Diggles: The Myth of Fenris

Disclaimer: I haven't had the time to check the GOG port properly, but just from being able to start the game and immediately be able to run it at high resolution and reasonable framerate makes it miles ahead of the original copy which was a real nightmare to get running properly. I like the describe this game as the X in the (Dungeon Keeper 2 + X) - Graphics = Dwarf Fortress equation. Graphically it is not far from DK2, the gameplay is pretty similar, if perhaps less focused on combat, and you swap one of the horizontal axes for a vertical one. The story campaign only has 5 levels, though they are very large levels with procedurally generated layout (outside of a few predefined pieces). Rather than reaching the end of a level or meeting the requirements to advance, what is really going to hold you for hours in each level is catching up with the massive tech tree that the new materials found in that level open to you, and using the newfound knowledge to make your base work more efficiently. I would love to give this game 5 stars, but I also remember it being very buggy. I could probably name a fewbugsy which I had to fix using the developer console during my last playthrough, but those could be fixed and weren't that common. The most annoying bug to me was the ever-increasing demands of your dwarfs as you go deeper into 4th and 5th level. By this time you can build them luxurious accommodations of crystal and gold, night clubs and brothels, and yet they will curse your name forever and won't ever be happy with everything you've worked so hard to get them. This really sapped my enjoyment of the game, so if GOG somehow managed to fix this one bug, I'd give it 5/5 stars.

The game has been a favorite of mine since I found it on the Strategy First's website almost 20 years ago. As simple as I can put it the game is a mix of genres. Think of the game as a giant ant farm where the Diggles are the ants. The gain experience for working in certain fields, Cooking, Fighting, and Stones are just a few of the skills to gain experience in. Certain items, buildings, Food, and weapons need certain points in experience to invent or use. The Game works in a 2.5D view so there comes the idea of the ant farm. Your working in a up and down, left and right order of doing things. Rooms will have a depth and so do buildings, but you have very little ability to view how 3D the world is. The pros of the game: Lots of area to dig with procedurally generated content of caves, castles, forts, enemies, and puzzles. Scripted chat in leisure is cute and sometimes funny. The Diggles have a lot of things they can do. The Frame-rate has been fixed. Higher Resolutions supported now. The voice-over channels are fixed! The Background sounds are fixed. The Elf is still as dumb as ever ✔ The Cons of the game: Pauses in movie shots. Not sure if it can be fixed. The Diggles still work as slow as ever The game can be longer than an RPG with well over 100+ Hours sink time in one play-through. The Diggles are as ugly Graphics wise as ever. The Elf is still as dumb as ever 😒 For me the cons are far outweighed by the game play. I recommend reading a few books, watch TV, or play some other game while playing this game. It is worth a look at in my eyes and have always liked it for the quirky gameplay. Just don't expect it to be a fast paced RTS, RPG, or Simulator and you will be fine and might even enjoy a few of the things in the game.

I remember playing the demo as a kid, when this just coming out, and being very excited about getting the full game for my birthday; alas, my parents could not find a copy anywhere. As it turns out, it might have been a blessing in disguise. Diggles has an admittedly interesting premise. Years before Dwarf Fortress, it tasks you with creating a colony of dwarves (or gnomes, depending on translations), meet their needs and fight against other denizens of the deep; Your goal is to descend in the underworld on a quest from Odin to defeat the mythical wolf Fenris. As you delve deeper, you discover new technologies and new resources advancing from the stone age to a steampunk industrial world. On paper, it could be a great and quite unique colony builder game, predating many classics of the genere. In practice, it's a soul-crushingly boring slog as your dwarves - held back by atrocious AI and general incompetence, will ignore obvious tasks in favour of traveling all the way across the map for a low-priority delivery; they will starve because they fail to realize that they should eat food when hungry; they will change profession back and forth accomplishing nothing for days. Even when you can wrangle your Diggles into doing something useful, tasks often take forever, as even the most efficiently-built mountain home will force you to ferry resources across long distances just to allow a crafter to sloooowly do their job. Bottom line, even though the game technically has complex mechanics (the unique experience system, the work turn assignments, the tech progression, the various unique setpieces found in each level) this is a BORING game. Yes, some mods exist to improve the quality of life somewhat, and while you can (well, must) use console commands to fix a few of its problems, there's no escaping how long and dull this game is. It might have been revolutionary in its day, instead it became a cautionary tale of how bad pacing can ruin an otherwise good game.

i lost hope, waited for 5 years... out of nowhere, they just added this gem. Thank you GOG