Developer: Rupeck Games
Publisher: The Yogscast
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Caveblazers – Review
Caves might not be the safest place around, with the high chance of running into unfriendly inhabitants and maybe falling into a deep dark pit, it is best to avoid these. But what if you are an adventurer that has heard rumors about a place that could give you everything you ever dreamed of, such as eternal life or riches to own the world? As you travel the lands to find said place only one thing will become clear: it won’t be an easy trip.
Story
Legends speak of a cave that hold mystical powers, one that could better the quality of your live that you are living now. Some say that this cave only brings death and destruction towards those who visit it. As a person that is not scared of an early meeting with the Grim Reaper you set foot into a large crevice. The housing of the legendary cave where your story starts, greeted by an elderly person who sees many adventurers enter but none return, he laughs at your attempt, but this only adds fuel to the flames of passion to survive. This is as far as the story goes, when running through the various dungeons there is no real progression. It would have been fun to embed a bit more storyline but since it is hard to complete it is understandable to not leave the player with a cliffhanger when they cannot proceed.
Graphics
Caveblazers is entirely built in a pixel art style, this gives off a retro feel but don’t expect to be going back to the nineties. Although it is in 2D, the extensive amount of details is simply mind-blowing for a game of this size. Animations are really detailed and very fluidly presented, the map allows for destruction and is neatly shown. Characters come in all forms and shapes, with obvious details to clothing, status changes and blood painting everything. It is a true art form to create a game as detailed as this with only simple use of pixels.
Sound
When we look at the sound in Caveblazers, this area is well worked out. Many sound effects are in place to correspond with each action and a satisfactory splat sound when killing something is just what murder is all about. Each individual is voiced with some grunts like we see in classic games like Banjo & Kazooie and this is again charming to those who played older games. A demerit however is the awful music that is looped in the background, after a short while there is a decent chance that this will be turned offsince it is such so bland and bothersome.
Gameplay
Caveblazers is a roguelike platformer where you traverse the deep dark grounds of an ancient cave. This grotto is filled to the brim with goodies for you to collect, albeit good and bad. Your quest is to uncover the secret of this place as you heard the legends of getting power greater than life and riches that is unspenable by a normal human being. In the caves lurk many enemies that want to stop you and armed with a simple sword and bow this will become a hard task. Upon first entering you meet with a fellow adventurer that is under siege by slimes. In his cry for help you can aid him and save his skin to receive an item. He follows you upon your quest but can be taken down quickly by the other foes in the room. Meeting fellow hunters can go three ways: their start neutral and if you aid them they will loyally follow you and help you, but cross their path and feel their vengeance. Another interesting thing about AI is that whoever can, will try to pick up and steal your items. When an enemy does this you can easily off them, but when a “friend” takes your holy dragon sword, well good luck! These are retrievable but won’t be easy unless you play it dirty. Items are divided into various classes: melee weapons, ranged weapons, magic items, consumables and rings. Everything is purely randomly dropped and generated in the RNG created caves.
Because strength alone won’t get you there, you must believe in the greater powers of above. Various shrines can be found to receive blessings and relics are shattered all over the place to increase this even more. There are also statues that take offerings in form of gold and blood. When you possess two of the same weapon you can combine these on an altar to make an ultra weapon out of this and this can be very handy in a pinch.
Of course your first travels will probably quickly end in fatality, when you bite the bullet and hit the dust you are reset to the safe zone of the cave, where you can upgrade yourself with a new perk or customize your character with some other clothes. You do lose all items and gold received, but with the fully randomized caves it means that each run is totally unique. When you finally reach the boss and are beaten to an inch of death you might consider eating something to recover or try out that tasty looking potion. These mystery liquids in a vial can save you in a pinch, or mean utter destruction: imagine beheading the first boss (that is also random each time) and leaving with five hit points left and thinking of drinking the friendly looking blue potion only ending up being poisoned or burned and dying on the floor moments later.
After getting the hang of things you will notice that the game controls immensely comfortable. Actions are quickly responding by the right button input and the swiftness of it all make it an easy playable game but be prepared to get to know the mechanics since it is really tricky.
Conclusion
Caveblazers is a cool and addicting roguelike platformer game that will surely be played as: “come on, one more try okay”. Quickly to pick up and after some trial and error you will move swiftly trough the first levels. Plan accordingly with the items you have and don’t forget to pick up all the blessings you can find.
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