Writings of Mass Deduction

I’m purchasing an Xbox Live Indie Game every day, seeking out the quality titles that got lost in the shuffle and no longer appear in the top 50 downloads. Today is day #3, and today’s game is CaveIn – Miner Rescue Team.

Combined with yesterday’s game (Cavemen Vs Aliens) we have a “cave” theme happening the last couple of days. CaveIn is a very different game than CvA, though. It’s also a different game than I anticipated. And I mean that in a very good way.

I expected a puzzle game with a relatively simple colour matching mechanic. What I got was a veritable smörgåsbord of puzzle gameplay. As I write this review I haven’t even hit the halfway point of the game as so far I’ve encountered:

– Bomberman-esque rock exploding

– the aforementioned colour matching

– a level where you are shooting boulders to match colours, ala Puzzle Bobble

– a level where boulders are constantly falling on top of you, forcing you to avoid them while moving boulders around to match colours

– a maze level, one which is complicated by a lack of light; you can only see the portion of the maze lit up by the light on the front of your mining hardhat

– a level where you have boulders racing left and right, and to progress you need either lightning fast reflexes or need to puzzle out how to move objects to block their flow

It’s worth noting that several of the levels mix and match the play mechanics to add even more variety, and that some of the levels even incorporate light platforming elements. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if, as I progress through the game’s huge number of levels, if I encountered even more puzzle solving mechanics, and new combinations of the existing ones.

I must admit to being quite mystified why this game has been rated only 3/5 by the community. Perhaps people didn’t play it long enough to realise the tremendous variety on display here. Certainly the presentation is solid and attractive, though I did find screenshots didn’t do it justice.

The game now costs 80 Microsoft Points (significantly less than when it first came out). For a game with a long list of varied levels, it’s a can’t miss game for anyone who likes almost any kind of colour matching or gem moving puzzle game, as virtually every imagineable puzzle gameplay mechanic is represented here in this inexpensive and fantastic release.

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