SteamWorld Dig

This game has the vibes of a flash game and as someone nostalgic to flash I feel like its only fair to compare it to the most famous flash game of similar style: Motherload.

Gameplay/structure: You're digging in the mines, selling what you find and using you're upgraded gear to go deeper and deeper. Frankly, I think Dig just has a much better progression system that Motherload. It almost gives Metroidvania vibes in that you often want to keep areas in mind that you'll be able to access later. All the upgrades and consumables are straightforward and it gives a satisfying feeling of progression. Dig also has a slight amount of combat and its neat to see the different ways you can easily beat each enemy. It's not necessary for this type of game but its a nice little addition. One downside of dig's choice to make it more of a platformer is that you can get stuck and have to self-destruct. It's much more forgiving since you can simply come back and get you're stuff you dropped and luckily, you aren't too likely to get stuck unless you're deliberately trying to screw yourself over. There's also other great QoL like teleporters fuel drops from enemies that make the gameplay less tedious.

Visuals: Personally, I really like the artstyle of Steamworld Dig, the western steampunk style works surprisingly well and the character and enemy designs are very fun. Motherload's artstyle feels more "real" while Dig feels more cartoonish, whichever you prefer I think both are good.

Sound: I'd say Dig has a better soundtrack with the western songs and vibes. There isn't too much variety so it can get a bit repetitive but it wasn't too bad. What does sometimes get too bad is man the sounds the robots make can get real annoying real fast.

Story: While you probably aren't playing this game for the story, it's better than you might expect. It's nothing crazy but I find the character dialogue endearing and the general plot to be entertaining, albeit mostly unsurprising.

Overall, I think SteamWorld Dig is an incredibly fun game with good pacing and fun mechanics. The game is a bit short and I don't think there's a huge amount of replayability unless you're challenging yourself to complete it faster next time. I'd recommend buying it on sale but if this games your cup of tea, then spend the full 10$.

I have so many fun memories of playing this game on the wii u so coming back to this felt really nice the game is a fun adventure game and the mining is really satisfying

Dig bigga big ni...

Fun game. Effective, kind of a swift short metroidvania.

TLDR:

Steamworld Dig offers a metroidvania-style experience that is simple, affordable, and reliable, though the gameplay can get a bit monotonous.

GAMEPLAY OVERVIEW:

Dig is an inverse platformer (descending instead of ascending) with blocks that can be hammered away to create tunnels, caverns, and stair-step patterns in the soil. I played with a controller and the controls felt responsive; for example, the player will eventually have the ability to double jump, and temper the height of that leap by how soon or late they press for the second jump.

Loose ores buried in the dirt can be mined and carried topside for cash, which can be used to repair health, upgrade tools, expand one's inventory capacity, and so on. Some upgrades require blue spirit balls, caches of which are also hidden below. Openings to smaller side caves lead to loot or specific upgrades. Some of these caves are optional, though the game's quest marker on the minimap is pretty good about pointing out the ones you need to visit to advance the story. I think digging up the ores, and finding better and more valuable ones the deeper you went, was my favorite part of the game. Sometimes they would be hard to reach or suspended over a long drop or a pool of acid, and figuring how to get those without losing them took forethought. Several times, I had to stop and ponder it for a few moments. In those cases, it was rewarding when you managed to grab one.

Treasure and secrets are not the only things hidden in the deep. Creepy crawlies and lunatic cave-dwellers snooze in the depths and begin to awaken as the player gets close. Combat is pretty simple: don't get hit. Your robot miner doesn't start with any distance attacks, so some mobs can provide a challenge. After a point, you can hurl your own dynamite and there are opportunities to drop beasties long distances or undermine heavy rocks, which will fall and crush anything in their path, Dig-Dug style. That includes the player, so be careful. I didn't find the rock-crushing to be all that easy, since lining it up sometimes took as much planning as the difficult-to-reach gems mentioned above, and for the most part, I just melee'd, dynamited, or avoided the mobs. Even with the enemies present, I never found the game too hard and it can be approached at a calm, relaxed pace.

And that's pretty much it. Dig deep, score lots of loot, dodge enemies, and repeat. And repeat, and repeat. I wish I had more to say but the gameplay is pretty basic, and unremarkable. As the player goes deeper, a few new wrinkles are tossed in but in general, the gameplay in the first five minutes is what you'll see all the way through. Meaningful upgrades are obtained in the sub-caves, with the ones purchased in the surface town mostly just tiering up the skills the player already has. You won't need to max out upgrades to finish the game, so don't sweat it if you run out of money or spirit balls before doing so. The layout of the mines—locations of sub-caves, mobs, and loot—is randomized each game but the experience will largely be the same, so unless a player is really loving the style, one playthrough will probably be enough.

The game's final segment was an unpleasant surprise. The last location is filled with hard-to-avoid lasers, crumbling floors, and walking bombs that home in on the player. That's too bad, because most of the game is quite chill, and to that point, I feel like players of even limited skill level could enjoy it. The unexpected upswing in difficulty left a slightly sour taste in my mouth—not because it was too difficult but because it altered the vibe of what had been a very casual game.

STORY / WORLDBUILDING:

There is a story buried in the game—something about the player's robot coming to take over his uncle's mine—but it's not very important. In fact, there's not much story or worldbuilding period, though both are probably more relevant when contextualized against the other Steamworld games. The robots in town aren't NPCs per se, essentially serving as loot/upgrade kiosks. So basically, just expect to get into the action without much background given, or needed.

TECHNICAL ASPECTS:

The game's visuals are serviceable, with "good-enough-for-the-job" graphics and a zippy, cheerful color palette. Dig is stable and runs quickly, and I didn't have any errors or crashes. Getting 100% on Steam achievements is going to require a lot of speed and not a little luck, so I wouldn't recommend this one for achievement hunters unless your metroidvania skills are strong.

FINAL VERDICT:

When it comes down to it, I think how much the player likes Steamworld Dig will depend on their preference for platformers in the first place, and how much they enjoy seeking out the piles of loot buried deep in the ground. I'm picky on the first aspect but did enjoy the second. I felt like I got my money's worth but Dig isn't something I feel compelled to revisit.

SCORE: 6/10

Awesome game, great graphic, smooth gameplay.

fun

Even better than the console versions

SteamWorld Dig

Steamworld Dig is the best game you haven't played

its a good mining game. very simple and not too long. would recommend

a lot harder than the second game but still really fun

best game ever

Steamworld dig is a pretty good game in my opinion definitely not worth more than $5, i would like if it was a longer game i gotta give a 6/10

trust me you need it

The game is short, 6-7 hours if you are slow, but you are also sick of it before its over. Mostly because you have to waste so much time climbing back up to the surface and then going back down. You cannot even refill water at the surface, the water respawns inside near one of the entrances but in small quantities so you have to go in and out a few times. It just pads out the game time which by its own achievements can be finished in less than 2 and a half hours.

fun, short story. the gameplay is satisfying and feels rewarding. i was shocked by how many upgrades there were. overall i had a blast and i see myself replaying this several times.

Almost immediately loved it, nothing really much to say beyond that. I don't normally play games like this - but something just clicked. Amazing, and I can't wait to play the sequel.

I was born with the sole purpose of digging and so I shall do just that. this game is hard-boiled as hell, great stuff. DIG!!!!!!1!!!!11

cool game :)

should have ended at the first level

I did one full playthrough that entailed mining pretty much every ore on the map, and I got every upgrade. I also got most of the achievements, excluding ones that would require another playthrough. Overall, it was pretty fun. I enjoyed it straight the way through. At first it started a bit slow, but by the end you have so many upgrades and abilities that you can just mess around with that it makes up for the slow start. I will say, earlier on, when you don't have all of the abilities, some traversal and combat feels a bit awkward and clunky, but I suppose that is a part of a lot of metroidvanias to a certain extent.

Steamworld Dig really reminded me of a flash game called Mega Miner (all time goat of the genre by the way). I am not sure if this game was inspired by that or if it was the other way around or if they have no connection at all, but it felt insanely similar. I will say that I definitely prefer Mega Miner, and for most of the game I was just thinking "Man, I wish I was playing Mega Miner right now." That isn't a knock to this game necessarily, I just have a lot of nostalgia for Mega Miner, and I think that it had executed so many things perfectly (the main thing I prefered from Mega Miner over Steamworld Dig was the traversal). All that said, for a game I got on sale for $.89, it was totally worth the time and money, and I'm sure I will get around to playing the sequel sometime soon.

The game does a good job of constantly giving you a new upgrade or ability to mess around with, and pretty much all of them were fun to use. The caves/mini-dungeons were also fun side challenges that hid some secrets for bonus rewards. I never felt myself really getting frustrated with the game, as even dying just means losing a bit of money and starting back up at the surface. You can still go back and claim your loot too.

There isn't much to say about the story, it is pretty basic, but they do set up for the sequel at the end of the game, so that had me a bit more interested in the story.

I'd give this game a solid 6.5/10, it is a great starting point, and I am interested to see how the next game expands on it.

Short and easy, but a fun distraction while you listen to podcasts

the goat, nuff said

i mean it was free

"Alright, we just finished designing the saloon. Now we just need to design the owner."

"Busty pink blonde robot."

"What?"

"You heard me."

Fantastic.

This game has been a lot of fun I enjoyed the exploration, the enemies, characters, the mining and all sorts this has been a really fun game worth playing if you love Metroidvanias.

This is a nice chill game that i like to play while watching stuff.

Game was fun but very short, I enjoyed the second one a lot more but as stated, this one was still pretty fun.

A short little adventure game about a steambot named Rusty on a digging expedition. The gameplay loop is satisfying enough to carry you to the end of the game without overstaying its welcome while you find upgrades and secrets that flesh out the experience a bit more. The end of the game also sets up a cliffhanger for game 2.

I quite like this game, I do recommend getting it on sale. For USD it goes on sale for 1.99, but 10$ for this game isn't bad either. The game is short yet simple and sweet, you grasp the controls quite fast. I prefer playing on controller, since I played this on my Xbox when they had it on gamepass, was a very nice game. I wish it was longer but it is perfect the way it is at the same time, so who knows. I have yet to play the second game, I can't say much about that one. But I do recommend this one 100%, it's super addictive and I think it is also easy to 100 percent this game achievement wise if you try hard enough, it isn't that hard as well. It's very fun and a different type of game, you just mine for ores, and make sales off them along with making upgrades to lots of certain things in the game, it's hard to explain lol. But this game is awesome, and I dig it. No pun intended.. But do get this game when on sale, it's what I did and it was a good choice, especially cause it's worth it. And there is monsters in the game, so be sure to make it out alive or well if you die, your loot will be where you died and it shows up on the map which is an actual nice feature, it can be annoying to die a lot but at least you can upgrade your health honestly, that's what I like. Whoever buys this game, I hope you enjoy it like I did. 11/10 but 10/10 for the big metal turtles that shoot spikes out at you and they even break blocks around them with those dumb spikes. BUT! Other then that, I love this game and fw it heavy. I am sure you will as well if you get it.

Movement is janky and poor spending habits are unforgiving. Ladders seem great, but can't be reclaimed. Can't mine while jumping or on ladders, so you have to be extremely careful about mining direction.

a must have for the steamworld series fans. Simple, easy going and fun.

I beat this game more than once, and I can tell you that this game is worth getting and beating.

really good, cant wait to play the sequel

Awesome game. Really enjoyed it.

5 Hours of good gameplay, Motherload, but better.

i can dig it

Visiting a small western steampunk town and being literally dropped into the mines below and opening with an emotional encounter (that falls a little short on tugging those heartstrings) was not how I expected this to start at all.

I played the majority of this on a handheld with a version of the SteamOS (so it will show as though I played it on the steam deck) on the Ally. It ran very, very well. The only time I had an issue is when I had the game on a different platform and it just wouldn't detect the controls properly, even passing it through Steam, even trying different version of Proton, so I ended up having to buy the game again on Steam, luckily on sale it was dirt cheap. I also liked that I could switch between handheld and my PC because of cloud saving.

It's primarily set in a steampunk town called Tumbelton, settled by steam powered robots. You get to explore the mines being the town which is actually made up of abandoned towns as well.

There are some light metroidvania mechanics, but you'll navigate around some well implemented puzzles, platforming and avoiding dangerous traps or creatures, sometimes even attacking the latter with your pickaxe or other tools you eventually unlock.

Your character, Rusty, doesn't talk so there's nothing too unique about him, but the NPCs do. There's no voice acting which is a shame but doesn't harm the narrative much.

On the surface the game seems basic, but it has a bit more depth to it than expected. The gameplay is kind of basic and isn't that innovative but the mix of mechanics helps add variation. You can get upgrades as you play which keeps things relatively fresh. You start off with a pickaxe, eventually getting upgrades that allows you to dig through stronger terrain and also allows you to dig faster. You can get upgrades like a drill which is required to break through certain rock types/terrain and also allows you to dig faster again but is balanced out by requiring water to power it and it does run out rather quick so you have to use the drill sparingly. Other upgrades you can get might involve things like inventory, armour and upgrades to your equipment.

I'm excited to play more from Image & Form Games after playing this. I was late to it but glad I've completed a playthrough. It doesn't really offer any replayability which is okay, it was a very nice 6-7 hour experience with very little complaints. It was challenging in its own way and very accessible because of this. Full price or on sale, it's definitely worth it, I did buy it twice and that was just from the first couple of minutes in the game.

Kinda ugly, made obsolete by its sequel and the mining can be tedious but still a fun time sink

Collect shinies to upgrade your equipment to collect more shinies. A simple, yet effective way to hack your brain's reward system.

Awesome game I can't believe how I didn't play this a lot sooner. Worth the price tag but as always if its on sale snatch it.

neat wee game have played on a few different platforms over the years. a good breather from longer games.

Definitely love this game years ago. Now I'm playing this on Steam which is always awesome! Course this is 8/10 as usual.

short but enjoyable game

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It's ok

not fun, would not recommend even if it is for a few bucks!