Originally published January 2017

I'll admit, I didn't think much of Steamworld Dig the first time I saw it. The first time I played it, I wasn't too impressed. Bundled in with another group of games on sale, it ended up in my Steam library at some point and I finally gave it a shot, only to put it down rather quickly. Eventually, I heard about another game in its universe that was more up my alley: Steamworld Heist. Since I wasn't about to dive into another game in the franchise without giving the first one a fair shake, I tried Steamworld Dig once more. About 8 hours later, I finished it.

I don't know what it was about the game. I started out thinking that it was like Minecraft without the crafting part. Actually, that analogy is still accurate. So you might be wondering: How fun could a Minecraft game be without the main draw of Minecraft? Good question!

The Short of It

Pros

• Colorful art-style

• Sound effects are rather satisfying, including the garbled robot speech

• Simple, straightforward mechanics make the game easy and relaxing

• Skill and character progression are set at a good pace to dangle the carrot and make the gameplay satisfying

Cons

• Nothing super interesting or deep about the game, except the mine itself

• No reason to go back and replay it

• Music is a bit repetitive and boring

The Rest of It

Steamworld Dig is a game where you play as a robot who wanders into the Old-West town of his recently deceased relative—in this game, robots can die as well as have relatives of blood (oil?) relation. Your cowboy miner robot finds out that his uncle was a miner in these parts and is something of a hero to the town. However, he went into the mines one day and never came out. Since then, the town has been nearly empty and on the verge of collapse. It's up to you to follow in your uncle's footsteps and start digging up the treasure that is buried underneath the town to restore it to prosperity.

The premise doesn't change much all the way to the end. There are a few spots where the environment changes and the townsfolk postulate on what may be buried beneath the place, but there are no real twists and turns to the story. The point is just to dig, dig, dig.

You initially start out with just a pickaxe, but eventually, your little robot miner gets a variety of different tools to help with his digging and traversing of the seemingly endless mines. All you do is simply hack away at the stone beneath your feet, looking for gems buried in the rock and avoiding or killing enemies when necessary. Part of the challenge is making sure that the paths you dig lead you to treasure and don't end up just dropping you into a position where you can't get the stones you need.

To help pad out the lengths of the different mines and the pace of the game, you'll have to manage some resources. As soon as you enter the mines, you have a light source meter that is burning down. The higher the meter is, the better you can see the details of the mine around you. When it reaches 0, the mine goes dark and it can be a pain to navigate. You also can only carry so many gems with you at a time. So you can't just hoard a bunch of stones to yourself and stay in the mines forever; you have to come out sometime. When you do come out, you can vend your gems and buy new items that can increase the speed at which you break through stone, or extend the amount of time you can stay in the mines. All of your abilities are constantly available for upgrade throughout the game to let you make them more powerful or more efficient. All you need to do is dig up more gems to buy them.

It's a simple rinse-and-repeat scenario. Get more gems, buy more upgrades, to get more gems. It would be a lot more boring if it wasn't for the charm of Steamworld Dig and the satisfaction of breaking through rock. When you get that newest upgrade for your pickaxe so you can dig through each block with only one hit, it's immensely satisfying to just blast through the mines at seemingly super-sonic speed. Regardless, with this being a highlight, hopefully your expectations have been tempered a bit. It's a good game that is effective at what it's trying to do, but don't expect it to blow you out of the water.

TL;DR (Conclusion)

Steamworld Dig is a perfectly fine game. There's not a lot to it and it didn't have anything that really wowed me, but it ended up being a relaxing and satisfying experience. Most recommendable at a low price and for playing while you're listening to a podcast or something.

Do you agree or disagree? Tell me what you think in the comments below or on Facebook!

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