The Cave

While the Monkey Island creator's quick to emphasis the thirty souls at the studio to put their name to the game's development, the title's clearly Gilbert's creation, explaining its an idea he's had rattling around inside his brain for over twenty years. The way he tells it, it's a two-decade correction of the mistake that was Manic Mansion, the point & click adventure heavily revered by fans. Despite the claim, it wasn't quite what he wanted. This new project corrects that.

So players will be greeted with a cast of seven, of which you'll choose a trio to venture into the vast labyrinth of caverns under the earth.

The entire cave system's interconnected. Gilbert's going Metroidvania here, and maintaining some of the rules that come with the territory: certain abilities will be needed to venture into some areas. But because this is coming from Double Fine, there's a few twists on the template: each adventurer will have one specific skill each, meaning only certain groups can get into certain areas. And given the company's past creations, its no surprise that the Cave is sentient, and plays the role of narrator to each person's tale.

The mechanics are traditional point and click puzzle-solving, albeit with direct control over your cast, swopping between your three with D-Pad taps.There's light platforming as you navigate the caves, and if you fall too far you'll perish. But you'll resurrect on the spot you leapt from, and clambering over rocks and ledges is as simple as possible. Mario trickery this isn't.

There is to three player co-op, local only, and no split-screen or camera panning to allow everyone to follow their own paths. Gilbert wants cooperative exploration, and discussion, to be front and centre when solving puzzles. You choose who the camera tracks through tapping their D-Pad icons. You've got to learn to play nice and take your turn.

And it works, works really well. We settle down with a colleague to play one section - a bizarre carnival the attractions of which hide in caverns big and small, interconnected by ladders, rocky steps, and powered by a central electric generator.

Found amidst the darkened recesses of the underground labyrinth are areas dedicated to each character, places that play out their own story to conclusion, backstory filled in through a mix of hidden cave paintings and Cave narration, and character arc resolved though solving the puzzles within their area. For the Knight, say, its questing for dragons to slay, treasure and a princess.

Then there's our forty-five minute session: winning enough tickets to buy a pink teddy bear so our Hillbilly can win the heart of a two-legged lady. Tickets are won on various stalls, but their solutions aren't clear. Only comprehensive exploration to every corner of the carnival, discussion with co-op partners and working together brings resolution. And even then you'll get the odd head-scratcher.

The main worry that the puzzles are too obtuse proves unfounded. There's logic here, but not so obvious it makes sense. How do you fool a weigh predictor? That there's a magician down a nearby cave turning objects invisible may solve the problem. Various rides are powered down, and the only fuse box in the area electrocutes upon touching it. What's the next step?

That puzzle offers a good example of the different trio combinations and the different ways to solve brain teasers. The Scientist's special ability means she can bypass electric shocks through her tinkering skills. But alternatively, tracking down the generator and a wrench to turn it off with - and insuring someone's by the box to grab the fuse before everything turns back on eventually - is another solution.

45 minutes to solve the entire section. Multiplying that by seven, and adding on an additional time for the corridor connections between the character-specific areas, and you're looking at a fairly generous run time for a downloadable title, even if by virtue of design you'll likely avoid areas once you've solved them first trio round.

It's definitely one to look forward to on its release next year. All that's left is to find out the cost: an essential bargain or a luxury purchase?