[b]march 2024 edit:[/b] price got bumped to $10 for no reason, only recommended on sale now.
[b]cave quest[/b] is one of the more involved match-3 offerings, with turn-based battles, hidden object scenes and other stuff on top of the usual power-ups and whatnot. I was looking forward to playing it, but as is typical with expectations, they were shattered as soon as I started the game. thankfully, after the initial disappointment things got a lot better.
turns out, [b]language is detected automatically based on your operating system with no way to change it in the game[/b]. I hate it when devs cut corners like this, but the last time regional windows settings caused problems was in the 90s with some lucasarts titles. until recently, that is, on multiple occasions. all those languages are already in the game, how about adding a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ button to change it to whatever I want? failing that, I just edited [i]default.cfg[/i] in the game's folder to only include the language I wanted, but I shouldn't have to do that.
the other unpleasant surprise was the [b]lack of widescreen support[/b], but despite saying 2019 in the credits, it first came out in 2011. looks pretty good otherwise, audio is fine too, with [b]some excellent music[/b]. there are separate volume settings and windowed mode with a resizable window, but [b]can't turn off match hints[/b] and they appear quite fast.
the unvoiced story is centered around isabella and her quest to find her awol family. her brother went to the mountains to look for spirits of the non-alcoholic, dead people's remains variety, and her folks followed. isabella is joined by mike, a budget indiana jones, supposedly her boyfriend or something, and events take weirder and weirder turns as things unfold.
as for the game itself, [u]relaxed[/u] and [u]timed[/u] modes are available, you can switch between them any time, the latter offers more money for unused time. I hate timers, so went with relaxed and had to do a bit of grinding near the end (not to unlock everything but simply to progress) because I kept forgetting to use the hourglass for a resource boost. [b]levels can't be replayed[/b], always moving forward (not necessarily in a linear fashion), but there's a spot where you can mine gold repeatedly.
match-3 levels are what you'd expect and you can keep matching while animations are playing. to go with the spelunking theme, paths have to be cleared for our heroes so they can reach the exit, chains have to be broken to free people, and so on. good variety, actually, with two of my least favorites also making an appearance (bring stuff to the bottom and regrowing vines). [b]power-ups[/b] are the usual assortment, not created by matching many tiles, but mostly bought, then upgraded, and they need to be charged between uses by matching stuff.
the occasional [b]battle against monsters[/b] is turn-based, concentrating on matching red tiles to deplete the enemy's health, green tiles to heal yourself, and blue to create a shield. matching 4 or more tiles here grants an extra move, and of course everything applies to the monsters as well.
to break up monotony even more, [b]the adventure map offers some light puzzling, hidden object elements and more story bits between levels[/b]. I can always do without hidden object scenes, but they're not too bad here, the cursor even changes to a grabby hand over a goal item, and there's a hint button if need be. plus all sorts of things can be interacted with and somebody's bound to comment on them, which is neat.
certain technical shortcomings aside, it's [b]excellent stuff, one of the best in the genre[/b]. I almost completed it in a single session, shouldn't take more than [b]about 5 hours[/b].
