MIASMA CAVES Review for Steam

Miasma Caves was released on February 28 of this year by the developer and publisher Windy Games. The game is described by the creators as a “non-violent explorative adventure game” in which, instead of having an antagonist, “the environment itself will be your biggest challenge.” Players play as Lesath, a dragon-human hybrid character that explores the Miasma caves with a backpack for items and an adorable green shadowtail critter as her companion. The game establishes Lesath as a sort of savior of her village, taking on the risky expeditions into the Miasma Caves single handedly so that she can collect valuable items that can be sold for profits she will use to restore her village. The game acts as a continuous loop of exploring for goods and then paying to improve the village.

The 3D animation for Miasma Caves is really fun to look at when it comes to individual character designs and items. Other than that, the village and the caves, the two areas of the game, do not have much going on in terms of design. The cave is indeed designed like a cave, with most of the area being rocky and dark with a few splashes of color and light coming from both objects and nature in the cave scattered throughout such as mushrooms that help guide you or lava to avoid. The village is grassland with a few similar looking buildings and one body of water, but it does become more detailed as you build on it. In sum, I found the character designs to be the best part. The humanoid hybrid combinations were interesting and cool and made me wonder a little more about the background of the characters and their world, and the complimentary gear looked nice on the character.

At first glance, the game appears like it may provide players with an interesting story that includes some supernatural elements combined with a conflict between the villagers and the city dwellers. This is because of the combination of interesting looking characters with fantasy-like elements and background information that the game gives you when you first start. However, in reality, other than your first visit to the village, where you can talk to each character in the village and they give you some perspective of what’s going on in the world, the story is stagnant and the characters are not developed any further. I think Miasma Caves would have benefited a lot from having some quests and content related to the story interrupt the progression of the game from time to time after the player accomplishes something, like buying their first building. The game seems to need something to break the routine of exploring the caves and restoring the village. Miasma Caves requires a lot of patience and interest in cave exploration or treasure hunting. 

The caves themselves can be confusing but that’s kind of the point, as the caves are what offer the challenge of the game. What helps makes the caves manageable are the items players can find in the caves or by from the shops in the village. It is fairly easy to come across treasures to sell if you stay in the caves long enough, but knowing what to spend money on can be more difficult, especially considering how expensive it is to build new buildings for the village. Game play mainly consists of digging and picking up items, but all consists of some grappling and hop scotch like jumping to get to other areas. Personally, I find the game play to be quiet similar to Minecraft, except it is missing a lot of what makes the Minecraft games more engaging and does not allow for nearly as much creativity with the building aspect of the game.

Check Out the Miasma Caves Trailer:

Miasma Caves is available for $19.99 for Windows PC via Steam.