THE CAVE

Ron Gilbert. A name that evokes memories moult at most thirty players. Responsibilities include Maniac Mansion and the first two Monkey Island, the man finally reveals his latest project that has matured over several years: The Cave. Developed in collaboration with Double Fine Productions, this adventure game and platform-based puzzles promised promising, both in terms of atmosphere of gameplay. After long nights of exploration in his company, we can now say loud and clear that this is not a trivial but rather cave of Ali Baba's cave. Judge for yourself.

How Maniac Mansion, the new baby of Ron Gilbert offers a panel of seven characters, each with clearly defined motives. Knight aims to extirpate Excalibur from the rock, the hillbilly trying to find love, abandoned twins - who account for one protagonist - seeking parents, adventurer continues buried treasure and lost companions, the monk is looking his master and enlightenment, while science is about to make a compromising discovery and the time traveler tries to change a mistake of history. We almost forget the eighth protagonist, and not least the cave itself. Indeed, it is a little New York many films of Martin Scorsese, ie a separate being. It also serves as narrator, commenting not without some sarcasm actions of team members. When the game starts, we choose three of the seven characters we guide you to the end of an adventure, an outcome that will be revealed at the end of five to eight hours the first time, according to his cognitive skills. The narrative, very well thought reveals filigree - via images to recover - information on the background of the selected hero. As we advance, environments that are somehow on the psyche of the protagonists discover: mansion for twins, funfair for the farmer, pyramid adventurer, etc..


Speleological

Where many titles dull their gameplay through redundant explanations as useless, The Cave has the good taste not to the player's hand. This is why the interface is intended to be as clean as possible. If desired, the bloated faces of the characters, however, may be displayed in the lower left corner of the screen, to find out which direction the cross support to switch from one to the other. Intuitive handling wants more focus point & click PC, but just plug a joystick or playing on consoles to move his hero with the left stick, while the front panel buttons are used to take rest or an object, use power or jump. Speaking of which, the phases of platforms are present but are absolutely not an end in itself. Each character has the same physical jump and travel are a formidable fluidity. And to return the objects, note that our jokers can only carry one at a time and no inventory is present. Simplicity, you say.

This simple grip fortunately opposes some complexity in riddles. Warning, there is nothing as "capillotracté" in some sequences of Monkey Island, but it still faces many situations giving a hard time. Special mention at the time traveler who requires to navigate three different times, the actions perpetrated in one affecting (or not) the other two. However, death is not on the agenda here, every misstep returning the player a few seconds back with a magical misty effect. Playable solo title published by Sega, however, draws its strength from its cooperative properties, provided that we have two other friends close. It comes very quickly to come up with ideas to his companions, they do not hesitate to try this or that approach to turn when the dialogue moves and the sauce is. In terms of display, the game does not splits the screen when the characters move away from each other: the camera remains focused on the last selected character. A choice that requires a good deal when we discover the adventure more, if we want to avoid blunders and syndrome mere witness to those who embody the characters off the screen. An online option with voice chat might be able to operate at the risk of break up the trip that makes the game as exhilarating as it is actor or spectator.


POLLY WANTS A CRACKER

To immerse themselves in the world of The Cave, you can count on finely written dialogues and excellent English voice acting for NPCs and the narrator. The stamp of the actor Stephen Stanton (voice of Big Daddies in BioShock or Bonita and Sasha in Psychonauts) fits perfectly in the cave. In addition, the black humor of the dialogues always fly, which is fairly rare in the gaming community to be emphasized. The game is not a succession of jokes undrinkable, it disseminates wacky contextual remarks are (often) laugh heartily. Not to spoil the surprise too, we just include the scope of the mother of twins who, seeing them with a packet of rat poison in his hands, gently invites to play outside in the kitchen rather than reprimand. In addition, we can only applaud the work of the French localization. Do not hesitate to dip into the popular references (Capitaine Flam to name one), it greatly helps to immerse the player in a world where the gravity of the themes (death, rejection, abuse of power ...) opposes skillfully the warmth of the graphics tab. If the gameplay is in the tradition of 2D games engine, it is in three dimensions. At every moment, we feel that the developers have taken particular care to cartoony animations. View wandering peasant, waving his arms too much, Scientific hold a huge sausage gigotante in the hand or the Holy Grail knight way forward is a real treat for the peepers.

The title of Double Fine, however, suffers from occasional downturns and puts the music in the background. No epic to put in their mouths theme as was the case for The Secret of Monkey Island, for example. That said, the minimalist aspect of the soundtrack sticks pretty well to the dark atmosphere in the game It is hardly lack of novelty of a party to the other tarnishes the table. In the second adventure, we are in fact forced to replay some common passages identically, a phenomenon repeated the third time it feels especially when you have to retype already completed two full levels, given the size cast. Having a panel of six or nine characters might be allowed to feel that little less redundancy of a run to another.

Regardless, the desire to discover each story is present and, as in The Lost Vikings, each character has specific powers: blockhead can hold his breath indefinitely underwater, the monk use telekinesis, Knight cushion waterfalls and activate an aura of invincibility against making in-part immobile ... In fact, we should consider some sections in different ways depending on the selected members. Somewhere, The Cave is a little adventure game that is Dishonored FPS: really a title with multiple answers to the same problem. Icing on the cake, the title suggests a lot of things to discover once performed for seven, besides the eternal success in getting missing. What a swell time already satisfying life.