The Cave - XBLA Review

Tenlo Fri Jan 25, 2013 6:43 pm

Developer: Double Fine

Publisher: SEGA

Price: 1200MSP

Ron Gilbert may not be a name which instantly springs to mind, however the games he has created certainly will. With a resume including Manic Mansion, it's sequel Day of the Tentacle, recent XBLA title Death Spank as well as its sequel Thongs of Virtue and of course the famous Monkey Island series, Ron Gilbert has a fine history in gaming. So when it was announced he would be creating a brand new game with Monkey Island co-creator Tim Schafer's company Double Fine, people paid attention. Now The Cave is here, but the question is does it stand up to the legacy of Ron Gilbert's previous games.

The Cave is a game which could be called the modern successor of the Adventure game. You choose three out of a total of seven characters to enter The Cave (who provides its own narration – yes, its a talking cave) and then proceed to travel throughout the cave solving puzzles and finding out more about your chosen characters as you progress. Each character has his or her own special ability which really comes into play in their specific puzzle areas, such as the Hillbilly breathing underwater indefinitely or the protection from damage the Knight has. Many of these abilities will only be of use in their particular area but many can be used to your advantage in other puzzle areas too.

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Fans of adventure games will be either pleased or saddened by the news that the game has been simplified somewhat from the complicated multi-object orientated inventory filling template that perpetuated the adventure genre. Instead each of your three characters can carry one item at a time resulting in fewer occasions of trying everything in your inventory till something works. Players of Monkey Island will be glad to know that while the puzzles are all logical in solution they maintain the same bizarreness in their concept. Best of all very few will tax you too hard as long as you explore each area for all the possible items making the game accessible to even the most novice of players.

This however also brings us to one of The Cave's problems. The actual game is very short. I managed to complete one walkthrough in an afternoon's play and while there is a fair amount of replay value due to each of the seven characters having their own specific area to explore in, resulting in at least three playthroughs to explore every area of the Cave, there are areas which will be repeated in each run which may become tedious. For once collectibles actually make this a bit more bearable as each character's back story is revealed through a series of cave paintings scattered around the cave.

One thing that has remained though is the traditional humour values of Ron Gilbert's games. If you've played Monkey Island or even Death Spank you should know what to expect. Although some of the humour is present in the solution to the puzzles as well as the puzzles themselves, it's the The Cave's narration which truly holds the game's humour as well as the few speaking members of the Cave's occupants (my particular favourite was the magician in the carnival who after repeated questioning started to show his true feelings!). It's that famous mix of droll humour mixed with the weird and wonderful characters and some great play on words (check out the exotically clothed dancers to see what I mean).

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The puzzles themselves have a nice balance of difficulty to the extent that although solutions are not obvious, a good scout around each puzzles location will reveal the necessary tools to accomplish the tasks. Each area is enclosed to the extent that everything to solve the puzzles will be in these areas without the need to backtrack through various previous sections. Often puzzles will require the use of more than one character to solve too meaning swapping between the three to complete a task though this is done simply enough via the D-Pad. However there is still a fair amount of trekking back and forth between places to solve puzzles and it can be bore moving about sometimes especially as occasionally the jumping between platforms can be a bit hit and miss.

The characters are all very cartoony and this is reflected in the NPC's and scenery too. It does suit the style of humour and does a fine job. There are a number of occasions when the frame rate drops drastically but this is usually then transferring between sections and I assume is due to the areas loading in the background of the game. Although this really should have been picked up in play testing, it is more of a nuisance than a game breaking element.

All the voices within the game are well recorded and the voice actors do a grand job in their roles. The in-game music does what all in-game music should do – it adds to the atmosphere of the game without ever taking the attention from the game itself. Considering Double Fine's history of superb in-game music this is not much of a surprise but still good to see them maintaining standards.

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The achievements in this game are actually very well thought out. Although you have the traditional collectible achievement and one for completing the game with every character, considering the humour and thought that has gone into each of these, it's not a chore to do so. Also the completing the game without dying is not that difficult to complete if your careful with your jumps and know the puzzles reasonably well. Thankfully there are some very clever achievements which require you to do various tasks which you wouldn't necessarily do in a normal gameplay. These themselves are mini puzzles as the execution of them are simple enough but the descriptions are quite cryptic though the achievement tile will give a good hint (of course you could just look it up on the net itself – which ironically is required to easily solve one of the puzzles in-game!).

Overall this is a great little game and fans of Ron Gilbert and Double Fine will enjoy every moment spent. If you've never been won over by the humour of their games though this isn't going to change your mind. The graphical issues, sometime hit and miss platforming elements and brevity of the game also hold it back from becoming a superb game. It is still a very solid title and definitely a recommended title, possibly a DOTW purchase if your not a die-hard fan as it's more of an 800MSP game than the asking price of 1200MSP. Altogether though if this is a sign of what is to come now Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert are working together again things are looking good.

Score: 8/10

TreeMunky Fri Jan 25, 2013 7:18 pm

Great reviewing as always my friend. I will be purchasing this once I get back home and fire up the old girl.

Colne Crusader Fri Jan 25, 2013 7:28 pm

Great reviewage Tenners!

This collaboration is gaming Gold for me! I have all the Gilbert adventures! I shall buy this as soon as I can, but I have to save up a bit first! (Just splashed out on some Megadrive games and a light gun for the PS2).

**KENT HAMMER** Fri Jan 25, 2013 8:20 pm

Good work mate.

I did have a copy, but gave it to you! DOH

Guest Fri Jan 25, 2013 8:25 pm

Nice review mate. I intend starting this over the weekend.

D3M0NiZe Fri Jan 25, 2013 8:42 pm

Great review Tenlo.I had already bought this due to the Gilbert/Shafer partnership and I have not been disappointed .its a game that makes you smile while playing its so good.
Now if only someone would do a remake of The Day Of The Tentacle.

Waggly Bean Fri Jan 25, 2013 8:43 pm

Nice review! I downloaded the trial on Wednesday but forgot all about it - will have to try it out over the weekend! Wink

Gabhlan Mon Jan 28, 2013 3:10 pm

Thanks for the review that sounds really good. I'll keep my eye out for a DOTW on it.

Sh00t3rmcgavin2 Mon Jan 28, 2013 7:00 pm

Nice work tenners!!

**minkey_monkey** Wed Jan 30, 2013 10:47 am

Good review fella! I think this is one I might enjoy, but I should really finish Monkey Island 2 first lol... Actually been meaning to go back to those, might give them a crack at the weekend when I'm not playing other stuff.

Guest Wed Jan 30, 2013 11:26 am

RG is a top fella and this looks quality

nice review tenners!

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