The Dig

"My vote for most underrated game!"

What do you get when you combine ''King's Quest'' with a Steven Spielburg sci-fi story, mixing in excellent cut-scenes, beautiful sound, and character development? You'd probably get Lucasart's and Steven Spielburg's ''The Dig''. As much as I try to resist replaying this game, it draws me in over and over, engrossing me yet again in its beautiful and magical world.

The first thing you notice when playing is the graphics. Though simple, they are well-drawn, and the cutscenes chronicling the start are stellar. Though the first part of the game is extremely bland, the quality only increases as the artists were given more world to work with. The characters themselves are extremely well-animated; their motions are fluid and realistic. The desolation and loneliness of the game is only heightened by the well-drawn, detailed worlds. Wires hang from caved-in ceilings, rocks are worn and weathered, and ancient machinery turns and sputters before failing to start. Water laps solemnly at the shore, the only movement and life left in the world, it seems. The music helps draw you in, too. It's cinematic and ambient, always fitting the mood, and indeed setting it at times. The way the game engrosses you is probably its greatest aspect. The setting is evolved enough to be realistic, and it expresses its isolation and loneliness so well that it feels real, that it can draw the player into it and allow him to feel as trapped as the characters.

The voice acting is excellent, too. Boston Low has excellent quips, and overall the characters are well voiced. Commendably, no lines come off as cheesy or stupid, something that developers still have a problem with. The plot itself is well-written, which should be expected, considering the game's origins. The Dig started as a movie, but Spielburg felt that creating it like he wanted would be overly challenging (this was before advanced CGI, keep in mind). Spielburg contacted Lucasarts about turning it into an adventure game (hey, they used to be really good at it!), and thus began an interesting and developed relationship. And the game turned out stellar for it. While it lacks the extreme humor of most of Lucasart's adventure games, it instead has an extremely mature and developed plot, with excellent characters and well-written lines. The acting is honest, and that may be what counts. Every line is nailed, every word is spoken with meaning, with pertinence to what is currently going on. Symphony of the Night may be the perfect opposite to this game. Imagine if SotN's voice-acting and writing were exactly the opposite, and you'd probably have The Dig.

The game itself is rather fun. A handy feature is that double-clicking makes a character move extremely fast, which, considering the huge worlds, is a good thing. The menu is easy to understand and access, and it's even possible to talk to teammates with your PDA, and play Lunar Lander if you want (though as Low puts it, "This game cheats.") It's an adventure game, so it's hard to screw up, but Lucasarts did a good job of keeping it simpler than, say, King's Quest with its huge menu of "Look, See, Grab", etc. options. Just clicking when appropriate will accomplish most anything. The puzzles are well-made, and certainly not impossible, but not easy by any means. If you don't go and cheat with an FAQ, then you'll certainly spend a long time playing. If you give in to temptation, though, it will be a short-lived game. A few certain puzzles (the turtle one...) are extremely hard, almost to the point of being unfair, but diligence is rewarded. Oh, you can't die, either. Which is extremely good. Guessing answers to puzzles will not result in you having to restart, and there's no point where you can ruin your game. Death vs. freedom is classic Lucasarts vs. Sierra, and this game continues the trend.

Overall, I have to give this game a 10/10. Sincerely, this game is a masterpiece. The parts mesh so well, and the production and execution was flawless. I'm hard-pressed to find any issues at all that are truly severe enough to detract from the gameplay or story. My command for you is to go out and buy this game, if this review has interested you and adventure games are your sort of thing. If your exclusive idea of gameplay is fragging friends in UT (something I admit to loving) then you probably won't be interested by its slow, thought-provoking gameplay. I encourage anyone to give it a shot though - it's got something for everyone, and it's a true masterpiece of the genre.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 12/26/02, Updated 02/22/05