Dig Deep Review

Introduction

I’m going to put it our there right away, Dig Deep is not a great game. Originally published on the Google Play store as a free to play premium clicker, it’s easily the most insipid game I’ve ever played. But what was the problem? Some of these games can be wonderfully engaging and I have been hooked on a few in my spare time but it’s mobile roots are evident from the get go.

Gameplay

Initially the gameplay seems like it could be fun. You run around a small plot of land, digging up dirt and uncovering collectable drops that pop out. You fill your little back pack and back you go, up the ladder to deposit them at the top. Back in the hole you go and you rinse and repeat this process. Special layers are uncovered, which spit out diamonds or coins and this continues until you hit predetermined points at which faster travel options are unlock such as a turbo lift at layer 100, and a teleporter at 1000. The deeper you get the more arduous (and irritating) the climb but thankfully, as you collect more coins, there are a series of unlockables to make the task at hand a little easier in the form of buildings and passive buffs. The first building offers additional support in the form of new workers who will automatically dig and collect the drops, the second unlocks monuments and the final one is a pet shop for the aforementioned buffs.

There is also a black market, which is obviously a freemium hangover, as you spend diamonds to temporarily improve the speed of your dig teams, provide unlimited storage space before you need to climb back out or add a magnet to collect things from further away. These are capped at a maximum of 5 per “day” so it’s impossible to abuse the system but they really aren’t essential to progress unless you aim to speedrun the 12 levels.

Each hole appears to go on forever, so moving onto other areas is really only necessary to increase the speed at which money can be gained – one coin per dot on level one, two per dot on level two and so on… Progression to each area is gated by a nominal cash amount and this is easily attained within 10-15 minutes and off you go again to the next one. The time ticks up and each “day” lets you increase the payout of diamonds by a percentage amount. XP is gained for every tile of dirt that’s dug up, which simply increases the space in your pack. The pets passively improve various stats, but again, they aren’t essential to progression and their cost increases in every area. This is where the dig team – four per hole – come in. These folks can also be upgraded to increase their capacity and speed and they will work autonomously, dropping the dots in the designated area. Want to boost your coffers? Get them to drop them in the usual place. Want to see the pointless monuments? Get them to drop there instead. “Pointless monuments…” I hear you ask – yes, they are pointless, because they don’t even fit on the screen.

After an hour I had unlocked three holes, 12 staff and a ton of pets should I want to actually do some of the dirty work myself. However, with such a vast number of bodies collecting things, it was easy to employ a full team at the start of each area and just let them do their thing whilst I did something else like hoovering the house or doom-scrolling Twitter. This is ultimately the problem as there is no need to engage. The game plays itself and it does so at such a speed that all the unlocks are at your finger tips every time you finally decide to move on. Each hole can also be revisited at any time as they open in a long line.

Presentation

This is going to be a short one – it’s poor. The player character is a yellow stick man, the dig team are blue stick men and the holes are flat textured tiles that peel off one at a time, unveiling each layer. The pick ups are bright coloured dots or simple 3D coins and diamonds. The pets are a bit more interesting but keep the same basic design and nothing is that pretty. Worst of all are the sounds – all you get is one track that loops until you finally lose the plot and turn it off. The player character makes a crunchy digging sound but nothing else seems to emit any sort of sound. With the music off, its deathly silence so if you do plan on picking this up for some reason, get the radio on (alright old man) or get a playlist set up on your favourite streaming platform.

Conclusion

I understand there is a market for passive clicker games, but this is the most beige of them all and player input becomes unnecessary. It’s clearly aimed at achievement hunters with too much spare time on their hands and the effort that has gone into the port is minimal at best. I had to Dig Deep to maintain any interest as it felt like a waste of time to keep going. I’lI also admit that this is the first time that I have not seen a title through to its conclusion before review because I saw everything it had to offer inside the first hour. I stuck with it hoping something else would happen, but nope, it’s the same thing over and over again until you finally succumb to insanity. I genuinely feel bad saying this because someone has put some hard work into creating the game, but only buy this if you have a few quid to burn. In fact don’t, burn it instead, you’ll have more fun. Or better yet, give that money to a homeless person or a charity, they’ll appreciate it more. This is nothing but a cheap cash grab and I don’t want to see anyone waste their time or money. Just play the free one on your mobile if you really must.