The Dig (1995)

22 November 2020

I'm not a huge video game fan - I appreciate story-based games, but I loathe them when they get bogged down with convoluted puzzles or repetitive gameplay that slow down the story. I think that's why I move toward more organic games like Sim City or Terraria, or non-punishing games that encourage game progression (Lego Star Wars). I've found myself looking on YouTube and enjoying some of these older, more cinematic games. I'll review a couple as I see them: more as lightly interactive films.

The Dig (1995) is about a space crew accidentally getting abducted and sent to an alien world, dead and abandoned. The crew need to solve puzzles left from an alian civilization, learn what they can about this world and try to find their way home. It was a very cinematic game for its time: inspired by Steven Speilberg, developed and published through LucasArts. Cut scenes and other visuals were through Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), and the gameplay was through the SCUMM (Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion) engine. For its time it was a pretty PC game.

As LucasArts adventure games went, this had the longest development time (~6 years) and a darker tone to it than others. Its story is nicely layered (since it was originally conceptualized for film), with the story unfolding as you're solving puzzles, unlocking new scenes for character drama or conflict. The story definitely was structured, so there wasn't a lot of variance in story order, but to me that was fine. They got voice acting of Robert Patrick as commander Boston Low and Steven Blum as the antagonistic archaeologist Dr. Ludger Brink. The dialog was fine, though ultimately everything about this game felt a bit out of place for its time. If you like watching games this is decent to watch on YouTube; if you want to play it I remembered the gameplay not being too challenging as a kid. I thought highly of it then, and after watching it still do find it enjoyable. 8/10