The Dig

The Good
When I played the demo to this game my jaw dropped upon the ground as the game opened to the harsh realization of the shuttle crew's desertion upon an unknown planet in an another galaxy. I was compelled to continue exploring the area, clicking on anything that moved, learning about how the bizzaire situation was beginning to take a toll on the crew until all the suspense lead up to the death of a crew member. I was into the game so much I had to continue, and the next week I purchased the full version game. I enjoyed the game's dated sci-fi storyline and much like the demo, the opening scene of the game containing the press conference then the eventual exploration of the asteriod, Atilla, kept me glued to the monitor as if I was watching a classic sci-fi movie on cable. The music and artwork are fantastic (considering the times) as it was the first time I saw good 3D rendered graphics on the PC which were very compatible with the musical score to bring out the emotion of the storyline and highlight the vast unknown of space.

The Bad
I'm afraid however once I passed the point in which my fellow crew member died from falling into a crevice the game began to get very boring as the music dragged on annoyingly and I had no idea on where to go as the puzzles were very annoying and absurd. Some puzzles were extremely stupid like the repairing of a magnifying glass in some orgy of laser that kept the planet working and sometimes the only way to advance in the game is to walk back to a place which is on the other side on the planet and very irritating. This had potential to be a great game but instead was a disappointment, I suggest LucasArts should have taken the budget from this game and made Full Throttle a bit longer. I heard Steven Spilberg orignally wanted this to concept to be a movie but it would have been to long and expensive... I reckon "The Dig: The Movie" would have taken a big nose dive. Maybe next time I'll read a review then make assumptions from an official demo.

The Bottom Line
Play the demo to this game and leave it at that.