts: So many story-lines to pick from! The graphics are cute in a way where you know the game isn’t supposed to be a serious downer, despite it’s dark undertones.

Sad Thoughts: There were a few glitches where I would get stuck on things and be unable to move a certain character resulting in me being unable to complete the level. Other times, my brain would go into serious overdrive mode in an attempt to figure out a puzzle.

End Results: This game is definitely worth it if you love platformer’s or adorable characters that seem nice on the outside, but are all a little sociopathic on the inside. You even have seven little sociopaths to choose from! Resulting in seemingly endless combinations of murderous endeavors.