SteamWorld Dig: something that caught my eye….
This week I have been looking at a game that caught my eye when browsing through the store on Steam. It was on offer and the art style looked appealing. This game was SteamWorld Dig.
In SteamWorld Dig you play as a robot named Rusty who turns up at an old mining town called Tumbleton which is in need of help. When you first start out in the game and enter the mine, you only have the basics to begin with, a pickaxe, a small pouch to hold the resources you mine and a candle that burns relatively fast. As you begin delving into the mine and recover materials these can then be traded in for cash. With this cash you can then buy upgrades for Rusty to help you mine further and further.
The mining town of Tumbleton
As you progress through the game you will come across handy upgrades such as the Steam Jump and a Steam Powered drill. Using the drill you can mine blocks which your typical pickaxe wouldn’t be able to make a dent in. The key feature of the Steam drill means you need to have a supply of water to be able to make use of it. This adds a great gameplay mechanic to the game meaning you have to be conscious as to when to use the drill and where you can refill your water supply.
Another gameplay mechanic the developers have included is the candle which can the be upgraded to a lamp. The lamp allows you to see in the dark depths of the mine and is essentially acts like a timer for how long you can mine effectively for in one go. Destroying enemies may result in them dropping power-ups which will give you a small amount of fuel for your lamp so you can continue to mine. If you do run out of fuel for your lamp you can simply return to the surface where it will be replenished automatically.
The mine is full of monsters trying to it make it difficult for you
The characters in the game is kept to a minimum there is the main protagonist, Rusty who you play as and then there is the town-folk who you’ll interact with regular. The voices for the characters are just a mash-up of robotic noises with each character having their own “unique” voice. Dorothy is the character you’ll probably end up talking to the most as she the one whom you trade your resources in for cash. Cranky is also another character you’ll talk to regular as well seeing as he’s the one holding all the handy upgrades.
The graphics are very colourful and the controls play very well. I was using an Xbox 360 gamepad and this was mapped automatically by the game with correct controls. There two main buttons you’ll be using a lot, the jump (A) and the attack button (B). As you progress further into the game you can take advantage of additional tools and weapons, these are easily switched by using the bumper buttons.
As you progress the levels get more and more challenging
Overall I’m very glad that I took a chance on this game and discovered something I may have just passed on by. The game is not overly too serious and doesn’t take an age to learn it’s mechanics, this is where it shines, in it’s simplicity. Granted this game isn’t as long as most AAA games but it is definitely worth taking a look at.
Click HERE for the link to this on the steam store.
