Caveman Go

Blessed for the hunt

Jump into a randomized world and fight the impending hordes in Caveman Go. Lime Games‘ take on the roguelite RPG genre was a surprise that took great inspiration from others in its genre, like Hades. So gear up, collect your blessings and hunt all that come at you in this challenging but fun game.

Upon completion of the tutorial and prologue, you are ready to dive into the main game. While the game’s story feels nonexistent, the gameplay is the star. The overall loop involves jumping into one of the four chapters and completing them to obtain gear for the next run. With the game only needing a finger to play, it is an easy title to pick up, especially with auto-targeting. After completing the four chapters, you can replay the missions at greater difficulties to challenge your luck, skill and equipment. With levels and blessings randomized, no run through the chapters is ever the same, which increases replayability.

Endless Combat

Each run begins with a free blessing and the weapon you bring in. These random skills range from defensive to offensive skills. Upon defeating the enemies of each floor, you are given a path that offers currency or blessings. After defeating multiple floors of enemies, you will face a mid-boss and a final boss; both are there to test your overall builds and upgrades throughout the run. If you die, you have a chance to revive with premium currency or by watching an ad, each offering only one opportunity per run. If your run is successful, you’ll be rewarded with gear and currency. As I progressed, I did feel some power creep as I went up in difficulty. This issue never bothered me since farming chapters for gear was always fun.

When you are not fighting enemies, you are in the overworld upgrading buildings for upgrade materials. Some offer specific materials used for base building, while some buildings allow you to craft weapons and collect experience while you’re AFK or online. Upgrading your facilities comes easy and is overall not much of an issue. Managing them at the start of a play session is ideal so you can get back to the main game. The other menu you will spend some time in is your gear menu. Here, you can allocate gear and enhance their power. Upgrading your equipment and adding items in the gear slots is essential to make the higher difficulties manageable. Although most of the gear does not offer cosmetic changes, your character will still hold whatever weapons are equipped, and the chest piece will provide a different costume.

Issues and Monetization

Caveman Go’s main issues stem from the monetization and overall power creep at greater NG+ difficulties. With each daily log-in you will gain some log-in bonuses offering either materials or items. Due to the gear system, the game does offer gacha, a top-up system and a shop. You can also purchase the premium currency in the shop that can buy all types of in-game currency. There are also some item packs you can buy with real money that offer gear and items. There was also a separate shop where you can buy characters that have special skills. During my time playing Caveman Go, I didn’t feel the need to purchase, but I can see a push to buy better gear later due to difficulty.

Blessed Victory

Overall, Caveman Go was a title that surprised me. It had its highs and lows due to the mix in build variety, but it was still a blast either way. Some blessings were clearly better than others, but all could synergize to change your gameplay style. The main issues coming from monetization and a nonexistent story didn’t bother my overall experience. Though I can see monetization creeping up on players at higher levels of difficulty. Beyond its faults, I would recommend giving this game a try, especially if you’re into roguelites.