Colossal Cave presents such a difficult assessment for me to put in writing. And I’m not simply speaking concerning the gameplay issue, which is substantial. It’s making an attempt to use my gaming acumen to a reimagined textual content journey that originated earlier than I used to be alive. So how can I discover that steadiness, taking a look at components that stay trustworthy to the sport’s humble roots and people which were up to date?
Whereas the launch-day viewers would possibly’ve been these with reminiscences of enjoying the sport again throughout America’s bicentennial, what is going to give it enduring legs on the Nintendo Swap is interesting to extra trendy gamers. And it does an affordable job with this. You begin above floor earlier than rapidly shifting to the cavernous underground setup. There’s little context, however the unique textual content is properly narrated to make you’re feeling such as you belong. Fortunately, you possibly can regulate the amount settings to listen to it correctly over the music. It’s mysterious sufficient to lure in followers of first-person journey video games, resembling my spouse and I.
It’s from that perspective that you just’ll be capable of take within the sport’s sights throughout your treasure hunt. Whereas the ‘70s construct left you to your creativeness, right here you’ll be capable of recognize a realized world. And right here is the place I must wrestle with being balanced. The “scenic” visuals vary from stable to meh, with darkish and muddy textures showing fairly darn dated in 2023. However for any person coming from the 1976 model, a presentation like this may be nearly unimaginable. It leaves me torn.
One graphical quirk I’m much less forgiving of is the lighting. Your lantern operating out of gas and leaving you in pitch darkness is a gameplay mechanic; I get it. However when the presentation reveals me different mild sources, I’ll rightly query why these all stop functioning concurrently. Are different mild sources by some means magically linked to my lantern? The devs would possibly’ve thought eradicating this oddity would compromise the sport design. However, when adjoined by different updates, it simply feels foolish, if an in the end minor annoyance.
One other quirk (extra gameplay however connecting to the visuals) is navigation. It’s one factor to inform me I can’t use a ladder as a result of I’m not shut sufficient to it. However why can a gold nugget be carried up a rickety wood ladder however immediately be too heavy for stairs carved out of the grotto itself? Once more, I would’ve missed this with better-defined visuals, however the sport paints itself into such corners, inviting these observations and questions. How a lot of an influence this stuff have is dependent upon the kind of gamer you’re.
No matter your emotions concerning the visuals, the joys of discovery may be tempered by different issues. The restricted stock solely provides to backtracking by familiarly drab areas. Mazes (hit and miss in video games) are extra miss right here, coming off as time wasters somewhat than satisfying challenges. Dwarves are an interruption at greatest, a random defeat at worst. Hints from the narrator are sparse, as are continues. Maps are of marginal high quality. And the odd glitch (one wiping out two rows of saves) would possibly sometimes rear its unpolished head.
Nonetheless, from a pure time perspective, $39.99 is affordable, even when a lot of our time wasn’t precisely what I’d name “enjoyable.” The best way the rooms are related higgledy-piggledy little question padded our 10-plus hours. We collected simply over half the treasure, which was sufficient for us. Replaying to gather all of them (and obtain an ideal rating) is one thing that solely the largest Colossal Cave fanatics will sort out.
Colossal Cave was a basic textual content journey, however whether or not this reimagined take is “the journey you’ve longed for” would possibly boil all the way down to your tolerance for dated components. A lot has modified within the a long time because the unique title, and the developer and Roberta Williams had been family names within the gaming neighborhood. Going by the passages of this non-linear journey can nonetheless be a mysterious, secret-filled romp. But it surely’s possible greatest tackled with a superb dose of nostalgia.