Mobile game reviews
TECHLIFE’S TEAM REVIEWS THE LATEST GAMES FOR ANDROID & iOS SMARTPHONES & TABLETS.
THE GREEDY CAVE is a narrative-focused roguelike dungeon crawler that has you walking the length and breadth of a bottomless cave, searching for loot and treasure while battling/avoiding a host of enemies and traps. Its sequel, Time Gate, takes this formula and improves upon it, adding real-time multiplayer, guilds, larger areas and, of course, more loot to find. It also has a very funky 2.5D drawn art style.
If I could say anything about GC2 it is that it is effortlessly moreish – each level of the cave is always different and varied enough to be interesting, while the story keeps you engaged, with the difficulty climbing steadily with your progress. Movement is grid based, making it easy and obvious to see where you are likely to encounter an enemy or pop open a chest, although the game likes to throw obstructions like fog in your way to add some confusion.
GC2 is free-to-play, but unlike most games in its genre it never really asks you to drop a single dime. There’s no pointless, over-engineered equipment or item mechanics, nor are there any PVP elements at all – many of which tend to steer you towards paid upgrades and legendary loot. In this case, while the game is always “online”, the multiplayer is entirely optional and acts more like a companion. It’s fun running through the levels with a partner, although the difficulty doesn’t scale as well so it can end up being a little too easy.
That said, this title is a loot hoarders dream. There are hundreds of items to find, and plenty of variety in enemies and puzzle-based challenges. Very few games of this type, especially free ones, are so fair on the player, so it’s nice to see a developer focusing on the experience, as opposed to how much money it can take.