The Cave (2013)

 PC
User Score
7.6

Generally favorable reviews- based on 224 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 145 out of 224
  2. Mixed: 57 out of 224
  3. Negative: 22 out of 224

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  1. Amstaad
    Feb 11, 2013
    6
    The game has nice ambiance, graphic design and humor. Sadly it involves a lot of needless repetition and the puzzle elements are not very difficult. Personally I wouldn't buy this game again after playing through it once. Doubt I'll bother grinding through the the other story lines. In summary: Pretty looking game but short and repetitive as hell.
  2. Azingbo
    Mar 23, 2013
    6
    A charming game with great humor but the back and fourths become a bore and ultimately bring enjoyment to a grinding halt.

    The large cast of characters encourages you to invest more and more time into completing the game more then once.However the gameplay itself seems to scare you out of wanting too. Dont get me wrong the first play through is ok. The puzzles and script are awesome.    A charming game with great humor but the back and fourths become a bore and ultimately bring enjoyment to a grinding halt.

    The large cast of characters encourages you to invest more and more time into completing the game more then once.However the gameplay itself seems to scare you out of wanting too. Dont get me wrong the first play through is ok. The puzzles and script are awesome.

    However too many puzzles require you to go to A then to B then to A then B then A....you get the point.    … Expand
  3. ChoicestGames
    Jul 15, 2013
    7
    I still don’t understand why Ron Gilbert doesn’t just make another point ‘n’ click adventure game! The Cave has the trademark Ron Gilbert humour in there but in a puzzle-platformer package which is a pain to play if you’re used to playing with keyboard and mouse. Also while the game is charming I feel a bit miffed about the secret (and I mean secret) alternate endings, not to mention theI still don’t understand why Ron Gilbert doesn’t just make another point ‘n’ click adventure game! The Cave has the trademark Ron Gilbert humour in there but in a puzzle-platformer package which is a pain to play if you’re used to playing with keyboard and mouse. Also while the game is charming I feel a bit miffed about the secret (and I mean secret) alternate endings, not to mention the game’s short length (6 hours). Thankfully the game isn’t expensive so if you’re a Ron Gilbert fan, it might be worth a look, especially if you can grab it when it’s on sale.… Expand
  4. dumle
    May 19, 2013
    5
    The Cave do have its charm. The visuals are for the most part quite nice and there are some lovely colorful levels in the game. The characters are quite nice and their stories are interesting enough and the narrator is a nice touch that could have been used a bit more in my opinion. Now the gameplay is a mix between platforming and puzzles with emphasis on the puzzles. The platformingThe Cave do have its charm. The visuals are for the most part quite nice and there are some lovely colorful levels in the game. The characters are quite nice and their stories are interesting enough and the narrator is a nice touch that could have been used a bit more in my opinion. Now the gameplay is a mix between platforming and puzzles with emphasis on the puzzles. The platforming works fine though the control can be a little bit wonky. The platforming is however never really challenging and is mostly there to spread out the puzzles. The puzzles in the game are quite similar to the puzzles in old adventure games. So you are basically combining objects with each other and all that other stuff associated with point and click adventure games.

    The puzzles in the game are for the most part quite reasonably challenging even though there are some far fetched puzzles here and there. Some puzzles did contain a little bit to much running back and forth which got a little bit annoying though. I also found myself stuck in the game at one point since i didn't know that each character had a special ability. But hey the game might have told me about it and i somehow managed to miss it.

    Now the biggest flaw of this game in my opinion is the way the game handled the different characters and their individual levels and stories. Each character has their own individual level that is based upon their story. And these levels were my favorite levels in the game. These levels were also the only levels which really made you use the characters special ability which was a nice change of pace from simply jumping around in the character neutral levels.

    So after finishing the game for the first time (took me around 5-6 hours) i wanted to play the remaining four character levels. But to do that i would be forced to replay every damn character neutral level to get to the levels that i wanted to play. To experience all the seven different character level you would have to replay the campaign 3 times. And the emphasis on puzzles in this game makes replaying the character neutral levels and solving puzzles you already know the solutions for a real chore.

    I cant understand why the would design the game in such a way and it only serves to hid away a substantial part of the games contents behind filler nonsense. And since i am complaining i should mention that the way the handled multiple ending felt a bit forced.

    In the end i thought that this game was quite average. I am not the biggest fan of these kind of adventure games (even though i can appreciate their charm) so its possible that someone more fond of the genre would appreciate it more and be more forgiving to its short comings. I did however have some fun with it and the game is by no means a bad way to spend a small amount of cash for if you got your eye out for it.it.    … Expand
  5. thougryphon
    Feb 7, 2013
    5
    An adventure game without story, dialogue, and for the most part without actual adventuring. Its genre can be more accurately described as a collection of thematical puzzles with some basic character insight as a reward for completing them. If mellow puzzle solving is your cup of tea then sure, this game can help spend couple of evenings, for anything more you'd better look elswhere.An adventure game without story, dialogue, and for the most part without actual adventuring. Its genre can be more accurately described as a collection of thematical puzzles with some basic character insight as a reward for completing them. If mellow puzzle solving is your cup of tea then sure, this game can help spend couple of evenings, for anything more you'd better look elswhere.

    On a more personal note, I am a huge fan of Ron's MI1 and MI2, backer of Reds, I watched and read most or maybe even all his interviews and opinions on games, and need for some kind of innovation in adventure gaming and this was such a huge disappointment... I understand that production values were nowhere near Grim Fandango or TLJ level, so it was silly to expect real modern adventure game, but their priorities and changes they made to classic adventuring formula seem totaly wrong, unncesesary or not done properly. It has mechanics like "only one item per character" that beside being used in couple of puzzles add nothing to the rest of the game except artificially bloating playing time by adding lots of boring and usless traversing. The fact that there is a ton of fedex type puzzles only makes it worse. An inventory shared between all characters wouldn't have made things harder like Ron were saying, it would've make things easier! Not to mention provided additional opportunity for humor. Platforming they added does its job and ok for the most part but really, it is simply an additional mildly annoying obstacle to making progress. Puzzles themselves are usually pretty obvious, the only actual problem that takes time is to walk back and forth executing the solution. And there is abolutely no reason from the gameplay point of view for platforming at all! There are no fast trine-like physics puzzles, no fun arcade parts to diversify the flow of the game, no combat of course, it is not used in any meaningful way (except for couple of tinytiny moments). The way it is, it would've been much more comfortable to simply move characters with classic "click to move around doubleclick to move to next screen" fashion.

    Background music is sadly non-existant. Usualy its just "cavey" ambient noises. Occasional tunes do pop up when its appropriate, but all your running around will be done in near silence.

    Characters are mutes, and amount of dialogue roughly equals to an average FPS. Having a narrator helps, but narrator doesn't try to make characters deeper, or provide additional insigth or context to what is happening, usually he is just a vehicle for delivering occasional jokes.

    Graphics are nice, but nothing breathtaking, a cave is a cave... If it was an ordinary adventure game that would be fine, but considering amount of manual running around the same places and 2D nature of the game, I wish they'd make scenery more diverse. Story... Well you know that there is none. All you have are collectible Psychonauts style pictures, except in Psychonauts they provided an additional insight into living talking characters and here they are all that you'll ever have.

    Overall its fine for a puzzler, but disappointing nonetheless.. Note that I completely skipped describing the good parts and there definitely are some, like timetraveller bits, and occasional great animation, and some good puzzles, etc. It is far from being a 1/10 game. Its just I can't bring myself to write about positive sides properly without my general disappointment about the game still coming through...    … Expand
  6. huntibor
    Feb 21, 2013
    6
    This game is not bad but could be easier puzzles. The management is not that bad, but sometimes breaks off a bit of the game. Playing the game is boring, just feel like playing with it. Just feel like it sometimes is.
  7. marto
    Mar 31, 2014
    7
    I bought this game mostly because as a kid I played several pirated adventure games by this team.

    Visually pleasing.

    Some humor, but not that great.

    Virtually 0 replayability. In fact, having 7 characters, I felt FORCED to replay. That ship part is... outright annoying.

    I must say I was disappointed, but I'm giving it a 7.
  8. Manzanetti
    Aug 10, 2020
    6
    The game has it's charm, but the puzzles are somewhat uninspired at times and not enough of a challenge. Liked it for the humour.

Awards & Rankings

100
#100 Most Shared PC Game of 2013

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
68

Mixed or average reviews - based on 21 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 13 out of 21
  3. Negative: 1 out of 21
  1. PC Master (Greece)
    Jun 10, 2013
    82
    A dialogue system and a fully functional inventory would not only vastly enhance the game, we could be talking about the birth of a new sub-genre. Even so, we enjoyed it. From now on, when someone asks, what the heck of a game is The Cave, we will answer “a really great game”… after all, that’s what really matters. [March 2013]
  2. Hooked Gamers
    Apr 14, 2013
    65
    The Cave is a game that showed lots of promise, given those pulling the strings, and when it’s great, it’s really great.
    Read full review
  3. Hyper Magazine
    Mar 12, 2013
    60
    Far from Ron Gilbert or Double Fine's best, but The Cave manages to deliver just enough satisfaction to avoid disaster. [Apr 2013, p.74]
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