Nappi

The Cave: Ron Gilbert's Double Fine Game (A Tim Schafer Production) (Not Double Fine Adventure)

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And while the narrator is quickly getting on my nerves, the NPCs seem entertaining. I get a bit of a muppet vibe from them.

I actually really enjoy the narrator. I found myself legitimately chuckling at some of his more sardonic jokes.

Who did everyone start with? I'm playing as the Adventurer, Time-Traveler, and the creepy Twins (my favorite).

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I picked the scientist, adventurer and twins and yeah, the twins are also my favorite so far. I actually heard some music in the game, but it's still the generic background music that's chill, but forgettable. :|

Does the game end once you do all the main levels for each character?

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Co-op is definitely the way to go. Stealing control of the other player's character is such fun! Wife and I have been playing Knight, Scientist, Monk.

It seems like the main puzzles are designed around each of the character's story lines. Which means that rather than being a mix of 3 special abilities, the puzzles are designed around using that one character's special ability in combination with 2 other warm bodies. Hopefully it gets a bit more dynamic later, but I'm afraid that might be the extent of the puzzling relating to characters.

This does indeed appear to be the case.

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Did anybody reach

The Zoo

? I wonder if the non-character specific levels are somewhat random? I think the levels in the game are the same, except you can't access them all? I could swear I passed the knight and future girls levels at least.

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I played a bit this morning. At first I thought it would be like maniac mansion, then I got a bit of a lost vikings vibe. But after playing through one of the sections I'm a bit worried that player selection won't have the kind of dynamic impact I was hoping for. It seems like the main puzzles are designed around each of the character's story lines. Which means that rather than being a mix of 3 special abilities, the puzzles are designed around using that one character's special ability in combination with 2 other warm bodies. Hopefully it gets a bit more dynamic later, but I'm afraid that might be the extent of the puzzling relating to characters.

I completed the Knight's quest using the Time Traveller's and the Knight's powers. (I didn't even use the Dragon Key -- so presumably there's multiple solutions.)

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Well, I beat the game.... I think the game has TOO much replay value, 7 characters who can all have two different endings? That's a bit much.... Yes, there are TWO endings for each character.

The Cave is all about giving you what you desire the most, the twins just want to kill their parents and be free, the scientist is willing to nuke the planet for profit and the adventurer killed her companions for fame and fortune.... But the twins can make up with their parents and stop them from dying, the scientist can refuse to nuke the people and the adventurer can share the fame. I don't know what the normal ending looks like...

The game is filled with references, but I found them subtle enough, as in you couldn't even tell what they were if you hadn't played the game..Just in case someone wants to find themselves, I'll put them in a spoiler:

-The Twins have Chuck the Plant in their house.

-I've seen at least two Grog machines.

-The scientist had the pool from Maniac Mansion.

-I'm pretty sure that's Herman Toothrot in the island, he even seems to have the same voice! They just call him hermit though.

Since I can't access the other areas I suppose they might have their own references?

This wasn't "OMG! BEST GAME EVAR!", but it was great, it had some less interesting parts and I still can't over on how little dialogue and music is in this game, but I will at least try to see the other character's levels... Just not right now?

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I'm torn on this one. I love Double Fine and I usually buy most of their games. The tone of this seems like something I'd really like to play, but watching the Giant Bomb Quicklook I was already getting tired of the game mechanics. Is there any gameplay that's more interesting later in the game, or is the story the whole point?

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I'm playing Knight, Adventurer, and future girl. I'm currently on my 3rd "quest", and second character quest.

I think I broke the Knight quest with the dragon.

I used the Knight's defensive mode to distract the dragon and teleported in with future girl to steel the treasure. I didn't use the key, but the dragon escaped anyway. That's impossible.

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I'm playing Knight, Adventurer, and future girl. I'm currently on my 3rd "quest", and second character quest.

I think I broke the Knight quest with the dragon.

I used the Knight's defensive mode to distract the dragon and teleported in with future girl to steel the treasure. I didn't use the key, but the dragon escaped anyway. That's impossible.

Did the princess yell something about you leaving the gate open? Or was it indicated that dragon had broken through the gate in its rage or something?

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They said something about somebody leaving the gate unlocked.

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They said something about somebody leaving the gate unlocked.

I think that's a psuedo-bug. If you didn't have the Time Traveler, you'd have to use the gate key. The story is just scripted out to have dragon escape and eat the princess regardless of how you solve the puzzle.

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John Walker is not entirely wrong about this. The platforming (esp. ladders) feels a bit tedious already, and I've just played for an hour.

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Yeah, that's one aspect that suffers from a platformer's literal representation of space. If you have a single area with several branching rooms/problem-solving arenas, it's hard to stack them in a way that makes them all easily accessible, yet not overlap them at all.

There are some upsides to the platforming—it feels more accessible and intuitive than a traditional adventure game interface, and allows for some physics-type puzzles—but some serious downsides as well. In addition to the one-to-one representation of space, a lot of the areas also feel somewhat visually and aurally sparse like Tanukitsune mentioned. Maybe it's just because I'm a little slow on the uptake with the puzzles, but my pace of progression means that I'm surprised whenever the Cave chimes in, just because I haven't heard from it super-recently.

I don't feel like I'm too far in so I'm hesitant to say much more than that, but those were two aspects that have hit me so far.

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Already got stuck in the part with the minecarts.

Where you ride the third cart and it circles back, it goes by too fast for me to understand what I need to do there. I tried pressing E and Q and other things, but nothing...

[edit] Of course, figured it out immediately after posting this. Glad I didn't go for a walkthrough (if any exist yet)

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I just finished 'The Twins' level. I was actually surprised by what the ultimate ending to the level was:

You end up killing the parents with rat poison to progress through the cave. Although, if you play the level like I did, you also end up poisoning your dog by accident.

I have been waiting for some kind of Idle Thumbs reference in this game and I think I finally got one during the Time Traveler section:

The museum description for the dinosaurs specifically refers to them as 'lords.' Even if it was unintentionally, it made me chuckle.

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I have been waiting for some kind of Idle Thumbs reference in this game and I think I finally got one during the Time Traveler section:

The museum description for the dinosaurs specifically refers to them as 'lords.' Even if it was unintentionally, it made me chuckle.

The Greatest Employee of All Time makes a wizard reference as well. :-D

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I just finished 'The Twins' level. I was actually surprised by what the ultimate ending to the level was:

You end up killing the parents with rat poison to progress through the cave. Although, if you play the level like I did, you also end up poisoning your dog by accident.

I have been waiting for some kind of Idle Thumbs reference in this game and I think I finally got one during the Time Traveler section:

The museum description for the dinosaurs specifically refers to them as 'lords.' Even if it was unintentionally, it made me chuckle.

It was intentional. I wrote the Time Traveler level.

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Well, I know who to pick for my next playthough. Since the game has 7 characters just like Maniac Mansion, some call it a spiritual sequel... Who do you think is "the Jeff"? (You know what I mean.)

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That's how I solved the Knight's quest, too. I presume it wasn't an oversight?

I wish there was some sort of "Teleport to Character X" feature. All that walking does become tiresome.

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I bought this on the Wii U so I could play it with my son and I've been having a great time watching him nut out some of the puzzles, particularly in the Hillbilly level.

We've spent time working through things logically, laughing at the names of certain objects and helping each other to remember which way to go when we've had to back-track.

I really like that this game has allowed for us to have an easygoing multiplayer experience that's also made us laugh, communicate and solve problems together. Valuable experiences we don't necessarily get with more frenetic or competitive games.. and I'm grateful for that.

Aside from that, I thought each area, so far, has had really nice tonal differences and was paced quite well.

Are people really complaining about the animation? I like it. It's humorous enough and conveys an individual sense of movement for each character. (Special mention goes to the Hillbilly's footsteps on the stone floors).

Yeah, some of the climbing and jumping to levels directly above the character was a little annoying.. but in a pleasurably nostalgic way for me. It comes with the terrain.

I guess what it boils down to is: I've really missed this type of game. I miss actually using my brain to figure out puzzles and the feeling of sharing a joke with the creators. Yes, there have been puzzle-platformers in recent times, but nothing has felt this rich and poilshed, in my opinion. The fact I can now share a fun experience like this with my own son is the kicker. I'm getting flashbacks of Maniac Mansion and other games I can't even remember the names of this late at night, and seeing him smile and appreciate the humour and those "lightbulb moments" makes me very happy.

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