Diggles: The Myth of Fenris

Diggles is poorly voice-acted, shoddily written, indifferently localised, probably never proofed, a bit glitchy, and very slow-paced. God, I adore this game. It's totally worth overlooking all of those things. It still has that bug where it doesn't always make it to the main menu. Just close it and try again. I'd forgotten how much joy this game gave me.

Just this year more than once I spent countless hours trying to get this game to run with communitypatches, additional files and drivers. And it did run a little bit, but not good. Blackscreen, graphic glitches, sound & atexture problems... I even talked to guys in the comment section of youtube. And of course I looked in the GOG store, but - too bad - couldn't find it. Didn't expect it to be found... And now this?! Thank you very much. :) Today I discovered it and for me it's already Christmas now.

It's a strange hybrid of The Settlers and Lemmings: side scrolling micromanagement with crafting, digging and even fighting! There's some jank here as the concept was a bit too ambitious for the time, but a couple animation glitches, some misinterpreted commands, and some somewhat stale translation can't destroy the enjoyment of just watching these little dwarves going about their business, animatedly interacting with their pint sized norse world. They dutifully change hats when they take on different professions, install torches and braces as they build tunnels, and during leisure time hold spirited conversations or do push ups or play hacky sack to keep themselves amused. You tend to have a mission on each level to pursue but in the mean time you're collecting materials to research new buildings or tools and keeping your diggles fed and occupied. Each one has their own schedule where they work and have leisure time. Thankfully you can adjust their schedule or even command them to do what needs to be done but they'll get grumpy if they work too long without any time to themselves. It's a SLOW paced game at times but there's so many little touches to admire in the way these creatures move it's a bit like watching an ant farm. There's some humor lost in translation but the moment to moment interaction and expanding list of options and tasks kept my interest. I'm glad I rediscovered this unique game!

Man, they finally released this great game at GOG! It is a very unique mix between strategy game, RPG and adventure with. A very funny storyline with hilarious characters and dialogues. An absolute gem that I can only recommend to buy!

This is the most charming and one of the most unique game I have ever played. You manage your dwarves, they have to relax, so they can...reproduce and you work and fight your way through the huge techtree. To invent new buildings and tools your dwarves have to become experts in certain skills, including fighting, so there are light RPG elements. Everything is well implemented into a a minimal user interface. I love this game but I never finished it. Why? Because it takes it's time and it gets actually pretty hard. The story is ok, no crazy twists or anything, but the characters and puzzles are pretty fun although some are a bit clunky. I can't explain what it is, the animations, the dialogues or simply the adventures and roles of your dwarves but every dwarf becomes important to me. As you get like 20 dwarves you learn about everyones set of skills and who is connected to whom. This way you get emotionaly invested in everyones death (either from damage or old age). The game even gives you the option to build graves for them. It is amazing, but not for everyone, as it isn't fast paced in any way.