Zero Punctuation: The Cave

Yahtzee Croshaw

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Aug 8, 2007
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I'm honestly very disappointed with the Cave. I love every adventure Ron Gilbert did at LucasArts, so my expectations were fairly high and I was ready to ignore the mixed reviews the game gets, but honestly: The Cave is just a pain to play because it relies so much on backtracking it's just ridiculous.

Thanks to only being able to carry one item at a time you have to go through the same corridors several times over and over and over and over again to the point it's really pissing me off. Together with the worst controls for running and jumping I've seen in a professional game mainly consisting of exactly that, it's simply no fun to play.
The biggest problem with that is that the few good jokes that are in the game, IMO, can't really fight the bad mood I have thanks to traversing the same god damn bit for the umpteenth time.

I played it through once and I'm going to finish it another time to see at least the majority of content, but overall, I'd say the Metacritic average of 69 according to Steam is fairly accurate, almost generous. I'm definitely not going to play the game a third time just to see one new level.
IMO, the Cave is, simply put, the absolute king of backtracking and repetition.
 

Saika Renegade

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Nov 18, 2009
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I can't help the feeling of 'The Lost Vikings did it better' that I get from watching gameplay and this review. It's interesting from a design standpoint, but it feels like it spreads its humor too thin to really achieve the same degree of silly charm and memorability the way the Lost Vikings did.
 

James Lacroix

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Angel Molina said:
Actually, you would only have to play it 5 times to get all the endings for all the characters...

Proof: 7 characters times 2 endings is 14 total variations. you can only pick 3 characters each playthrough. 14 divided by 3 is about 4.6, which means you need a minimum of 5 playthroughs (with one character having to be played a third time). Essentially the way it would work is if by the third time you play, you pick a character to get the first ending, then the other two characters that are being repeated go off to get the second ending...

Five playthroughs is still four bloody times too many. =/
Sorry to correct you, but the innacurate solution bothers me.
Mathematically this is correct, but contextually it is not. You would have to play through six times total, IF the mechanics of this game work the way I assume they do and you either get all good endings or all bad endings. (If this is not the case, disregard this entire post, I haven't played the game.)
You have characters abcdefg. First playthrough, abc bad ending. Second playthrough abc good ending. Third playthrough def bad ending. Fourth playthrough, def good ending. Fifth playthrough xxg bad ending. SIXTH playthrough, xxg good ending.

Am I right?
So... six.
 

SalamiJoe

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Mar 17, 2011
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sinterklaas said:
RedDeadFred said:
Falseprophet said:
snave said:
Skeleon said:
Regarding stalactites, here's a way to remember: Stalagmites have an M in them, just like pyramids which they sort of look like. And pyramids are on the ground; so the ones with the M are on the ground, too. That leaves stalactites for the ceiling.
Holding a handstand all day takes might, hanging requires holding on tight.
Stalactites tumble, while stalagmites are mounted to the floor.
Stalactites go on the ceiling, while stalagmites go on the ground.
Once, when I was still a little human, a great man (the tour guide of an underground cave system) told me the following piece of wisdom: "Stalactites hang because titties hang.".
Yeah, that's how I remember it, too. Easiest way, imho. ^^
 

Moonlight Butterfly

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Mar 16, 2011
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I really liked the cave and the artwork for the story is really good. I used a controller which seemed much more intuitive.
 

Dr Killpatient

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Jun 18, 2008
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Calling The Cave an adventure game seems like a missed opportunity by Yahtzee for some humor directed at Ron Gilbert and Double Fine. To clarify, The Cave is NOT an adventure game, but rather it is a straight up platformer. I would've actually liked to hear what adventure game elements did Yahtzee find in this game, apart from... well... none.

Yes, yes, I know Double Fine is calling The Cave an adventure game, but it's clearly false advertising to anyone who has actually played an adventure game (Yahtzee hasn't?). The Cave has about as much to do with Maniac Mansion as, let's say, Trine with Monkey Island.

Even more surprising is why Yahtzee would play this game with a mouse. If it's a platformer, play it as a platformer. Ditch the mouse and stick to keyboard.

And with whom would those characters speak with? Each other? Since they're from different time periods, what would they say? And how exactly would Yahtzee suggest implementing it? And, most importantly, what would be the point? You see that's the difference between criticism and constructive criticism. Offering acceptable alternatives, not just complaining.

The way I understand it is that the Cave is the leading character in the game, those seven adventurers don't even seem to acknowledge each other's presence, nevermind acknowledging that they are in an actual cave. It makes no difference to the knight if he goes through the cave with any of the other six characters. His story will stay the same regardless of who joins him. The "cave" here is obviously a metaphor, not an actual cave. So having characters talk to each other would end up destroying the metaphor.

Flew over Yahtzee's head, yes it did.

James Lacroix said:
Angel Molina said:
Actually, you would only have to play it 5 times to get all the endings for all the characters...

Proof: 7 characters times 2 endings is 14 total variations. you can only pick 3 characters each playthrough. 14 divided by 3 is about 4.6, which means you need a minimum of 5 playthroughs (with one character having to be played a third time). Essentially the way it would work is if by the third time you play, you pick a character to get the first ending, then the other two characters that are being repeated go off to get the second ending...

Five playthroughs is still four bloody times too many. =/
Sorry to correct you, but the innacurate solution bothers me.
Mathematically this is correct, but contextually it is not. You would have to play through six times total, IF the mechanics of this game work the way I assume they do and you either get all good endings or all bad endings. (If this is not the case, disregard this entire post, I haven't played the game.)
You have characters abcdefg. First playthrough, abc bad ending. Second playthrough abc good ending. Third playthrough def bad ending. Fourth playthrough, def good ending. Fifth playthrough xxg bad ending. SIXTH playthrough, xxg good ending.

Am I right?
So... six.
No and NO.

To illustrate here's a little graph:
A-G - characters, X - good ending, Y - bad ending

A_B_C_D_E_F_G_times played
X_X_X_______________1
________X_X_X_______2
__________Y_Y_X_____3
______Y_Y_____Y_____4
Y_Y__________________5

This is how he got 4,6, since the 5th playthrough requires getting final endings to only 2 characters.

Now the second "no" just shows what a massive ignoramus Yahtzee is when it comes to PCs.

The real answer is actually 3.

If only anyone here had 2 brain cells to make a save game before trading in the trinkets and then go to C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Roaming\Doublefine\TheCave and backup "auto.sav". After the bad endings you could simply replace the "auto.sav" and give back their desired objects to get the good endings.

Now, I admit you can't do this if you're playing on console (if you really-really like to pay more money for your games), but in all fairness Yahtzee did mention he was playing a Steam version. So all the talk about 6 playthroughs really amounted up to nothing, except ruining the game for those who had not yet played it.
 

codeg

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Apr 23, 2011
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Wait...

"...watching a speedrun of Ecco the Dolphin"

Could Yahtzee also be a fan of the legendary YSG?
 

MB202

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Sep 14, 2008
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I got and played The Cave 6 times now. Yahtzee's criticisms against the game were true, but I still enjoyed it quite a bit. Really thought provoking.

Roofstone said:
I still have the hillbilly left, but why the bloody buggers would I play it just for him? Meh..

Youtube ahoy!
The Hillbilly's my favorite character! I found his segment to be the most entertaining.