SteamWorld Dig 2

Review

Excuse me, have you seen a short bot with a cowboy hat who goes by the name of Rusty, by any chance? Of course, you haven’t. That was the only answer Dot (Dorothy) would receive as she walked east, all the way to the Wild West town of El Machino. There, the Mayor of the city definitely identified her friend Rusty. However, he is deep into the El Machino mine and most entrances are closed off due to recent unpredicted earthquakes. Come on Dot, it time to dig deep in SteamWorld Dig 2!

SteamWorld Dig 2 is an adventure / platformer / exploration game where you take control of Dot, who’s looking for her friend Rusty, who was last seen entering the mines of El Machino.

As you reach El Machino, you’ll meet several bot characters, including the Mayor, Mic Yonker, who will give you quests, Barnacle Jones to whom you’ll be able to sell all valuable stones that you’ll find in the mine, and Turtle Bucket, who will help you with upgrades and enhancing your tools.  I will let you discover the other ones.

On the first couple of quests, Dot will only have access to her pickaxe, but as she digs down into the mine, she‘ll discover caves. Most of the caves will have COGS to be found (some of the caves have puzzles) and some of them will have this sort of cocoon machine where Dot will receive extra abilities or tools when she enters them.  In regards to the COGS, you can use them on the workbench to enhance tools or abilities at El Machino. Ultimately, your favourite bot will have a pickaxe, a grapple, an acid gun and a mechanical hand to smash heavy rocks.

As you would expect, mines are full of dangers and this one has terrifying crawling creatures, such as crab-like critters or spiky crazy snails. There are flying enemies as well. Believe it or not, this mine has large blue parakeets and explosive wasp thingies and they are absolutely deadly. Be careful when coming across sorcerers has they can spell fire balls and teleport themselves around the mines and strike you back quickly and easily. On top of that, you need to avoid touching cactus, explosive barrels and acid balls too as they all will affect your health bar. The other point you need to be careful of is how much oil you’ll have in your lamp. If you run out of light, well, you can’t see a thing in a mine. To give you a tip, try to upgrade your lamp as soon as you can at the workbench. It will make Dot’s life a little bit easier.  However, make sure to collect as many precious stones before returning to the surface and sell them to the best broker of El Machino.  Death can come in many ways: by being hit too many times by enemies, falling from high ground, swimming in acid waters or dropping into bright hot lava. Each time Dot dies, she will respawn at the lovely El Machino town but without three quarters of the stones she might have collected. So, if you pockets are full of shiny stones, don’t hesitate to make a trip back to town to sell your goodies and pick up a few upgrades while you’re at it. And how do you get back into town? Extremely simple, Dot can use the extensive tube channels within the mines.

Graphically, the game looks great and the soundtrack is good too. Control-wise, either you use the keyboard or the gamepad; the controls are very responsive.