"Wow, this game is just brilliant."

No, honest, it is. The Dig is a great game. Who cares if it doesn't have the silly humour of Monkey Island, or of any other SCUMM game for that matter. This is still a great game overall. The Dig is the 11th SCUMM game now, but they are still going strong, and are all equally as good as each, or just about (apart from LOOM). The Dig is highly underrated in many ways, I don't know why people don't like this game much. I like it a lot though.

The Dig is based on a concept by a certain Steven Spielberg, but instead, he let LucasArts make it as a game. Obviously at that time. LucasArts were all about the SCUMM games, especially with Full Throttle be great. So why not? You play as Boston Low, set out to destroy an asteroid heading with a 1 in 1 chance of collision with Earth. You stop it, and no, thats not really a spoiler because it does say that on the back of the box. But, can you save yourself? Your transported to an alien world, where there is nothing, but you, your team mates, and loads of fun and puzzles waiting to be had and solved. The story is great though, and more of the plot gets revealed as you get towards the end.

The interface is simple. You click on something, and Boston will interact with it, pick it up, push it, pull it, whatever. You press the right mouse button to bring your inventory up. Its quite that simple really. This makes the game more easier to play, remember Maniac Mansion? All those commands, AHHHH its too much to deal with! Well, that all went a long time ago, and it just keeps on getting simpler. This is good though, it makes for more easier and faster gameplay.

Its a bit like some other SCUMM games. Get past the first bit, and you have a whole world to explore. The Dig is mainly set on the alien planet, with 5 spires to look around, and the main area, the Nexus. You have to unlock the entrance to the different spires, usually by collecting a certain coloured engraved rod, use that to help you unlock the door, go through, call tram, ride it to other spire, jobs done. You can then use a device to make a bridge leading out to a giant crystal, here you can head to other spires that you have activated the light bridge for, making your journey a lot faster instead of just walking everywhere. Click on somewhere twice, so say to the next room or something, and Boston will be there straight away, which is good.

The setting of the game is brilliant. Its just so lonely, and horrible place. There is nothing here but animals that die, and rather annoying ones. The Dig is also quite gruesome at one point. Your on an alien planet, with only 2 other people, no contact to anything else? Of course your going to go slowly insane like one character does. The setting is all right though, the mood, the characters reactions, the characters acting is really good as well. I love the whole place, although personally I wouldn't like to live on this alien planet.

Your main objective, is mainly to get to the Cathedral Spire, operate the machine, and get out of there. This takes a long time though, you must first solve loads of puzzles to find 4 plates, which will grant you access to the cathedral spire. Its pretty fun, and a bit longer then I actually expected. Thats sort of the main objective, well, apart from get your ass home! The puzzles along the way aren't really short ones, but rather long and actually quite hard ones. Don't get me started on the dead turtle puzzle, that took me ages! Still, this makes the game longer, which is good as most SCUMM games are maybe a little too short. The game isn't that long, but long for a SCUMM game though, so thats good too.

Graphics are good, think of the cartoon style characters from Full Throttle, but with a little more seriousness and detail, and then everything else is detailed, with the added 3D, and you get The Dig. Very nice, for 1995 that is. Also, we get the sound. The Music is pretty good, by good old Michael (or however you spell his name) Land, who I think has done the music in just about every other SCUMM game, literally. Its a classical style musical score, not this crazy ragae music from Monkey Island 2 or something. Voice acting is good, as good as Full Throttles actually, although the main conversations in the game are automated, you don't talk to people much.

Still, The Dig isn't THAT good. It gets a little too hard which is frustrating, I mean, the turtle puzzle is a little bit stupid. Also, there isn't that much freedom as I would of wanted, its pretty strict, because you cant go to any spire you want, you more or less do one spire, come back later for a couple of minutes sort of thing. There isn't many people to talk to either, apart from 2 other people. OK you can talk to some other people but not many nor through out the whole game. Also, there isn't any replay value. Best bet is your going to play it after NOT playing it for ages, which doesn't really count that much.

Still, The Dig is rather good, and is very enjoyable. LucasArts only serious adventure game is great fun, looks like LucasArts cant make a bad SCUMM game? Or can they? Actually, no because Curse of Monkey Island is great too. Anyways, The Dig is great, you could most probably find it from a website to download, completely illegally, I saw a site with Full Throttle on. But with it being 650MB I know I wasn't downloading The Dig, I would rather have a legal, boxed (its only the DVD LucasArts classic, not big box) version. The Dig is great, SCUMM, adventure fans, get this game now. Not sure? Maybe get it, or maybe download it to try it out, but do buy it if you like it. Don't want to be illegally downloading games now do you?

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/28/06