Game Review: The Caves of Doom (ZX Spectrum, Mastertronic)

Just under a Baker’s Dozen

You begin the game with a generous twelve lives and by my accounts, I’d say that seems very generous.  Now whenever, I see a game start with that so many lives, I think to myself it’s either going to be a long game or that it’s going to be a game where you can lose lots of lives very quickly.

With Caves of Doom, I’m placing that in the second category where it can be very easy to lose a life and there are several reasons for this.

Hold your Horses!

When you take-off with your jetpack, you will fly and buzz around the caves extremely quickly.  At times, this can feel a bit lively and a slightly uncontrollable, which is a bit of a pity.

Steering around obstacles or enemies can be quite tight in some places and on some levels, a stickman type character will literally home in on you like a magnet.  One collision with him and you’ll lose a life and are reset to back to where you originally entered that cave.  Preciseness is the word here and you easily find yourself easily losing a few lives in just a few seconds which can be rather infuriating!

You do walk along, at a slightly slower pace and if your feet leave the ground, your jetpack automatically switches on.  In one sense, that’s good as you don’t fall down any holes, but it does change the speed you are moving.  The result sometimes you would be when entering a new cave and be whizzing along and fly straight into an enemy and resulting in a loss of a life.  The more you play it, you’ll get to know where this happens so you will improve.

Graphics

There is plenty of colour throughout and although there is colour-clash, I’ve seen far worse, and it didn’t ruin my enjoyment of playing Caves of Doom. There is some nice detail on the graphics (especially your spacecraft) however, apart from moving up and down, sideways or diagonal, there is little animation on most of the enemies.  My favourite though is the caterpillars which tend to shrink and stretch in size.  A nice effect!

Some of the larger enemies do tend to flicker too and you’ll see that immediately on the opening screen.  Although that doesn’t make the game look great, it isn’t the worst I’ve ever seen, and I wouldn’t say that it ruins the game.

As you’d imagine, being underground the caves have black backgrounds.  As you reach nearer to the surface, you will see some nice blue clear sky too so there is some variety in the later stages of the game. Just to add, the loading screen is rather boring and quite literally has Caves of Doom and the name of the author on it.

Fuel not Oxygen

Refreshingly, unlike other games, there is no air supply to act like a time limit.  Instead, you have a fuel supply level for your jetpack and obviously, the more use it, the more fuel you deplete.  Near the top of the screen, there is a blue and red bar and it gradually disappears.

Dotted around the caves, you’ll see plenty of magenta fuel pods and by walking over those, you’ll top up fuel as and when needed.  If you run out of fuel, you don’t fall downwards, and you just re-appear where you entered the screen and lose a life.

Gameplay

Unlike most games, you cannot fire at the enemies and is really a case of manoeuvrability and avoidance.  In this respect, it is in no way a shoot ‘em up style of game. You will, see some canons shoot from the sides of the caves but as you can’t return fire back, it’s a bit of a shame.  That really would have enhanced the game nicely.

You will notice in some of the caves that there are coloured barriers.  If you hold the key to that colour, you will be able to walk through them, just like you have a pass.  Although there aren’t puzzles to do during the game, this does mean you’ll need to work out where to go for the keys to access all areas.

One thing also missing in my opinion is that none of the caves are named.

Sound Effects Only

Caves of Doom comprises of sound effects only.  The most noticeable one being when using the jetpack which sounds like a buzzing noise.  Collecting items or colliding with enemies also make a quick sound too.

A short tune would have been nice on the main opening menu screen, but alas, not even a beep.

Let’s Change This Bit, Alter Over Here and Remove That Wall etc;

From the opening screen, you’ll notice that there is an Editor built into the game.  You can therefore customised and alter the existing game and create your own Caves of Doom locations.  You can do this, just move around the scrolling flashing cursor and select what item you’d like to place in that specific area.

The inlay instructions advise that you can view and alter the 40 locations with any of the 256 defined characters.  To exit the editor, press the Break key and you’ll go back to the main menu.  If you enjoy designing levels, this will certainly add to the longevity and value of the game.

Notes of Interest

This game is available to download for free with an Accelerated Spectrum Next using the NxTEL application.

One of the things I do love about the Mastertronic games is their cassette covers.  This just happens to be one of my favourites!

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