The Dig

The Good
The puzzles, if viewed in isolation from having been intended to be part of a broader 'game', were good. As far as logic puzzles go, they were mostly enjoyable. They were not typical find-object-to-satisfy-need point-and-click puzzles but were more along the lines of manipulating objects according to some apparent logic.

The only part of the game which was actually enjoyable was the part where you have to reassemble a turtle. Having said that, I am a huge fan of reassembling turtles generally. Turtles are funny.

The graphics were generally well-produced (though lacking any real style or cohesive direction).

The acting was adequate (assuming the characters were supposed to be that obnoxious).

The Bad
The Dig doesn't really have a story. Or rather what little it does have is fully played out during the fmv intro and subsequent semi-interactive set-piece. Now we are stranded on an alien world accompanied by three incredibly obnoxious characters, the most obnoxious of which is supposed to represent 'us' in game. He really is incredibly obnoxious and would have spoiled it for me had the game not been so awful in so many other ways.

Ok, so now the aim of the game is 'to get back home', which is fine as an aim. Unfortunately the puzzles and this aim don't really fit together. Stranded on an alien world, I wouldn't tend to reassemble turtles (I mean I would, but not in the hope that it would help me get home) or play alien games which always seem to revolve around basic geometric shapes. What I would do is try to fix my spaceship or something. What I'm getting at is that the tasks in the game are utterly abstracted from any 'storyline' - I have no idea what each puzzle is going to achieve in terms of getting me home until after I've completed it. And for that reason it may as well, for the most part, be a puzzle compendium.

On completing these puzzles, we get results. This isn't a story, there is no overarching direction to events, it just feels like a series of disjointed events following my completion of largely abstract puzzles. The connection between puzzles/actions and events/results becomes more and more disjointed as the game progresses until the point when sentient llamas appear and start resurrecting people and having beards and so forth.

I played this game to its conclusion because it made me so angry that I didn't want it to feel like it had won. I wasn't frustrated or angered by the puzzles as is often the case in these games, I was angered by the plain badness of the experience. I also harboured some vain hope that the ending might make up for the pain and tedium of the whole experience. It absolutely did not.

The different methods of illustration (rendered and hand-drawn), while all well-done in their own right, often jarred against each other and would have perhaps encroached on the immersion, had there been any.

The Bottom Line
My summary wasn't hyperbole, I've played some bad games but none worse than The Dig. If I could go to an alien world where sentient llamas would scrub my memory clean of ever having played this game, I absolutely would. I would even reassemble all their turtles in payment.

I should perhaps say that I'm not a fan of LucasArts adventures in general, so I wasn't coming at this expecting one of those pirate games or Sam and Max. I do enjoy the Broken Sword series, so perhaps that's helpful, I don't know.

I would say that if you're after this sort of thing, perhaps play Myst (which while being awful, does have some cohesion between plot and puzzles) or Nomad Soul (similar puzzle-style but far more to it). Or Broken Sword, because it does serious-point-and-click-with-humour well.

The Good
The Dig was a favorite of mine as a kid, even though I never completed it until recently (on modern hardware with the help of ScummVM). Visually, it is flush with stunning, eerie alien landscapes. The soundscape is nearly as expansive, with good sound effects and a nice ambient soundtrack that accompanies you throughout the game. The voice acting is also consistently well-done, as are the handful of in-game cutscenes.

All of these elements come together to evoke the feeling of being marooned on an alien world. You encounter wondrous and strange alien technology, and learn of its benefits and perils over the course of the game.

The plot is not without its twists and turns, and the truth about the fate of the alien species serves as a cautionary tale of hubris and pushing technology too far.

The end of the game is decent, including a compelling dilemma regarding the fate of the female lead. The ending itself will vary slightly depending upon your decision.

The Bad
I have few complaints about this game. The ending was a bit on the corny side for my taste, as were the aliens (except for "the inventor").

On a few rare occasions, the visual styles of the game clashed, such as a 3D animated monster trying to attack a cartoon-style sprite.

Also, a few of the puzzles struck me as a bit too complex, but one would expect them to be, as they are of alien craft. Namely, the "servo" puzzle was a bit tedious, and I admit to seeking help on it.

However, I did not find the "bones" puzzle to be quite as awful as most people said it was. It's much easier if you're observant enough to locate the nearby fossil, which provides valuable clues as to the shape of the animal.

The Bottom Line
An elegant adventure with a compelling storyline, beautiful graphics (for the time), and a pleasing soundscape that come together to form an immersive experience. Pay no heed to the critics. If you enjoy science fiction at all, or want to feel the thrill of investigating the abandoned world of a lost alien civilization, pick up a copy of The Dig by all means.

The Good
This came out at an odd time for Lucasarts - after 'The Secret of Monkey Island 2' had been criticised for being too easy, they released this and 'Full Throttle', two solid adventures that, whilst pleasant enough, seemed to add little to the genre, and were not particularly hard. 'The Dig' is less cartoony and more 'serious' than their other games - it's a pulpy sci-fi adventure with the voice of Robert Patrick, the evil Terminator from 'Terminator 2'. It scores highly in terms of presentation - the animated intro is highly professional, and there's a constant, impressive score ('Wagnerian' according to the box) too.

The Bad
The puzzles veer from being utterly, utterly obscure (a sequence in which you manipulate a hovering drone in order to reactivate a power plant), to dull 'try every object with every other object' fests. Furthermore, what appeared to be a bug in my version of the the game rendered it unfinishable. Nonetheless, it's typically competent, and even when it's being dull there's the music to listen to.

The Bottom Line
Decent, solid adventure that won't tax you for more than a few days. With Robert Patrick!