Amazon FAOTD Review: Cryptic Caverns

Amazon's been busting out the point-and-click adventures as the Free App of the Day, and that continues with Cryptic Caverns. The beautiful scenes and slightly haunting music create a tremendous atmosphere, but the lack of any narrative create a very forgettable adventure.



Cryptic Caverns

• Created by 3D Methods
• Originally $0.99
• Part of a "Cryptic" point-and-click series (Keep, Cosmos, Kingdoms)
• Reviewed on an ASUS Nexus 7 (2012, 1.2 GHz, 1GB RAM)

Right off the bat, the main character crashes into what appears to be an abandoned island. After a few screens of opening dialogue, players are left to explore on their own, figuring out what to do without any aid of a narrative.

Strange characters will appear to help players, giving them key items to continue their adventure while doing various tasks to gain them. I was already stuck at this portion of the game at the beginning. With no indicator showing that characters actually speak more than the one message bubble that appears after selecting them, players need to know to tap on the message bubble to read more of what they say.

Character dialogue is the only narrative in the game. The rest of it is simply exploring through the area, having additional aid of dividing out the entire area into scenes and providing clues to what players need to do at certain scenes.

Both the puzzles and finding use of the various items that are collected are relatively easy. But finding exactly where to use these items could become a tedious trial and error process. However, all the items found have an exact use. Nothing feels incorrect or too out of the ordinary, making an comfortable game without needing to browse on YouTube for video help.

That held true for the entirety of the game. All the puzzles made sense; some required a little thinking but nothing seemed too far-fetched and can all easily be solved. Those that prefer a tougher challenge in the puzzle department will be disappointed in this game.

Music fits with the environment well, but is a little repetitive. Unfortunately, some tunes aren't exactly made for being looped, creating a slight pause as the track restarts.

How'd it run? The game ran 100 percent stable on my old-school Nexus 7. Tapping was completely accurate and there were no problems when it came to getting out and returning to the game. The only problem I faced was the back button in the game being relatively close to the back button my Nexus. Sometimes I would accidentally exit the game. But it wasn't hard to re-enter the game and continue right where I left off. It seems to constantly save progress throughout.

Play or pass? This is strictly based on how many point-and-click adventures you've played. Those that haven't touched one in a while and/or aren't worried about narrative will find a simple time-waster of a game. But for those that have collected all of Amazon's FAOTD, there have been other point-and-click adventures available that are worth that time.