Hero of Legend
Member
I finally decided to give this game a go on my 3DS, and I've been playing it CONSTANTLY since, I already clocked in around 4 hours and at 374m.
The game's goal is to dig far underground and collect loot to trade in for cash and unlock and buy upgrades. You dig by whacking at dirt blocks and after enough hits they break. You can acquire new pickaxes which allow you to take out squares in less hits until they can be broken after just one.
Later you unlock a drill which is used for more rocky dirt (there are big grey rocks but so far they're unbreakable). A key element is water, this is your energy meter of sorts which you use up to so a Steam Jump (you find this ala Metroid early on) and for the drill also. As you unlock more upgrades, you can obtain tanks that give you more water storage, and even some that use up less water when jumping and drilling. You obtain water via sitting in puddles underground, but they do get used up (luckily they refill after returning to the surface).
Another major point is your light, it gradually gets darker and when it runs out you can barely see anything other than the background to at least see where you can go up, you can go on, but I highly recommend against it since as I'll explain below there are hazards that can catch you off guard.
Some include enemies, so far I've encountered four; a small bug-like thing which are easy kills (they die in 3 hits), a larger armadillo-like thing which shoot needles at you and so far require you to take damage to kill them. Then in the oil cave, you find zombies that either just run back and forth (also easy kills, but take like 7 hits), but also can carry dynamite, which of course blow up and clear lots of dirt, but obviously you can take A LOT of damage so be careful/ The 4th enemy so far are these big zombies that throw glass bottles and man are they tough to even get around, died numerous times on these things alone. :/
Other hazards include TNT barrels which can auto detonate just by being near them, and also spikes which you can get rid of by shitting the block from below, and also these dripping green goo blocks, which can be broken from above, but these glow so you can't miss them.
Later on you can unlock being able to throw your own dynamite, but so far I can only carry 5 at a time, these come through in a pinch, but it's very limited so you have to use it when you REALLY need to. Don't want to be uber deep and then get roadblocked by enemies and such.
When collecting loot, you need to mind your inventory space, you can only carry 4 of the same item in one slot at once and they fill quickly, of course you unlock/buy more as you go on. You also collect these glowing orbs by breaking these spheres in the dirt, but these are pretty rare, and are needed for more upgrades after a period.
One aspect I love is the wall jumping ala Mega Man X where you just touch a wall and you can hop up on it with ease. The collecting is addicting and you really feel the need to just do one more go.
One I HATE is fall damage, I reached a bottom area and I fell like 100m and died straight away, so be careful when chancing drops.
Overall this is a wonderful game and the map on the bottom screen helps a lot as well as helping you keep track of your inventory.
Solid 8/10 for me, I HIGHLY recommend it.
Screens:
Release trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMGYQ40DzsU
Also available on: Wii U, PS4, Vita, Xbox One, PC, Mac, and Linux.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SteamWorld_Dig
