The Review of The Cave

Nicolas James Spencer
Jan 20, 2017
3 min read

I have to admit that when I saw The Cave, I looked over it. It looked childish and … just not my type of game to play. I got it regardless with very little intent to actually play the game. However, another follow gamer strongly suggested that it was a good game to play. Looking into it, I saw the creative mind of Psychonauts and Beyond: Good and Evil had their hands in this and those 2 games proved to be powerful sleeper games … … and The Cave, surprisingly, does not disappoint.

This 2D, narrative platform jumping story follow 3 of 7 potential players, each with their own unique abilities. You start the game at the mouth of The Cave as The Cave talks to you. Yes, The Cave hilariously communicates with the player, knowing that the player is playing the characters that you are playing. The game has a feel of The Stanley Parable with the narrative of The Cave, which keeps you smiling and entertained through the platforming and puzzling of the environment. The Cave consists of many areas within it that seems to be a big wrongdoing of each potential character you could pick for your adventure. For example, one of the playable characters is a Time Traveler who seems to have a grudge against someone in her time who got a Employee of All Time Award over her. When you get to her part of The Cave, the puzzle obviously involves time travel but it is comical and entertaining, even at it’s most frustrating parts. Another character, The Monk, must prove himself through trails to reach a level of enlightenment. The trails are very fun and entertaining. And that is what this game is. Fun and Entertaining. The puzzles are not hard like they were in older games but it does require some backtracking ( within that section of The Cave ) but the feeling of achievement and enjoyment trumps everything else. Also, no matter who you pick to be the 3 characters you play as, they all seem to be able to use their abilities regardless of whether they are in their own story or someone else’s. Your characters all work together nicely. And even though you will notice that there are areas that you cannot access ( because you do not have that particular member as your team ), moving on doesn’t feel as much as you are missing you because subconsciously, you are thinking that you are gonna hit it up during your next playthrough. How the game is kind of short, which isn’t completely a bad thing. Some games that are fine, start losing their shine after several hours into it. However, The Cave knows that it has a time limit for you attention span. The game can be beat within 4 hours for one gameplay. However, to go through everyone’s ‘story’ obviously will take a few gameplays. Also, the game can be co-op with up to 2 other players ( total of 3 players ), but the game does not operate with the idea of split screen nor does it prevent you from seperating. However, if you are not on screen, you have no control. So if you want to do something, you have to switch between each character if they are not in the same screen. It can get complicated and even annoying at times but that doesn’t take away from the fun. If you are looking for a short yet fun and entertaining game that you could play with your parents, siblings, girl/boyfriend, etc, then The Cave has what you want. Definitely worth a purchase of 10-15$ from the bargain bin.