The Cave

The Cave is an interesting mix of platforming and adventure with the typical charm and humour that Double Fine is known for. The game drops the ball on every now and then, but the quirky characters, ludicrous puzzles and cartoony world – which unmistakenly sprouted from the mind of Ron Gilbert – are worth venturing into.

The concept sounds fantastic, and there is potential in setting a game up like this, but in reality, The Cave’s take on telling a story like this ends up making it a fun but flawed adventure game.

The Cave's offbeat sense of humor is mostly charming, and actually solving the puzzles inside it feels delightfully difficult. However, the severely diminishing returns on its replay value make it more of a momentarily amusing distraction than something you'll be holding onto for years to come.

Ron Gilbert and Chris Remo miss on the explicit narration, but their underlying story is perfectly pitched through puzzles and your own wicked participation.

Maybe we were expecting too much, but it's alright. It's entertaining and will make us smile, but there's no evolution or surprises here. We know it's just warming up for what's yet to come, however, if you miss those classic adventure games probably you'll enjoy this.

Never bad, often good, but only occasionally great. Its frustrations are fleeting but with core gameplay that struggles to be as clever and witty as the script, it never quite manages to bring together its best features in a truly satisfying way. Plunge into The Cave and you'll definitely have fun finding your way out. It's just a shame it doesn't go deeper.

The Cave's puzzles are challenging, its story is well constructed and narrated, and its cartoon-like visuals and sprawling, morphing tunnels are pleasant to look at. Its mashup of elements from platformers and point-and-clicks fare less well, but if you can overlook those small flaws The Cave is a dark, yet humorous adventure that ably exercises the grey matter.

The three-player co-op could well help with spicing up repeat journeys, though, and with every character's area worth playing (not least for the lovely hidden endings for those who think around the final section), those intent on searching its every inch will find that The Cave runs very deep - and dark - indeed.

One does not lose talent that easily, it seems. The Cave shows that Ron Gilbert still has this little touch of craziness that sets him apart from other game creators, and that allows him to produce adventure games that are fresh. Despite some errors and shortcomings like its short length and not-so-extensive replayability, this cute title doesn't lack positive qualities, most notably in terms of writing and puzzle design. And it's also quite funny, smart, and affordable.

Although it's not as funny as past Ron Gilbert games, The Cave still manages to charm through its visuals and honey-tongued narrator, but it falls flat when it comes to storytelling.

If you’re the type of gamer that likes talking about games as much as playing them, The Cave will give you plenty to talk about. Otherwise, if you’re just after a fun and well-crafted experience, there’s too much chaff in this package.

It's amusing more than ever really funny (it thankfully avoids the gratingly desperate irreverence of Gilbert's DeathSpank), and it's self-congratulatory about its own darkness, which - in the grand scheme of things - is still fairly tame.

The mechanics could well help to rejuvenate the adventure genre, but the story and puzzles of The Cave are nowhere near as entertaining as they should be.

It's a sharp-looking game, the voice acting is largely on-point and funny (if occasionally obnoxiously repetitive), and there are at least a few solid hours worth of puzzle-solving to be had here. It's just that those hours don't really add up to a whole lot in the grand scheme of things, ultimately relegating The Cave to an interesting curiosity that sadly doesn't have much sticking power.

Unfortunately, however, the 2D platforming element, which one feels was included to counter the slow pace of point and click adventure games, leads to one or two problems. With three characters on the go and each only able to hold one item at a time, players will spend a lot of time backtracking, which becomes incredibly tiresome, while the platforming itself handles a little clumsily.

On almost every turn, The Cave stumbles over its own feet and its desire to be different from the rest - a wish that most certainly came true, only proving that you should sometimes be careful what you wish for. Ironically, that's exactly the lesson The Cave wants to teach you. In the end, this is a nice, but ultimately too ponderous, puzzle game with a whole lot of nothing in between its sometimes funny, sometimes clever stronger moments.

Approached as the latest work from one of the industry's favoured fathers, The Cave could seem like a tourist trap, packed with old ideas to lure in passers-by. Taken for what it is – a simple, characterful adventure game from an independent developer – it offers just enough to be worth the price of admission.

At once entertaining, frustrating, beautiful and fleeting, The Cave is way better in concept than execution. And as much as it has going for it, some poor design decisions mean that frustration and boredom will quickly get rid of players that would otherwise have lapped this up.