Colossal Cave

I am Roberta Williams – about Colossal Cave, Release 2.0 Since the latest release of our game (2.0), I have been so very pleased by the enjoyment that gamers are having with it! A year ago, our first release of Colossal Cave received a well-deserved ‘cool’ reception, but it was our first game to develop after a very long hiatus. Believe me, Ken and I had some ‘learning’ to do. Since then, we have been unceasing in our efforts to address every dismay or issue we saw in any review. We made a huge list of updates! The newest improvements: additional modes of locomotion, integrated tutorials, autosave, new and enhanced graphics, more sound effects including footsteps, performance enhancements, and much more. The game today is not the same as that initial release. I wish to thank everyone who has played Colossal Cave 2.0 or will give it a go. It was a passion project, and we are very proud of it. I hope you will enjoy it!

A nearly perfect adaptation of the original text game! I was mesmerized as a world that I had first explored 40 years ago appeared before my eyes for the first time ever. I took 0 hints in/on this 2023 Colossal Cave game. I got through the entire game using my memory of the original text game and a few hints in regard to the original text game. That tells you that this game is 100% loyal to the original. My memory in regard to the original text game had faded a lot, and that enabled me to have a truly thrilling experience playing this game. I felt real terror the first time that the bear growled at me in the cave. And I felt real terror the first time that I heard the giant speaking and pounding on something. And the giant, troll, and bear puzzle, which was always brilliant, was implemented brilliantly. Adventure (Colossal Cave), Adventure in Serenia, and a game named Decathlon were the first 3 games that I ever played. The year was 1982, I was 7 years old, and those 3 games came with the first home computer my dad ever bought, which was an IBM PC. 40 years later, I’m still an avid gamer, and Ken and Roberta are still making amazing games!

Man, I wish I could say I loved this game as much as I love Williams, but- like most Williams experiences- it can be ruined by her unwillingness to play nicely with the player. This is a complete remake of the original text adventure- which again- can ruin the experience through unwillingness to adapt. When you read "Damp cave, leaky ceiling, and a small chest in the middle," your mind fills in a lot of the rest. When a developer takes those words and tries to visualize it, you expect them to do the same. Sadly, the developers, either because it was faster or the easier option, decided NOT to add any additional details to the experience, leaving every room feeling functionally designed with little reason to explore outside of the possibly hidden object or switch (which creates a 95% senseless searching and 5% angerly finding an object experience). There's still a lot of moon logic too, so if you're a fan of yelling for months before resorting to not losing your crap with the by-the-minute hotline voice when you finally cave, this dungeon may be for you. However, it wasn't for me. The lack of mood, style, or even enjoyable puzzles (sorry Roberta) makes this an interesting dive into history. Sadly, that dive is immediate, as there's a tv to show you right from the beginning the whole history of the game and Sierra, to pull you out of the game to remind you that they made it just like the game. SO weird. Lots of bad, lazy choices all around, and it pains me, but no- I can't recommend it.

I could never finish ADVENTURE. But with Colossal Cave Adventure, the graphic game, I'm so captivated by the sound and the images and relieved with the mapping system for the mazes that I completely obsessed over it and finished in just a day! It feels like ADVENT meets Zork: Grand Inquisitor in the best way possible. :) Thanks Roberta and everyone who worked on this great reimagining!

Colossal Cave (originally just called Adventure) was the first text-based adventure game that I played. It was also one of the first games that I fell in love with. I'm a huge fan of text adventures, so when I heard that Ken and Roberta Williams (of Sierra On-Line fame) were making a graphical remake of the game I couldn't grab this fast enough. And I'm glad I did. This reimagining really ups the immersion while staying true to the original. Highly recommended for those who enjoyed Adventure back in the day.

DANG! This game is excellent! I feel like I need an IQ of at least 200 while playing but nevertheless, I am highly enjoying this game. I refuse to look up a walkthrough, and I really hope Roberta and Ken can release more games under the Cygnus company.

I didn't grow up playing any of the variants of Adventure, but I *did* catch Zork and the text parser era of graphical adventures, in particular several of the King's Quests, so when Roberta showed back up with a remake of CCA talking about what an inspiration it was, I had to see where it all began out of historical curiosity. And for a game from 1977, with no prior art to build on, it really is remarkable. Rough in some respects—I don't know what purpose the exits with RNG outcomes serve beyond annoying the player, never mind the ever-present threat of RNG death that makes "save early, save often" more essential than usual with early adventure games—and the puzzle design won't stymie a seasoned adventurer, but there's a few of those "aha!" moments to be had, and the real brainteaser is figuring out the routing required to maximize your score. The caves are vast and thoroughly interconnected, and there's just enough friction to make a clean sweep tricky. The caves are also just plain weird, in that charming, adventure game-y sort of way I won't spoil here. Anyone who's played the earlier KQs will recognize the hodgepodge of design sensibilities at work here. Aside from some quibbles—I really don't need the narrator to automatically read the name of an inventory item every single time I mouse over it, please—the remake itself is quite nice. It won't be the *same* experience as a proper text adventure by any means, but the audiovisual presentation sells the atmosphere and the simple point and click interface suits a game with such simple commands just fine.

Even if it should give you a old style game its quite bad. there isnt not alot to do just alot of caves to run around in. som small stuff here and there. U cant interact with anyting else then just take small things that u dont know what to do with alot of time. u need to throw stuff away to make place for more useless stuff...u dont have a direciton or motive. Bad map, mall caves u have to load. takes lodingtime to just go to other caves. if the game hade a direction it would be a bit better but for now i just run around and pick upp useless stuff. gave it another try. Got stuck and wierd grafic, couldnt move or do anyting. could not tab or move at all.

This is the one, the start of an era, the original adventure game! And boy, is it brilliantly ported to our times by a couple of master crafters. Highly recommended for adventure enthusiasts! (To Roberta: Now do Zork, hehe.)

I loved the game! It's the perfect blend of something old, something new, and something loved. Thanks, Ken and Roberta!