When the creators of Monkey Island and Grim Fandango, Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert (Double Fine Adventure) said they are going to bring back adventure gaming with their latest project “The Cave,” people had good reason to get excited.

The Cave is a ton of fun that you can play multiple times. You are introduced at the beginning of the game to 7 characters, each with their own unique story to unfold. You are only able to bring 3 of these characters along for their journey. This has you going back to gather the remaining characters and playing again in order to hear each characters story. Not one of these characters talk, only acting out their actions, instead the story unfolds through the telling of a witty cave. “Yes, I said a Cave.”

The Cave is a well imagined game with a beautiful art style seen throughout. In a 2D world where you are often traversing back and forth from one end to the other, you will not even realize it’s a simple 2D platform as the background has such artistic depth to make the world seem much larger and open then it really is. The artistic style with the cartoonish look brings you back to the old days of point and click adventures like Grim Fandango.

The worlds imagined deep down within the cave bring challenges specific to each character. The Hillbilly being one of my favorite characters with his lanky dumb witted walk as his feet flop when he walks throughout the world are very well animated and expressed through their movements. The challenges will still need the help of your other two companions each world is presented to tell a story for 1 of the 7 characters. A circus buried deep down within the depths of a cave would not make sense, nor would a Pyramid like tomb, but when playing as the Hillbilly or the Explorer everything flows nicely.

I did experience small frame rate issues from time to time, but nothing that will really hurt your experience. You will have to complete certain challenges again to reach the other characters story which can become a bit repetitive on your third play through. However, The Cave is a witty, clever and funny game that should be played by many. In today’s gaming industry where guns are at the forefront of today’s most played games. The Cave is a nice breath of fresh air to lighten our gaming experience. With a purchase price of only $15 I would highly recommend this game. I can’t wait to see where Double Fine Adventure head next with their KickStarter project.

Reviewed by: Kutter28