Hot Diggity
SteamWorld Dig on 3DS arrived a bit later to Japan than other countries as did the Wii U version, but even by the time I got round to playing it people were still talking about it, and I immediately understood why. Digging for treasure is fun, it was fun in the first game and it’s still super fun here in the sequel.
Basically you’re on a mission to rescue Rusty from the first game, but you’re mainly here for satisfying platform controls and smashing rocks to find goodies. The treasure you find is quickly traded in for cash to spend on upgrades to your pickaxe, lantern, water reserves, and health. Additionally, the sequel introduces a new hidden collectable in the form of golden cogs, which can be added to your gear for additional buffs and abilities. You can reduce your fall damage, make rocks explode, double your item slots, and much more. The best thing though is you can remove the cogs at any time and put them towards newer abilities when you unlock them, or disable stuff when you no longer need it. This makes progression satisfying and interesting until the very end, plus you never get stuck with that “oh I wish I hadn’t put all my bones on that ability” feeling you get with some games.
This sequel promised more bosses than the first, and although that is technically true, this is still not a boss-heavy game. I mostly died from falling too far or having a heavy rock land on my head, although the enemy variety is improved and you can die from having your life whittled down by swarms of small bugs that populate the caves. When you die you lose all the treasure you had collected up to that point (an unlockable ability makes that slightly less brutal), so you need to keep going back to the surface to trade in your stuff. While you’re there you can talk to the numerous new NPCs in the town, although I found most of them to be completely superfluous to the game and its story. The story is better than the first, but as I keep saying, the gameplay is where its at, and that is really good.
All in all it feels even more like an adventure than before, but with even more emphasis on finding secrets around the world. What makes it so fun to play is that all the things you find can be used immediately to make traversal easier and more fun. I won’t spoil anything, but lets just say you start the game moving like Mr Driller, but end the game feeling like a badass superhero.
Additional recommendation: this is the perfect commute game, whether you’re playing for three minutes or thirty, its fun to just chip away (pun intended), find a few bits of gold then pause the game for the next session.
I can’t really think of a person who wouldn’t like this game. Perhaps an actual miner who for them this may feel like bringing work home, but even then I’d still say give it a shot.
Final Score: 9.0
(Review code provided by the publisher)
(Review code provided by the publisher)
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