Cave Digger [Meta Quest 2]
MeKiwi’s Cave Digger is a title we’ve previously played - and really enjoyed - on Xbox, whilst being aware that much of the immersion would work best on VR. Now that we’ve got our hands on a Quest 2, we felt it was finally time to dig in and see just how different Cave Digger plays in virtual reality.
First things first, it definitely feels like a totally new experience in VR - and it’s a lot of fun. Being fairly recent adopters to the VR scene, I’d yet to lose awareness of the world around me whilst playing a game wearing the headset. With two kids and a hyperactive dog running around (granted, the kids are old enough to keep their distance from anyone playing the VR), you’ve got to have some spacial awareness - plus, you don’t want to end up being one of those folk that ends up punching their TV (or worse, their kids!) by accident - however Cave Digger had me causing chaos.
Breaking rocks in the mines will uncover gems that float towards you for ease of grabbing; one hand to swing the pickaxe, and one hand to grab the gems and chuck ‘em in the pile - perfect. But as I gained money from each run, and bought upgrades as well as other useful items such as a scanner, this left me wielding things in both hands. Not a problem - I’ll just let the gems float towards me and drop inside the elevator, and I’ll grab them before the end of each level… or so I thought.
Now before I go any further, I want to specify that you can play in Stationary mode with a fixed position, relying on your joysticks to walk and teleport around the game world, however I didn’t realise this at first. So I specified my room-scale play area after finding myself walking out of the stationary zone too often, bumping into tables, the couch and repeatedly tripping over the dog in the process. Common sense should have told me to use the sticks, but when did I ever have any of that!?
Reaching to swing your pick axe into the walls of the mine wasn’t the part that had me causing destruction - after I’d purchased those additional items and had no hands free - it was the moment during each level of the mine where the timer would kick in to let you know that the shutters would be coming down imminently. This triggered a completely panicked response in me to chuck down my pickaxe and scanner, and furiously grab as many gems that I’d haphazardly left on the floor of the elevator, trying to bung them into the centre as quickly as I could. Naturally, I instantly forgot the ability to move using the sticks and proceeded to bump into the edge of the couch and smack my hands into the floor, and got dangerously close to the TV.
Of course, the visuals remain the same - you’re in a small, Western town, with a saloon housing a mine-shaft being the main attraction, but with plenty of other things to go and see. Once I’d figured out to use the controls to move instead of clumsily running around my living room, I had the freedom to move around and explore fully. It’s always a surreal experience getting to look around a virtual world, and Cave Digger does not disappoint. The humour we knew from playing it on Xbox is consistent, and whilst we were already aware of many of the secrets and hidden endings - it was still fun to witness these in virtual reality. Having the 360º sound adds to the immersion, and hearing things like the radio frequencies and music playing in the background makes things feel almost eerie given that you’re the only person wandering around.
The world of Cave Digger is vast outwith the main area - you’ve got a network of caves to explore along the train tracks with plenty of gems to find and add to your wealth. Additional equipment that can be purchased will help you, with the pickaxe having improvements that make it easier to mine, with circular saws for certain types of walls to break through, oil being able to be drained, and more. The buildings in the main area can be upgraded, with some offering additional improvements to the gameplay, such as gaining quests from the Sheriff and earning income.
Overall, we really enjoyed our time playing Cave Digger in VR - and with Cave Digger 2: Dig Harder due for release this year, we’re excited to see what else MeKiwi has to offer. Priced at £14.99 on Quest 2, but currently on sale for £7.99 (a 46% saving!) for the next 6 days at time of posting, it’s a great deal - especially if you’re looking for something with plenty of secrets to uncover and treasure to be found. If you want to read our review from the Xbox release, if VR isn’t your thing, then you can read that here.
In the end, we decided to give Cave Digger the Collecting Asylum rating of 8/10.
Are you interested in playing Cave Digger in VR? What do you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to MeKiwi for the Cave Digger Quest 2 review code!
