Before this year I didn’t have a strong opinion about cave exploration. What happened after those videos? It would be an overstatement to say that I did not have a positive opinion about those who risk their lives to explore the dark, uninviting fissures in the ground. It’s a testament, then, that Cave Crave has somehow managed to showcase why those of us might decide to forgo the safety of our homes to explore the unknown in a damp and muddy cave.
The Facts
What is it?
Platforms:
, (Tested on Quest 3)QuestRelease DatePlayStation VR2: Out Now (Quest), July 10, 2025 (PlayStation VR2)
Developer: 3R Games
Price: $14.99
To that end, Cave Crave is exactly what it says on the tin. Use a variety of tools to explore murky caves. These include a headlamp equipped with an infrared detector, a pick to make handholds and a hammer for clearing paths. At first, crawling through a dark cave doesn’t sound very exciting. But even early on, Cave Crave asserts that even if these caves are cramped, there’s a lot of room to explore the gameplay implications of delving them.Gameplay in Cave Crave is outwardly simple, but also contains a level of depth I didn’t quite expect. The goal of the game is to find the second exit from the cave. You may only need to squeeze the triggers a few times. Other times, you will have extra preparations needed in order to descend or ascend a wall. At other times, you’ll require some extra preparation to descend or ascend a wall to a safer platform.
Players can use chalk to draw waymarks on certain sections of cave wall.
At any moment, you can summon a handhold from your inventory to shove straight into a wall, creating a path for you to climb. You’ll need stamina to hold the handhold and push it into a wall. If you’re not careful you can set them incorrectly and they will not stick if the force isn’t enough. I always understand the reason why I missed a placement. During my play sessions, any mistakes feel like my own fault.
While Cave Crave’s story acts something like a tutorial, the game also offers numerous challenge stages that really stress your knowledge of the systems. You can draw on certain cave walls with chalk. This is especially useful for the Horror Mode levels, where there are more winding paths and hazards. The infrared detector on the headlamp can be used to find collectibles during normal levels, but the extra battery power required to use it is essential in Horror Mode. The game systems shine in Horror Mode, which is more challenging than the standard difficulty. If you’re not careful, there’s the real risk of falling and dying – or even losing your progress if you get bitten by giant spiders. The levels branch out and loop around themselves more frequently, so it’s important to use chalk as a landmark to keep track of where you have been and which paths you already took. Essentially, these stages are for players looking to test the limits of their skills.
Speaking of testing limits; this is where I’d like to mention the game’s performance. Cave Crave runs and looks great on Quest 3. While I am sure that the future PlayStation VR2 will be able to benefit from an OLED screen, the Quest 3 version doesn’t seem like it is compromising the experience. The resolutions and framerates of Cave Crave are excellent, even when you are “just” playing the game. The game is still receiving updates, but this version of the experience has already been a hit. You could not do worse than give this game a try if you ever imagined yourself as a cave-explorer. Cave Crave straddles the line between being simple enough to get into, while offering enough depth to keep players going for even more spelunking.
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