It’s a nice house in a lovely suburb, peaceful and chill and not at all suspiciously affordable. You’d think a two-story home with attached garage and secluded back yard would run several hundred thousand easy, but nope. $10k gets the whole thing, and there’s even a big red X in the yard indicating where the buried treasure is hidden. That’s such a great deal anyone would be crazy not to jump at it, asking no questions at all and enjoying the rich mineral-laden land they’re about to dig up.
Workin' In A Coal Mine, Goin' Down Down
It’s an irresistible offer so, once the months of house hunting and mounds of paperwork are handily taken care of off screen, it’s time for the new homeowner to start enjoying their property. With the back yard safe from prying HOA eyes and a convenient electric digging tool in hand they tear into the earth to get at the treasure, which one assumes is worth far more than simply flipping the house for going market rates. A Game About Digging a Hole is about as pure a “does what it says on the tin” game as you could hope for, but there are a few wrinkles to starting off. The electric shovel is a garden spade, inventory space is super-tiny, and if the battery runs out the digger explodes.
Review: SteamWorld Dig 2
SteamWorld Dig 2 is a huge, expansive and utterly fantastic mining/platformer, with a great variety of challenges and plenty of tools to attack them with
The solution to all of life’s problems is buried in the yard, though, or at least access to it. Most hits of the shovel turn up dirt but there are rocks in there that sell for a dollar apiece, and a little depth turns up coal for two dollars a chunk. Sell minerals at the PC, pay to recharge the digger, repeat. Soon enough that first upgrade comes along and the digger can turn up more dirt in a single hit, making excavation go much more quickly. Buying a bigger inventory means each trip down can bring in more cash, while an improved battery means you’re able to fill up that inventory before running out of juice. Eventually the hole gets deep enough that there’s no jumping out of it, but buying a jetpack fixes that problem easily enough. Dig, sell, upgrade, repeat, and maybe pick up a few lights to drive back the darkness and a stick of dynamite or two to take care of rocks too big for the digger. It’s a weirdly engaging cycle, and while the end of the first run down into the earth comes after about two hours there’s at least one secret to chase after to add a bit more play-time.
A Game About Digging a Hole isn’t trying to do anything but what its title very clearly states, and it’s a great bite-sized snack of gaming. Granted, it was a two-week project for the developer and that shows in the bare-bones presentation and some graphic weirdness when flying out of the hole when it gets fairly deep, but it works and makes for a nicely chill afternoon’s gaming obsession. There’s treasure down there, after all, and no suspiciously good property deal will stop a determined digger from excavating their loot.
