Posted: 06-09-09 In: Reviews By: Kadayi | (0) comments | Add your comments

I'd been hoping like many that at some point Lucas arts were going to see sense and re-release some of their back catalogue, especially given the success a lot of old titles have been having through digital portals like www.gog.com. That they have turned up on Steam, and at such a reasonable price, as well as fully configured to run on XP & Vista was indeed cause for much fist clenching celebration around the computer room. From the initial run of titles Lucas arts announced, The Dig was the one that screamed out to me as the 'must have' purchase. I can recall when it was originally released (back when Dragons roamed the land and the Earth was indeed flat), and eschewing it at the time, in favour of the wackier Lucas arts titles available. However having matured a bit in years since then, the idea of a more serious minded adventure game appealed.

Background

I'm not going to bore you with details about the troubled history of the game, as there is Wikipedia for all of that. In short however the story was conceived by Steven Spielberg (he of Boomblox fame), and revolves around the members of a NASA flight team sent on a mission to divert a large asteroid that is discovered to be on a collision course with Earth. Being a point and click adventure it goes without saying that the plot revolves around much more than planting a couple of nukes on the surface and blowing the asteroid off course, ala Armageddon (though in this case to form a new moon). Mysteries are uncovered and conundrums need to be solved; through the careful and time honoured tradition of picking up random objects found throughout the games environs and "using" them against any available static object (or each other) until something positive happens to advance the plot in some meaningful way. The Dig doesn't break from this tried and tested formula, but it’s less a case of 'use hamster with generator' and more a case of 'use shovel to uncover remains' (the title is apt; there's a lot of digging).

How it plays

Due to its age the game does play windowed in a fairly low resolution and unfortunately there is no option to go full screen, so unless your eyes are up to it I would recommend temporarily reducing your monitor resolution a touch before playing. Like any of these old games, slow mouse over of every frame is absolutely essential in order to uncover every blink and miss it highlight. One thing lacking is an ingame map, and as you open up new areas it’s very easy to lose track of where you are in relation to other locations. My advice is to have pen & paper handy so you can draw a map of your own stringing together the various locations, as well as adding notes as to what interactive elements they might contain, because the game does require a lot of backtracking. Most of the puzzles are relatively straight forward, however there are a couple of less obvious ones (annoyingly quite early on) so dipping into a walkthrough now and then is not a bad thing if you find yourself at a loss as to what to do next, or wonder why something isn't happening when you think it should be.

In order to talk to other character’s you just have to click on them and the dialogue options strip appears. Unlike other Lucas arts games such as Monkey Island, the game doesn't present you with lines of dialogue, but instead icons denoting the ability to 'ask a question', 'say something profound' (always a favourite) or 'discuss a particular subject'  (which increase as the game goes on). For the most part it works and you can keep clicking an icon and you will say something different every time until you've exhausted that line of conversation (the icon will turn blue when you do). Unfortunately however the game doesn't remember what you've asked someone if you go away and return later on, and you've no way of knowing what you’re going to say until you do which can lead to a large degree of dialogue repetition at times. You can use "."  on your keyboard to skip dialogue exchanges if this occurs.

Storyline

The game throws you right into the plot very much in the manner of a film, quickly establishing the premise, as well as introducing the principal players in a way that is much more naturalistic than you tend to find not only in most other games, but in most other media full stop. The entire game is voiced throughout, with Robert Patrick (of T1000 fame) leading the cast as (the awesomely monikered) Boston Low, the mission commander whose actions you control throughout the game. Praise should be given not only to the high quality of the voice work, but also the Sound track which adds a great deal to the games atmosphere. The dialogue is adult in nature, not in a salacious manner (it’s a PG game after all) but more in the respect of being the sort of conversational level you'd expect from a team of NASA astronauts. That's not to say it’s not without humour at times, but the humour is very much akin to work place banter between colleagues rather than being side-splitting hilarious.

Without getting into spoilers the story feels very much like something Michael Crichton could have penned (I was kind of surprised not to see him on the credit roll to be honest). Certainly Sci-Fi in setting, but less Star Wars or Star Trek and more The Andromeda Strain, in that it’s an adventure about people having to negotiate extraordinary challenges (no laser guns I'm afraid). Overall it works and is an engaging story, with a lot of the enjoyment coming down to observing the growing friction developing between the various team members as the storyline progresses. The ending unfortunately feels a little bit rushed, as well as a touch saccharine (Mr Spielberg has a bad habit of not knowing when to end something, A.I. being another the classic example). However don't let that put you off what is an otherwise interesting piece of retro gaming. There's a good chunk of game play to the title, and for the price point it’s being sold at it’s an unmissable bargain. Interested? Get digging here.

Kad