Seven Sociopaths: A game review of The Cave

The Cave is an adventure that has a deliciously dark twist. The game starts as we are introduced to The Cave and seven would-be spelunkers who are gathered around a camp fire. We are given little back-story on each adventurer and their intentions seem somewhat benign at first. We put together a team of three characters (the creepy twins count as one person) and set off to explore the cave. The journey is meant to expose each character’s desires, which in this case just so happen to be dastardly and dark.

Narration:

I love cool and fun narration in games and this game definitely fits the bill. The Cave is funny, witty, and playful in such a way that I don't get tired of the narration at any point in the game. I loved the cool play-by-play narration in Bastion but after a while Rusk really started to get on my nerves.  That didn't happen with this game. The Cave definitely has a dark sense of humor which kept me very entertained. The omniscient Cave has this really nonchalant attitude that just makes the game feel cool.

Characters & Story:

Each character has their own dark tale and personal levels that can only be unlocked with that character. Each character also has their own special ability but it is only really useful in their level. One of my favorite characters was the Adventurer/Archeologist. I kept on imagining her as Dr. Elsa Schneider (AKA the hot blonde chick from Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade), and her actions in the game definitely fit with what I think she would have been while raiding tombs. The creepiest characters were the little twin children and I also think they had the darkest story out of all the characters. No character is innocent and I found myself really invested in finding out just how terrible they actually were. In my opinion the Twins, the Scientist, and the Hillbilly are the really bad people from this game. The story of each character is unlocked piece by piece through cave paintings you will find throughout your journey. Each character has their own cave painting. The Twins have twin coffins, the Knight has a sword, the Monk has a painting that is supposed to be a monk meditating but also kind of looks like a penis, etc. Some of these cave paintings may be a little out of your way so you have to make sure to search every nook and cranny you can to find them. Each character's story is so despicably fun that I found myself excited to find a new painting just so that I could find out more about the terrible things they did.

Team work:

Every level needs team work and coordination to beat it, although some levels need this more than others. The Monk's level was basically a one man show and you only really needed your team members twice to keep the game moving. This is much different than Adventurer's where you need your team members nearly every step of the way. My advice would be to play through your first time as team made up of the Monk, the Twins, and the Knight because their levels don't require a lot of team coordination and then when you are more used to the mechanics of switching between team members, you can play with a team made up of either the Time Traveler, Adventurer, Scientist, or Hillbilly.

Platforming:

The platforming in this game was pretty easy but requires some patience. There is a lot of going back and forth up and down ladders and ropes, which can get a little tedious. If you are like me you will pretty quickly try to skip these steps by just trying to jump of the cliff, because it really doesn't seem that high, which will kill your character and cause you to respawn back at the top of the cliff. This is especially annoying on levels like The Mine where you have to up climb and down the same route repeatedly for dynamite.

Levels, Puzzles, and Items:

There are general levels such as The Gift shop, The Mine, The Zoo, and The Island that will show up every time you play the game. However, there are also levels that are character specific and although you may glimpse a little bit of that level as you travel through the cave, you will not be able to enter that level unless that character is part of your team. Of the character specific levels my favorite was by far the Time Traveler's partly because I thought that the way the items in the museum were put into historical context was hilarious and partly because it was just cool to go all "butterfly effect" (the chaos theory, not the Ashton Kutcher movie) in time travel.  There is no inventory in this game so the only items available for your use are the one item each that your three team members carry with them.  Each level has its own items that can be used and abandoned when the level is complete. The puzzles are simple and the items themselves act as pretty good clues on how to solve certain puzzles.  Also, there will always be signs and hints at what you are supposed to do next.

Really what drew me into this game was the story. The puzzles and platforming are fun but not really too special.   It’s the diabolical twist that was added to them that made The Cave really stand out. This game has an amazing sense of humor and I was so entertained by the despicable characters and their dastardly deeds that I played through it three times just so that I could get every story. If you are looking for something cool and new to play and you have a dark sense of humor then you will really enjoy this game.  On the other hand, if you see your roommate playing the Cave, then you might want to hide the rat poison, just in case they get any ideas.

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GUEST BLOGGER INFO

Contributing writer: Rainbow S. Coan

Rainbow Coan is a Sci-fi and fantasy movie/T.V enthusiast and all around nerd. Her hobbies include playing StarCraft II (mainly as Terran), reading Sci-fi & fantasy books, and playing games on Xbox. She has a Zombie Apocalypse survival plan and identifies strongly with Hobbits. Her favorite game of all time is King's Quest 6.