The Cave Catch-All

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012...

Some choice excerpts:

It takes place inside a talking cave. The cave is mysterious. And a bit sultry. “Welcome,” the Cave said as the demo began. “Don’t let my sultry and mysterious voice startle you.” Meanwhile, when asked about the titular magic rock formation’s overall role in the game’s proceedings, Gilbert chimed in: “He’s kinda mysterious. Sultry, too,”

OK, maybe there’s a bit more to it than that. Here are the basics: there are seven characters, each of whom has ventured to a time-and-space-transcending cave to “learn something about themselves and who they might become.” So yeah, Mr Cave (whose last name is hopefully not “Johnson” – that could get confusing) gets top billing, but this is a game first and foremost about those seven – with backgrounds ranging from Medieval knight to time-traveler. So you pick any three, descend into the depths of their respective madnesses (and, you know, a cave), and leap between them to advance through an interconnected Metroidvania-style world. Appearances, however, can be deceiving, so here’s the bit that should have you jumping for nostalgic joy: “It is an adventure game,” said Gilbert, quickly pocketing an entire bucket in-game. “You want to pick up everything you can.”

Unsurprisingly, there are definite strains of Maniac Mansion running through this one, too – as seen in the atypically (for this genre) sizable character roster. Gilbert, however, was more than willing to admit that dynamic all-too-quickly tripped over its own clumsy ambition in his point-and-click classic. The Cave, meanwhile, aims to give equal weight to each character you bring along for the ride – whether it’s a Buddhist monk, globe-trotting adventurer, straw-hat-clad hillbilly, all-business scientist, absurdly creepy twin duo, divinely powered knight, or time traveler who’s out to right a wrong one million years in the making.

Once you pick your spelunking party, it’s set in stone, so – in theory – you’ll need a few playthroughs to see everybody’s unique content.

The Cave is, in fact, launching on PC day-and-date with consoles in early 2013.

Ron Gilbert interview

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Cool. Sounds like Maniac Mansion with a little bit of Psychonauts or Trine sprinkled in, and labeled with a Plato allegory.

Trailer has been released, which I just added to the original post.

This appears relevant to my interests.

Color me most interested!

Must have this.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Nice.

Ron Gilbert plus the Double Fine team alone would sell it, but after about two seconds of the middle of the video, I'm really eager for this one. 2013, though. Dammit!

Gonna go on blackout on this to whatever degree I can. It's an absolute purchase, so I'll try to preserve as much surprise as possible.

Dark, sultry caves ripe for...exploration. I'm in.

Has Double Fine worked with Sega before?

Confirmed for Wii U, if you were curious.

I've completed my first playthrough (knight, monk and twins). I liked it quite a bit and started a second run immediately after the first before realizing that I should go to bed.

iaintgotnopants wrote:

I've completed my first playthrough (knight, monk and twins). I liked it quite a bit and started a second run immediately after the first before realizing that I should go to bed.

Jeez! How long did it take?

FSeven wrote:
iaintgotnopants wrote:

I've completed my first playthrough (knight, monk and twins). I liked it quite a bit and started a second run immediately after the first before realizing that I should go to bed.

Jeez! How long did it take?

According to Steam, it took three and a half hours. It's clearly meant to be played through multiple times. You need to play three times minimum just to see all of the character specific puzzles. If I remember right, I think there are seven puzzles per run (three cave puzzles, three character specific puzzles and the final one). I assume the cave puzzles are the same each runs so that has the potential for getting boring but there are clearly multiple ways to solve them based on the makeup of your party.

iaintgotnopants wrote:
FSeven wrote:
iaintgotnopants wrote:

I've completed my first playthrough (knight, monk and twins). I liked it quite a bit and started a second run immediately after the first before realizing that I should go to bed.

Jeez! How long did it take?

According to Steam, it took three and a half hours. It's clearly meant to be played through multiple times. You need to play three times minimum just to see all of the character specific puzzles. If I remember right, I think there are seven puzzles per run (three cave puzzles, three character specific puzzles and the final one). I assume the cave puzzles are the same each runs so that has the potential for getting boring but there are clearly multiple ways to solve them based on the makeup of your party.

Yeah I think I did my first run last night in 3 hours. Amusing.

I'll do the other 2 runs when I get some time tomorrow.

I did two runs yesterday and yeah the cave puzzles repeat and it's annoying. It's an interesting game but there's a lot of issues with the design, it seems like you're not meant to play it on your own multiple times even though you may not be able to see all the content otherwise.

Also I found that most of the character specific abilities are not useful for repeating puzzles and I think there's only a few characters who would actually be helpful in another character's area.

Overall I'm a little disappointed. I'm reminded of Little Inferno, another recent game that was really charming but just didn't have a strong core design to support the production.

Oh good, I should be able to finish up my run tonight/tomorrow then. For some reason I was expecting more meat on each playthrough but I'm glad it's that short since you're expected to play through multiple times.

Latrine wrote:

I did two runs yesterday and yeah the cave puzzles repeat and it's annoying. It's an interesting game but there's a lot of issues with the design, it seems like you're not meant to play it on your own multiple times even though you may not be able to see all the content otherwise.

Good point. I can't think of any other reason that there aren't exactly 9 characters (or some other factor of 3).

Latrine wrote:

Overall I'm a little disappointed. I'm reminded of Little Inferno, another recent game that was really charming but just didn't have a strong core design to support the production.

I'm significantly more engaged with The Cave that I was by little inferno, which was just kind of weak all through.

For The Cave I think the short time per run through is a significant plus in it's favour, if it was much longer I think it's charm would wear off, I was already a little bored by the "platforming" aspect of the game by the middle of my first run.

So, my first playthrough, doing the Knight's puzzle:

Spoiler:

So I've got the Knight, the Time Traveler and the Hillbilly. To get the dragon's treasure, I distracted the dragon with the Knight and used the Time Traveler's phase ability to jump in, grab the gold and jump out. Worked like a charm. Then, as I was climbing up to the princess, she screamed about not locking the dragon's gate and blah blah blah, etc. Thing is, I never opened the dragon's gate, so it should still have been locked. I never even moved the gate key.

Not a big deal, just kind of had me scratching my head a bit.

Serengeti wrote:

So, my first playthrough, doing the Knight's puzzle:

Spoiler:

So I've got the Knight, the Time Traveler and the Hillbilly. To get the dragon's treasure, I distracted the dragon with the Knight and used the Time Traveler's phase ability to jump in, grab the gold and jump out. Worked like a charm. Then, as I was climbing up to the princess, she screamed about not locking the dragon's gate and blah blah blah, etc. Thing is, I never opened the dragon's gate, so it should still have been locked. I never even moved the gate key.

Not a big deal, just kind of had me scratching my head a bit.

That's disappointing.

Spoiler:

I was hoping to get to retry that puzzle without the dragon killing everybody.

As an FYI, in the menu if you go to "How to Play" it shows you what all the characters special abilities are.

Just finished with the demo. Loved it! Definitely getting it as soon as I clear more from the pile.

haha I deserve this. 1st time I bought a game at launch for quite awhile so I could talk about it fresh with others and hardly anyone is talking about it! hehe

I'm not real impressed so far. It's sort of a visual adventure game, but many of the puzzles require you to go back and forth and back and forth over the same area, over and over and over. This is terribly boring and frustrating, especially when you don't know what to do, and every attempt to figure it out requires yet another fetch trip.

It has moments, but I don't think very much of the game design.

Malor wrote:

I'm not real impressed so far. It's sort of a visual adventure game, but many of the puzzles require you to go back and forth and back and forth over the same area, over and over and over. This is terribly boring and frustrating, especially when you don't know what to do, and every attempt to figure it out requires yet another fetch trip.

It has moments, but I don't think very much of the game design.

I'm only 90 minutes into the game, stuck on the hillbilly-specific area, and I'm feeling the same way. Visually, the game is very interesting, but the gameplay is losing its appeal quickly.

I think I'll enjoy the play through but I don't want to do any same cave stuff if I pick 3 new guys.

DanB wrote:

I can't think of any other reason that there aren't exactly 9 characters (or some other factor of 3).

From the quick look, it sounds like he did seven characters simply because Maniac Mansion had seven characters.

Edit: Removed total lies. I just didn't solve the puzzle in a certain way the first time so I thought I needed a specific person.

All this endless running back and forth is just unbearable. I'm at 3 hours, haven't finished, and I think I may be done with the game.

I can't believe Ron Gilbert would be associated with this... he was one of the pioneers of the 'can't make mistakes' genre of adventure gaming, but in this offering, you most certainly can, and it will cost you a bunch of time to cross the whole level to get whatever it is that you need so you can try again.

The way Gilbert solved these things before was by giving you 'a pile of X', and then you could use X until you didn't need it anymore. Here, he just gives you one X, and if you don't use it right, you have to make a trek to get another.

This is one of those games where I would love to collar the developer and ask him, quite sincerely, "what the f*ck were you thinking?"