The Dig®

This was the game of my childhood, at least the first that I can recall. Playing it is bringing memories back, and a little bit of joy. I would love an upgraded, upscaled version of this game, but I fear it might ruin the atmosphere.

Not the worst point 'n click, and not the best LucasArts game. The game is slow, the puzzles are (the further you get in game) vague at best. Lots of walking from place to place to find clues / solutions. The story is... Questionable. After finishing the game, there's no replayability value. The music is great, the animations are OK-ish (granted: in 1995 it was fantastic). Still... For (younger) gamers, into the pixel-art (retro) gaming, this is a good game to pick-up. --- My frustration: lack of info about load, save and quitting the game. The game runs on ScummVM, which means there is no main menu; Just CTRL+F5 to get into the ScummVM menu.

I've been waiting since 1995 to play this game but at the time didn't have a PC that could run it and when I did get one no one I knew had the CD-ROM and then I discovered other games, drinking, girls etc. Now many years later I finally got to sit down and play and finish the game. It was certainly a trip back to the old school Lucasarts' point 'n click. I'm going to try to give an objective review since I never played it before now. Audio: I've played both the GOG version and the Steam version. I couldn't read any difference despite what other reviews have said. The music is good, eerie at times, definitely atmospheric and I think works for the setting. A dead alien world. The dialogue is clear and fine but the voice acting is a bit inconsistent. Robert's voice as Commander Low is perfect. You can definitely tell the difference between a professional actor in his element and the other's sometimes wooden delivery of dialogue. That said every does a good job and I particularly liked the Alien language what little is heard anyway. Graphics: They are old. Great for their time. But old. At times I cringed at what used to be so stunning to my generation back in the day. Some of the cut scenes are quite good actually. The Tram underwater scens looks impressive for their time and I imagine I would have been blown away back then. Gameplay: The puzzles are tough. There is little in the way of hints. If you miss something going back through the tunnels and trams is tedious and annoying. Though you can at times skip bits of it by double clicking on the edge of the screen and you'll jump to the next scene which can be handy. The game requires you to figure things out by trial and error. Click part A to parts B thru Z and you may find a connect. Honestly... use the youtube walkthru if you get stuck. The game should be about enjoyment... no one is going to judge you for cheating on a 22 year old game when you get stuck. Some of the solutions are ridiculous and there is one puzzle I would have strangled the devs for at an early stage in the game that I think almost broke me. Surprisingly there is no combat like in Indiana or Monkey Island which I think is a bit of a let down when you're supposed to be a tough military commander and you get your ass handed to you by a scientist... twice! There are limited people to interact with and in that the game gets very lonely in a way. Overall I liked it and it was fun to play it because I missed out all those years ago but... I don't think it's for anyone unless it's on your bucket list.

I didn't have much faith in this Point-and-Click Adventure when I'd heard that Steven Spielberg was involved - I've seen Ready Player One; this man doesn't know video games - but it's actually REALLY good. It starts out like that asteroid movie (you know the one), but with a painfully shoehorned in plot twist less than 5 minutes in, it turns into something much more. The world is as beautiful as it is eerie, and an absolute wonder to explore, not to mention that you'll find a central hub area and numerous shortcuts, so it's quick and easy to get around. Most of the puzzles are pretty logical, too, so while you might need a guide, it's more to reign in the massive amount of things you'll be keeping track of than, "What does this lever do? I've been stuck here for 3 hours!" The only real flaw is the dialogue, which is so '90s it hurts. Seriously, I don't mind things that are a product of their time, and there are worse eras than the '90s, but SO MUCH of the writing is filler comprised entirely of "witty" and characters just being insufferable to each other and to the player. Some of the zingers don't land because of this, too; it's from that era where everyone was "trying too hard," so a lot of them are delivered in such a flat tone that they don't really work. There are lots of potential interactions with the characters with very well fleshed out dialogue trees that I just didn't bother with because I hated most of the characters. It's a pretty minor nitpick, though, since the visuals and exploration really do a good job of carrying the game.

I loved this game when I was a kid as it was one of the first games I bought myself. The mysterious science fiction atmosphere was cool. However, I wasn't able to finish it as a kid. I got relatively far, but there were too many long stretches where it wasn't clear where to go next. Now out of nostalgia I downloaded "The Dig" again. It brought back old memories and was a fun experience to play through the whole thing. However, reading through other reviews, I would concur with a lot of the criticism. Positives: the atmosphere of the game is top-notch. The ambient symphonic soundtrack, beautiful painted backgrounds, and realistic sound effects (footsteps clicking on stone, crunching on sand) make the game extremely immersive. Negatives: The desolate atmosphere of the game, while mysterious at the beginning of the game, starts to wear thing by the middle. The beginning of the game after you arrive is the most fun, because at the point the world is relatively open, there are multiple items to collect, and there are some relatively fun trial-and-error puzzles. After that, the game starts to get frustratingly linear. You are supposed to go certain places, or talk to certain people or show them things only in one particular scene, and there's no kind of nudge or clue as to what or where that should be. The mysterious empty atmosphere of the game starts to get, well, boring, as you half to (slowly) walk back and forth between the same scenes, all across the game world, to collect one item or talk to one person. After a certain point, the puzzles stop being puzzles, and the game becomes a sort of wandering around, looking for the one trigger to advance the storyline, and finding it often has nothing to do with logic. I wish the game would provide more clues from dialogue as to where to go next. I also thought the puzzles sucked after the halfway point. The ending was also really cheesy too, and I would agree with the dialogue/voice acting being stiff. But still a cool game.