The Cave (2013)

The Cave has a handful of faults, sure, but the overall experience is well worth checking out.

The Cave reminds us why adventures like Monkey Island and Zak McKracken were so loved: even if offering a much more essential experience, Ron Gilbert’s irony and creativity are all still there. It fumbles on the weird co-op implementation and some frustrating moments, but it surely deserves to be played.

Delightfully, The Cave is, in fact, a pure, puzzle-solving adventure game rife with funny lines and chuckle-inducing non sequiturs despite trying to disguise itself as a side-scrolling platformer. It doesn't stay with you the way Gilbert's classics did, however.

The Cave is a game worth experiencing at least once. Truly funny games are rare, much less funny games that cover themes as diverse as sin, murder, redemption and desire. The fact that it covers these topics with a sense of style and ease (and without feeling like you’re being bludgeoned with a philosophy textbook) is praiseworthy.

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.

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.

Given the pedigree of Ron Gilbert and Double Fine Productions' past works, a lot of people will be understandably excited by the prospect of The Cave. On paper, it sounds appealing, with its variety of characters and plethora of reasons to replay. It looks charming and, at first, the humour hits the spot. Problems lie with its inability to give you any great reason to replay it. It's just all too disappointingly shallow.

Quite a game should i say. Interesting, astonishing, with a splendid humor (even black humour sometimes), a great addition to those games created by Shafer and Gilbert. Lot of puzzles. Haven't seen such a game for a very long time. Oh, yeah, and there is also a bit of moral for every story you will hear from The Cave.

The Cave has some pretty great humor, but the puzzle designs are pretty lackluster.

Hikaye = 5 Oynanış = 8 Grafikler = 6 Sesler = 6 Keyif = 7 Atmosfer = 6 Süre = 7

One of the worst games I've ever played. It's essentially a point-and-click turned into a platformer, with the inventory system removed. The 'puzzles' consist of grabbing item, running with the item to a spot, using it, then having two of your character press a button while the third one progresses. Over and over you repeat this process. Despite long walks, there's no way for your characters to move automatically toward the terrible busywork set before you. How do you like 1990s direct-to-video cartoon movie sequels? Because the humor in this game is dead on if they were going for "complete afterthought" with the writing. The game's writers actually thought "I have to fire that shopkeeper, I think he's stealing from me" and a gold minor saying "Back to hoarding more gold" are funny lines. They repeat the same joke of naming the torches random things like "torchy mctorchson" over and over again throughout the entire game, but even that lameness is poorly executed. They recycle the names in a loop. Wow, randomly generated joke! Who doesn't love humor that's dependant on odds and localizations? On XBOX 360 (I played the version emulated on Xbox One), the game runs terribly, and that only compounds the fact that the platforming (ie, trying to speed up the incessant climbing ladders of ladders required to get anywhere by falling down shafts and grabbing the ladder/rope at the last second) even more annoying. Framedrop after frame drop. I'm not sure how so many people love this. It's like a bad custom map of Little Big Planet. The only redeeming feature is the model art.

It tries really hard to be funny, it isn't. Overly short. Character abilities are near insignificant with few exceptions. Puzzles are underwhelming (there is the occasional moon logic one but those aren't hard to figure out either)