The Dig

"Atmospheric journey to an alien world"

Lucasarts is well known for creating popular and hilarious adventure games like Sam & Max, the Monkey Island series, Day of the Tentacle and Grim Fandango. What they are less known for is serious adventures, with one game in particular being the serious yet stunning point and click adventure The Dig. Quite what made this extraordinary game be pushed into the background compared to other Lucasarts adventures is unknown. Maybe it was the fact that the game seemed to have graphics that were not exactly brilliant compared to other games around the time, perhaps it was the feeling among gamers that Lucasarts should stick to the humourous games market, or maybe it was just the uninspiring title of the game itself. Whatever the reason, The Dig is one of Lucasarts' true gems that is completely different from anything that they had made before.

The basic outline of the plot for the game is that a large asteroid is hurtling toward Earth, and despite the attempts of various members of NASA, they have not been able to stop it. So they turn to Boston Low, an experienced astronaut, and tell him to journey up into space to detonate the asteroid. Self-obsessed geologist Ludger Brink and journalist Maggie Robbins have decided to follow Boston on his travels, so the game starts with the three of them in space near the asteroid. As they try and fail to detonate the asteroid, the team travel down into the middle of the asteroid and start moving. The mysterious ship that looked so much like an asteroid from the outside takes them to a strange, barren wasteland of a planet which Brink names Cocytus. As they dig down into the planet and discover amazing technology and a massive tram system, but also find that the planet has many mysteries. As they start to explore, the mysteries are solved and the dangers increase.

Stephen Spielberg was one of the many people that helped turn this game into the fantastic product it is. It was originally meant to be a movie, but due perhaps to expenses or computer animation around the time, it was made into a game instead. And though the number of people that actually play The Dig will be much lower than the amount of people that would have watched it, I firmly believe that it works perfectly as a game, and in no way would a movie have done the superb plot justice in the space of two or three hours. Robert Patrick (who played T-1000 in the movie Terminator 2) is the voice of Boston Low in the game, and he plays the role of a regular guy who has been transported to a strange new world. And Orson Scott Card, a great science-fiction writer, has contributed the dialogue for this game. All three of these huge names have made this game the remarkable product that it is, containing the style of Spielberg, the voice talent of Robert Patrick and the superbly involving dialogue of Orson Scott Card.

There are nearly two-hundred locations in the game, with only a fraction of these taking place above Earth. The realistic vastness of space in the opening sequences are entirely different from the other-worldly quality of the alien planet Cocytus, which is where a majority of the game is set. Here, there are numerous strange and wonderful locations, and players are introduced to these slowly to help them get settled into the rest of the game. To start with, players will be wondering around a barren landscape where they can visit a wrecked spaceship, a landing platform and an area with some strange graves. Soon though the story will take the characters under the surface of the planet, where a vast labyrinth of tunnels and areas to explore awaits them. The planet is split into five spires, each named after the most interesting part of it. The Tomb spire for example contains a mysterious alien tomb, while the planetarium spire contains a room where planets can be viewed.

One of the most disappointing or interesting parts of the game, depending on how you look at it, is the loneliness and feeling of isolation that the game presents. Whereas a typical Lucasarts adventure game may have fifty to one-hundred characters to talk to and interact with, The Dig features a small team of space crew at the start of the game in space, an alien to talk to at the end of the game, and three human characters in the majority of the game. The outline for this game seems to be about exploring an alien world that has been left long ago by its inhabitants, which basically means that we get lots of exploring to do with hardly any conversation. This is one of the downfalls of the game, as there can be so much exploring to do with little or no contact with other members of the team. Syberia managed to get around this problem by using phone calls from various people that the main character in that game, Kate Walker, knew. This really helped to break up the sense of isolation that was prevalent in some of the more lonely places of the game, but in The Dig there is unfortunately no such feature, and the long journeys can quickly become tiring.

The game is controlled entirely with the mouse, but is very different from many other games from Lucasarts as it uses such a simple control interface. Whereas Monkey Island had verbs to apply to objects on screen like Look At, Pick Up, Open, Close and so on; and Sam & Max had icons to replace the verbs (Eyeball to look, Hand icon to Pick up), The Dig uses only a mouse pointer to interact with every single object in the game. So to look at an object in a game for example you would click on it, to pick up an object you would click on it, to open a door... you get the idea. Everything in the game is done by clicking, which will surprise some point-and-clickers that were expecting a more in-depth and complex adventure. Items can be examined in the inventory however, but the fact that a click can solve everything in the game is disappointing.

Puzzles in the game are simple, and, like the control system, they differ from anything Lucasarts had done before. To start off with all the player will need to do is simply select items from the inventory to apply it to different objects on the screen. An explosive charge must be set to the asteroid for example, but before it can be set the surface must be cleared with a digger. The sort of simple, basic puzzle system used in so many games. But later in the game a whole new series of puzzles come into play, most of which involve a series of coloured rods that are scattered around the planet. Here the shapes must be read and then used on the correct door in the main area of the planet, but unfortunately finding the correct door is a matter of trial and error rather than puzzle-solving. Other areas will have players connecting a panel to fix a light bridge by selecting the correct lights, again by trial and error. It soon appears that the puzzles in The Dig aren't actually difficult at all, but rather require large amounts of trial and error and exploration.

In a similar way to The Secret of Monkey Island where conversation topics are chosen by selecting the text that the player wants the character in the game to say, conversation in The Dig is chosen by selecting different icons. To ask a question, the question icon is ticked, the exclamation icon would give an order, and more topics become available as the player progresses further into the game. What conversation there is in the game is done between the three characters, which uses a small device named the PocketPal to communicate with other members of the team. The PocketPal also features a lunar lander mini-game for players to play when they need to take a break from the lonely alien world, though the simple game quickly loses its appeal, and it would have been nice to have had more than a single mini-game.

Graphically, the game is superb and atmospheric. The team responsible have done an excellent job in making an alien world truly look like an alien world, with various tones, shades and colours being used in various ways. The surface of the planet is brilliantly portrayed as a windswept desert with strange, tall mountains and structures in the background. The graphics really work well here to draw the player into the game, though it is not until the player actually digs down under the surface of the planet than the graphics truly shine. Here the graphics change from the light colours of the surface to dark, harsh tones that seem to be used solely to isolate the player and draw them into the atmosphere of the alien world. Character animations are up to Lucasarts best, with smoothly animated motions of characters matching their emotion. The FMVs, in particular the tram rides between certain parts of the planet, are brilliantly done.

One of the most outstanding parts of the game though is the music, which has been made to such a high standard that the game could have awful graphics and still be more atmospheric than most adventure games made around the time. The interesting plot of the game is fine, the graphics suit the game well, but the spectacular and soulful orchestra of music that plays throughout the game is fantastic. The soft chords of a piano or the soothing sounds of a wind-instrument will combine to create a melody that sounds like it is from another world, which is obviously perfect for this game. The voice acting is also done very well, with the actor playing Brink having his annoyingly sarcastic and sceptical tones, Maggie Robbins having her serious and determined attitude, and Robert Patrick does a great job as Boston Low being superb as the mature and experienced astronaut who finds himself faced with something that none of his space training could have prepared him for.

Despite requiring perhaps too much exploration, such is the detail, depth and atmosphere of the alien world that many dedicated adventure gamers will plough through the game. The game grabs your attention at the start by not messing around with long detailed introductions on the characters, but puts you straight into the action by having the team of characters be outside the ship in space, with massive killer-asteroid nearby. The rest of the game doesn't keep this level of interest up after the amazement of the alien planet fades, but it does supply a variety of shocks and surprises to keep players interested until the very end. The lack of any intelligent life on the planet apart from the three members of the team is fun for a while, but quickly turns stale as the only conversation can be had by using the PocketPal device from the inventory, and most of the time the other members of the team will have nothing new to say. Difficult trial and error puzzles also reduce the fun in the game, but overall the gameplay is kept high by the interesting events that occur throughout the game.

The replay is unfortunately very low, as there really is nothing to go back for after completing the game. Lucasarts used a feature in Monkey Island 3 where they offered players a chance to choose easy or hard difficulty, and an option like that here in The Dig would definitely have been appreciated. Though I do find myself coming back to this game every few years to see the sights, hear the wonderful music and appreciate the huge effort that has gone into making this game, I could not end the game and then start replaying it within a few days. The reason for this is that The Dig is such a lonely and purposely unfriendly game, and was presumably made in this way to enhance the experience of an alien world. It features only three main characters in the entire game, but their personalities are so strong and the dialogue so well written that this is one of the parts that will draw a player back.

Ultimately though, the fact that there are only two endings (with a slight difference between them), and no extra features are opened for completing the game (such as new mini-games for the PocketPal item) make this a game to be experienced, enjoyed and kept, but not replayed as often as many of Lucasarts' adventures are. More dialogue options and multiple path routes would have been especially welcome, and possibly even a few alien inhabitants to talk to. True, most of the main aliens were whisked off to some faraway world, but it would have been nice to see some life apart from rats, turtles and a monster that looks like it belongs in Loch Ness. Overall, this is an attempt from Lucasarts to create a completely different type of adventure game from what they usually make, and in The Dig they have definitely succeeded. Though many players may be disappointed by the lack of character interaction, this is a game to be kept in any adventure gamers collection.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/24/04