Creative Game Reviews - The Dig

LucasArts

The Dig

Remember Full Throttle? Remember how the game just sort of seemed to drag you into it? Like you were actually part of the game, you could really feel the wind blow through your hair as you raced down the highway on your roadhog? Well, if you don't, go get Full Throttle, but once again, Lucasarts has proven themselves capable of making a great game.

Digging in the Dirt

The Dig is a story about a distant planet(Properly named Cocytus, after the 9th circle of Hell in Dante's Inferno). It all started when Earth was threatened by an asteroid about the size of a small moon. The asteroid is on a crash course with earth. NASA sends a shuttle up to take care of the asteroid. The shuttle contains 3 astronauts: Maggie Robbins, a famed reporter as well as astronaut, Ludger Brink, an internationally famous geologist, and you, Boston Low, a NASA vertern and the only with the brains and know how to destroy the asteroid.

After you blast the asteroid safely out of orbit, you begin your routine examination. What you don't expect to find, however, is a device that turns the asteroid into a travelling cube. The cube takes you and your 2 companions to Cocytus and now you must find your way home, if there is a way home.

The Game

The Dig features cutscenes that liven up the play of the game. The game doesn't have digital actors, or anything to that effect. It has the same graphics as Full Throttle. The game still manages to keep humor, so every once in awhile you'll find your laughing. It's full of puzzles, some difficult, some hard. It will definitely keep you interested.

The game features the voice of Robert Patrick (The T1000 in Terminator 2) as Boston Low. Mari Weiss however, is a device that as Maggie Robbins and Steven Blum as Ludger Brink. The music, in my opinion fits the game perfectly. It's one of those games that has the music that actually puts you into the mood to play the game. The music was composed by Michael Land. The game play is the same as Full Throttle also. You point and click to tell the guy where you want him to go. You have an inventory that holds the many valuable items you happen to pick up along the way. One of the nice features of the game is your Comm-Link. The Comm-Link is located on your Pen-Ultimate. You can use it to communicate with the other people in your party. Sometimes they give you valuable clues, other times they just talk. Another feature of the Pen-Ultimate is the ability to play the old game "Lunar-Lander." So, when you get hopefully stuck, and just want to kill something, or take some of the frustration off your mind, whip out the old Pen-Ultimate and play Lunar-Lander.

Well, that's about it for The Dig. This is definitely a great game. It has great graphics and sound/music. The game costs about $59.99, and if you enjoy playing adventure games, or if you enjoyed the other LucasArts' games (Sam and Max, Day of the Tentacle, or Full Throttle), then you will enjoy this one! It's not a Win95 native game, but it will run in Win95, although the manuals advise against this, because of the way the game needs to allocate the memory.

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