The Cave is a two-dimensional world with three-dimensional graphics that is very reminiscent scenarios Day of the Tentacle.
The cave speaks. We are called from inviting us to explore its depths. Patiently waiting for bold adventurers worthy of its dangers and gives them what they’ve always dreamed of. “The Cave” ( The Cave ) is the new game from Ron Gilbert and, as always with any titles bearing his signature, is a great trip that I recommend performing.
Beware: when you read the name of Ron Gilbert never take lightly. If you like video games, you know that something has come to influence any of the current titles they love. Gilbert is responsible for founding the basis for establishing the rules defined so far most adventure games. And we are talking about a man who between 1987 and 1993, employed by LucasFilm Games-wrote, designed and directed the following monsters in the history of video games in this order: Maniac Mansion , Zak and the Alien Mindbenders Mcracken , Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade , The Secret of Monkey Island , and its sequel Day of the Tentacle .
Imagine then the thrill that ran through the veins of his followers adventurous when almost a year ago Tim Schafer announced Double Fine was working on a new adventure game directed by Gilbert. The first thing we did was get our fine leather jackets, turned around to find a three-headed monkey between meteorites and waited patiently purple.
The Cave begins much like Maniac Mansion : The cave speaker is introduced with a narrative of what we are about to experience and seven stereotypical characters appear around a campfire. In principle, we find that they are all looking for something within this mystical location. His dream most anticipated and most hidden secret will merge to give them the happiness they have always sought.You’ll have to choose from a scientific, adorably evil twins, a knight whose armor is too big, a mountaineer, a time traveler, a Zen monk and an adventurer. These characters have special powers and must get off at one of three teams to beat all the cave presents riddles.
The Cave is a platform game with puzzles where you use objects. It is a marriage between adventure games and a map of Gilbert Metroidvania type. Always go over the cave in side view and motion will be no surprise to anyone. The three characters can carry one object at a time and must work together to unravel the solutions to the problems presented in each section of the world. This dynamic has already been explored by Gilbert on Maniac Mansion , where according to the principle character changed elegies solutions. In The Cave the concept is not taken at that level. The selection of characters simply change the way in which some of the problems can be solved, since in general they all move the same and have similar skills. Where the character selection becomes very important in the development of the story, because each of these characters has a special section of the cave reserved for its own history and only playing with all the characters that we have explored and known whole cave. In my opinion, the best levels determined by the design team of the game are the time traveler, the twins, and the gentleman scientist. Beware: this does not mean the rest are not just fun, but simply mentioned are what make the game feel like clockwork and each puzzle contains the work of many people imagining the balance between the funny, the challenger and the aesthetic.
Explore the cave is, as the title suggests, an adventure that should be taken for what it is: the exploration into the depths of our darkest secrets and analyzing how far we are willing to go to fulfill what we have dreamed . Narratively, the game explores how these characters-home-generic and innocent are capable of doing anything to get the success. The history of each is presented with vignettes of art hidden in the cave and specific environments that correspond to the anecdote surrounding each.
In the cave, as in many adventure games, dying is not important. The game will ask for time to think each puzzle solutions and, though we may die many times, the cave will make fun of us (with the now famous humor that characterizes Gilbert) saying that the only way out of there will be solving riddles.Dying will not remove anyone from your problem. As you can imagine, this leaves much to analyze once the title. But I’ll let everyone play and reach their conclusions.
One of the things that put a smile on my face was the discovery that, to connect more controls, automatically up to three people can come together and support the development of the game. For example, one of the first problems that you encounter is an animal that prevents glass passes. So it was fun to get to putting the brain response of three people to work. We were trying everything for a while in order to conquer the danger and realized that we all had to work to the same end. It was quite interesting to hear two people actively help and as protagonists in a game of this type, I was always used to playing alone. I think the multiplayer experience worthwhile and if you can get two friends with five or six hours off and maybe even give you a ride to the game together laughing and enjoying the same trip.
The style of The Cave is a two-dimensional world with three-dimensional graphics that is very reminiscent scenarios Day of the Tentacle . That is, most art is exaggerated in scale and in angles and is designed to make us feel slightly uncomfortable in a caricature. Nothing is what it seems and see several similarities to Alice in Wonderland whenever our characters fall by another rabbit hole and see things happen in the air. Some of the old-school fans can recognize many autoreferencias Gilbert himself. For example, we will see a nuclear reactor cooling pool identical to beneath the mansion of Edison, a plant called Chuck, catacombs as Indy Jones, a castaway talkative and many hundreds of other details that remind us who is behind of this work. And beyond all these things, we will mourn Ron Gilbert laughing several times with the excellent script written for this title.
What I can say? Gilbert is a game adapted to our times. It skips those things that today might seem archaic to new audiences, but greatly respects the public that has been following his work all these years. In my case, I gave him two laps to the cave with six different characters. My intention was to know everything that Double Fine had designed for me to find. Explore the cave is an experience that is as short or long as our ability to solve our momentum or know all the stories. For those looking for an adventure game that feels both fresh and dynamic as inspired by the old way of thinking about game design, The Cave is a great history lesson in the service of our current controls.
Score 8.3/10