I want you to think for a moment when Thanos was looking all over the galaxy for the Infinity Stones. His passion and determination to find them would lead to different directions and times that Thanos would not and could not stop at any cost until he got what he desired. The portals he would use allowed him to enter anywhere he wanted no matter when. And along the way with the hunch he had, went through a portal and it led him to a small land and in that land had a mine that could possibly hold the stone in which he has been searching for.
But what if something happened through time that created a rift that caused him to not have the Infinity Gauntlet, but in an alternate time in order to not cause too much attention to himself, he had to find a way to blend in. He had to, in fact, do the mining himself in hopes to find what he needed to power the Chaos Gauntlet in order to have the right amount power that would allow him to then enter another portal to which he then could regain the Infinity Gauntlet and continued on his quest to collect all the Infinity Stones.
But does Developer Mekiwi allow you the freedom to mine like there is no tomorrow and let out your inner miner? Let’s find out with Cave Digger: Riches for the PlayStation VR.
In Cave Digger: Riches you are a miner and your job is to mine as much as possible, collect as many jewels and other objects as you can, and you must do this before the time runs out. Now I know what some might be thinking…mining + Virtual Reality = can it work? And the answer is, yes…yes it can.
The thing about Cave Digger: Riches is that it doesn’t waste any time getting into the action. Could there be a title screen? Yes, but there isn’t one. Could it have instructions? Sure, but there really isn’t any. In fact, you start the in the elevator, grab your pickax, get lowered into the mine, and just start mining and collecting jewels that then you place in the center of the elevator, and do this within the limit before being lowered to the next level.
So make sure both Move controllers are fully charged as you will be swinging and collecting a lot. Of course, being in an elevator that is being lowered in a mine, you are not going to have a ton of room to move about. Luckily, all four sides are open for you to mine away and whistle while you work. What I like is that different materials of the mine will require different effort with the pickax and the fact that where you are hitting the rocks, you start to see the rocks break away from the point of contact.
After so many levels, you are then raised to the top where all the jewels and other things you collected are then counted which in return you use to upgrade the tools of the trade which is a lot of fun to see what you can upgrade to. Using a drill, for example, you will want to drill through the rock in hopes to collect some oil, but in order to collect so said fluid, you will need a bucket. So unless you also had enough money to get a bucket, then you will be drilling to drill and if you strike that oil gold and the money you would have collected would be wasted all because you were cheap and decided you didn’t need the bucket until you realized you actually did.
On your left hand is where you will have the timer. Honestly, I wasn’t paying too much attention to that as I was mining away. But don’t worry as you will be able to hear it count down and you will notice a red glow when the time is about to end. I will say this, there were times when any jewels or pickings that I found I didn’t necessarily pick up and place in the center of the elevator as the time ran out and what the jewels I had mined so hard after was sitting on the floor of the elevator and they started to move towards the corner of the elevator that had an opening and fell through, pretty much like my hopes and dreams.
But let’s talk about some of the tools that you will be able to use. From dynamite to buzz saws to drills to a mining hat with light (yes, you can put on the hat and have the light shine) they do work quite well and the tools can be upgraded depending on if you have enough money to do so. Once you select a new tool, don’t be in such a rush to get back into mining as the announcer on the radio tells about the tool you purchased in an old-time comedic radio way.
But of course, the one thing you will want to get is the Chaos Gauntlet, that all amazing gauntlet. When you collect certain crystals, it allows you to punch through the rocks as well as collecting the jewels in a much easier way. At the top level, you will see a clipboard that has a list of things for you to try and do such as blow everything up, each the stars, attempt comedy, and even world peace to name a few. The only thing is that there is nothing telling you what you need to do to get those checked off which I thought was part of the fun is the discovery not only tools but things you may actually discover such as fossils and maybe a special item here and there. Oh, by the way, don’t eat the mushrooms as you have been warned.
Throughout your time with Cave Digger: Riches, you will be able to come across keys. These are not your ordinary keys and they do not unlock an ordinary door. Maybe the door leads to happiness, maybe it leads hope or maybe it may lead to a portal. I am not going to say as you should try and experience it for yourself.
Sound is very simple yet effective. The sound of the mining as you hit the rocks with your pickax or hearing the sound of the drill as you are drilling through the rock to the sound of the buzz saw cutting through only to overheat. Each tool has it’s own distinct sound and hearing the description of the tool as you purchase it from the radio announcer has a very comedic tone and sounds almost like it is from the 1950’s old radio sounds.
The graphics are very detailed and they should be being in a closed small space. The colors seem to really pop and come alive at the right moments and being able to make things out through the x-ray radar on certain tools is a nice touch. I really like how each tool has its own unique style.
But I will say that not everything is perfect. There are a few minor bugs such as when you break rock and you have the jewels flying, sometimes trying to catch them out of the air does not work as planned some times. If you play in a rotating chair, there might be a few instances where the hands seemed to be further away, but once I reentered everything seemed to go back to normal. Again, this didn’t happen too often, but when it did, it didn’t take long to get back to normal. These minor issues can easily be fixed with a patch.
There are a few things that I would have like to see. For one, once the game is over, you have to restart over with the basic tools. I would love the option to continue with my current tools and have even more upgrades along the way. You can never have enough upgrades. Another thing I would like to see is who out there is the best miner in the world. Adding some leaderboards would be a nice touch.
Cave Digger: Riches sets out what it was set to do, have some fun in Virtual Reality and allow you to mine like there is no tomorrow while not trying to be something its not. It just shows that you don’t have to be the biggest name on the block to show how much fun you can really have in life.
Cave Digger: Riches is out now on PlayStation VR and is also available on the Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift/S on the Oculus Store, Steam, Viveport, and the Microsoft Store. A review code was provided.
To learn more about Mekiwi, please visit their site, like them on Facebook, follow them on Twitter, follow them on Instagram, and subscribe to their YouTube channel.
In case you missed the trailer, please enjoy. Until next time, I am going to see what else I can discover.
Mr. PSVR, March 29, 2019, theplaystationbrahs.com
