Cavorite 2 Review

By , on March 15, 2012


Cavorite: Power of the Gem
Download on the AppStore
3 out of 5

PROS

  • Soothing background track.
  • Anti-grav gameplay is interesting.

CONS

  • One little mistake ruins the whole level.
  • Controls are finicky.

VERDICT

A puzzle game with some interesting ideas, but rigid solutions coupled with average controls dampen the experience.


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I bet you thought that after the first Cavorite, Dr. Cavor escaped from the moon with his anti-gravity formula and made his way back home safe and sound. Not when there's a sequel to make! Running out of fuel, the good doctor makes an emergency lunar landing and goes to work in the moon's caverns to find enough gems to finally get off this tide-controlling rock for good.

If you've played the first game, you should know what you're in for. Each level is a small puzzle that is based around reaching the exit intact. There are also gems to collect which adds a little more thinking your way around the level, but only a certain amount are needed to move onto the next world, so stages that are giving you particular problems in obtaining these gems can be skipped. Dr. Cavor can jump, push blocks (of many differing types), and spray both blocks and enemies with his anti-grav spray, causing them to rise up to the ceiling (with a double tap making the doctor hang on, coming along for the ride).

This is all well and good, and the controls for these actions are solid enough, but what creates concern, and eventually frustration is the rigidity of the puzzle solutions. There is the one right way to reach the exit and collect the gems, and any wrong movements of a block or things done in the wrong order mean having to restart the level all over again. This wouldn't be as big an issue if there was more of a sense of playing around and experimenting with the possibilities an anti-gravity spray brings, but it seems that the design of the levels adhere to the solution, and only to the solution. The spray, and the world you're inhabiting are means to an end instead of something to enjoy, and that really hurts the game overall.

Some players enjoy this form of puzzle game, and those that do will find a lot of trial and error and eventually satisfaction as you conquer all the content Cavorite 2 has to offer. Others however will lament the lack of experimentation available, and for those players, it would be best to give this one a miss.

Screenshots

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