The Cave [XBLA/PSN/Wii U/PC] review

[Pikate]

A little disappointed with this one. On Xbox 360 there is horrendous drops in frame rate almost constantly (possibly the worst I've ever seen in a game).

The game isn't a platform game, it's an adventure with the freedom of a platformer and in that regard it works very well and was a pleasant surprise. The puzzles are satisfying, just right difficulty-wise and I always wanted to continue and see what the game/story had in store for me next but I can't see myself ever wanting to play it again once I've seen everything. It's just not a fun game.

The first few minutes of the game set-up "The Cave" as a tourist attraction and that's very much a metaphor for The Cave as a game. It's a tourist attraction, like Stonehenge or Buckingham Palace, once you've seen it you've no reason to visit again.

[FelixofMars]

Wow, I only heard about this today and went to the trailers to see what it was. I thought it looked like my kind of thing but this isn't exactly selling it. Maybe the framerate is better on PC though? think its on Steam.

[BIG EDD]

Anybody played the wii u version,any frame rate issues?

[SuperBeatBoy]

Played a bit of it on the pc. Runs good but has no gamepad control options.

[Party boy]

Anybody played the wii u version,any frame rate issues?

I've played the demo and didn't notice any.

[EvilBoris]

Apparently it uses the HDD very heavily, it chugs more if you are background downloading.

[ETC]

PS3 demo was fine took forever to download like, weird

[Family Fry]

Nothing weird about that, that's typical psn in my household.
I'm hovering over buying this, although I know I will tomorrow.
Beat the demo and the game had me curious to what all the characters stories were, as the cave introduced them.
How well does it play on PC without pad controls? There were a few platformy ladder sections, does it auto jump/climb?

[Greg Moss]

Loving this myself, playing the Wii U version, some framerate drops, mainly while saving, but nothing major at least not so far. My main gripe is that I thought this was a definite for off tv play, if Trine 2 can be played on the gamepad why can't this?

As I understand it, each of the 7 characters has there own, Cave specific level, which is where any reply value will be. Only played about an hour so far, just got to the Knights level, but I'm really having fun with it, lot's of puzzles that get you thinking, but nothing too difficult so far, I imagine things will get harder as I progress. Being a Double Fine game there are plenty of touches that will make you smile, be it little animations or comments from the Cave itself. Treated as what it is, an enjoyable little game to keep you distracted for a few hours, before the big hitters come along in march, I couldn't be happier with this.

[originalbadboy]

Loving this myself, playing the Wii U version, some framerate drops, mainly while saving, but nothing major at least not so far. My main gripe is that I thought this was a definite for off tv play, if Trine 2 can be played on the gamepad why can't this?

Its a shame you can't play it on the Gamepad, this was the response on the developers forum:

Just an FYI that tried to support pretty much any controller that Nintendo supports, including the WiiU Gamepad, pro controller, and Wiimotes.


WiiU Gamepad only play was something that we had to cut due to time and, surprisingly due to some tricky audio issues when you play in that mode. Though you might expect the DRC only play to be something that the WiiU supports “out of the box” for every game, it actually has to be implemented on a per-title basis. In the end, we wanted to put as much focus on the quality of the game as most people will play it, rather than spread ourselves too thin.

Which is fair enough, might get it if they update it at some point. I wouldn't think it would be that difficult to implement.

[Adam Stone]

Just played the Demo on WiiU -

Isnt instantly as impressive as other indie games on Eshop (Nano Assault, Little Inferno, Puddle, Trine2), but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Framerate isn't bad enough to worry about, though it feels like it is struggling - it is not smooth but that didn't bother me.

The demo sets the scene nicely but didn't leave me wanting more, to be honest - which im surprised about because I love these types of games (puzzle/quirky adventures). Perhaps after i've played all my other games to death i'll come back to this :-)

[Golgo]

If my point-n-click/platformer hybrids aren't a rock solid 60 fps I don't wanna know.

[EvilBoris]

What about if they aren't a rock solid 30?

[Deuteros]

After having played through this (several times) recently, I feel like I have to do this game justice.

Yes, the framerate isn't solid and the platforming is a bit ropey. It's still one of the best adventure games in recent history.

If you're playing it because you like platformers, you're playing the wrong game. Platforming in The Cave is just a means of getting to another 'room' (in the traditional adventure context). This is a classic adventure game dressed in a different set of clothes. Which, surprisingly, suit the genre very well. More importantly, the puzzles are clever, the humour is fantastic and the seven different characters will change additional playthroughs dramatically.

I'm surprised so few here had anything positive to say about it.