The Cave

The Cave is the sort of puzzle platformer that lives on switching between a small cast of characters, each with a different trick for getting past obstacles. By our assessment, that character-swapping idea is the whole appeal: it gives the levels a bit of structure, some light humor, and enough variety to keep the usual cave-crawling from going flat. The downside is that the puzzles can feel more guided than free-form, since the game wants you to notice the intended character ability rather than invent your own route. In play it has the feel of a co-op design turned into a single-player puzzle chain, with Ron Gilbert’s writing style showing through in the tone. It sits closer to a story-driven puzzle adventure than to a pure precision platformer. The Cave works best when the character gimmick keeps changing the room in front of you, not when you want open-ended problem solving.