Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The Cave gets its hooks into you by making the party selection feel meaningful before you take more than a few steps. You choose three from seven would-be treasure seekers, then bring their distinct powers into a side-scrolling chain of platforming and puzzles. That basic setup is smart: one character can open a route no one else can, while the other two may need to be positioned elsewhere to finish the job. It makes even a small obstacle feel like a group problem rather than a simple jump test.

The abilities give the puzzles a pleasingly physical rhythm. Teleportation, temporary invulnerability, and telekinesis invite you to inspect a room, work out which character has the answer, and then coordinate the rest of the team around that answer. With up to two local co-op partners, that coordination becomes a conversation at the couch. Solo, you are handling all three, which preserves the puzzle design but can make repeated backtracking through the cave more noticeable.

Not every moment lands with the same snap. A game built around three characters inevitably asks you to move the group around, and that can turn a solved puzzle into a bit of housekeeping. Still, the character-specific routes keep the structure from feeling disposable. Your first team does not reveal everything, and choosing a new trio changes the practical puzzle toolkit as well as the portions of the cave you will see.

Give it a chance if you like platform adventures where progress comes from observation and collaboration rather than reflexes alone. It is less about mastering demanding movement than enjoying the process of untangling a strange machine, one morally questionable objective at a time.

Graphics

The Cave uses a 2D side-scrolling view that keeps the action easy to parse: you can see your trio moving through the ancient underground spaces and quickly tell when a character needs to be left behind at an obstacle. The changing character-focused environments are especially useful because they break up the cave journey with places tied to each adventurer’s particular baggage.

Story

There is a wonderfully sour joke at the center of The Cave: seven people descend in pursuit of their deepest desires, and none of them sounds especially equipped to handle getting what they want. The Adventurer, Time Traveler, Knight, Twins, Hillbilly, Scientist, and Monk are all defined by obsession, which gives the game a clear reason to put them through uncomfortable personal reckonings.

The self-aware cave is more than a backdrop for the plot. It frames the journey as a test, and the character-specific environments turn backstory into something you actively work through rather than merely read about. Each route is designed to expose motives and confront a checkered past, so the narrative reward is tied directly to which three characters you bring.

The comedy is dark without losing its playful adventure-game spirit. More importantly, it has an edge: the choices and challenges are explicitly of dubious moral value, and that makes the characters’ desire for treasure feel less heroic than revealing. If you enjoy games willing to poke at the selfishness behind an adventurer’s quest, this is where The Cave earns its personality.

Overall Experience

The Cave is a good, not flawless, puzzle-platform adventure with a much stronger personality than its simple descent suggests. Its best moments come when a character ability, a co-op-sized puzzle, and a bit of pointed character comedy all meet in the same room. You are not just finding the next exit; you are helping a particular brand of mess walk toward the thing they probably should not have.

Its limitations are tied to the same structure that makes it interesting. Managing three characters can slow the pace, especially alone, and any friction from revisiting routes will stand out more than in a faster platformer. But the seven-character roster gives the game real replay motivation, because different choices lead to different personal environments rather than cosmetic swaps.

At 7.1, it lands as a worthwhile recommendation for a specific mood: gather a couple of friends locally, pick the most suspicious-looking trio, and enjoy a puzzle adventure that treats greed, regret, and bad decisions as material for a joke. Solo players can still have a good time, particularly if they like methodical room-by-room problem solving, but co-op is the more natural fit for its three-person structure.

Retro Replay Score

7.1/10