The Dig (PC, 1995)

The Dig is a graphical adventure game developed by LucasArts and released in 1995, and a novel based on the game written by Alan Dean Foster. It was the 11th game to use the SCUMM game engine, and is famous for its connection to Steven Spielberg and notorious for its prolonged production that had the game bordering on vaporware.

Released as CD-ROM only, The Dig was sold for PC and Macintosh computers. It contains a full voice-over soundtrack and a digital orchestral score. For the most part, the game's graphics are hand-drawn and sparsely animated, with a mixture of pre-rendered 3D and hand-drawn animation clips also presented in certain parts of the game.

It is the most serious LucasArts adventure game, containing no slapstick, and relatively little subtle humor, an element found abundantly in all other LucasArts adventure titles. It is also the only one to fit perfectly into the science fiction genre.

The Dig really is one of the best adventure games ever.

Even though the low resolution of the graphics of this game may need a little getting used to since people are used to the graphics of today's games (it was great graphics at the time), The Dig still comes across as a stimulating and challenging sci-fi adventure strategy/adventure game.

You control Brink, who must get himself and two of his space shuttle crewmen home after they're thrown to the other side of the universe when an asteroid, which they're tapped to stop as it's heading towards Earth, turns out to be an alien spacecraft. As the game goes on, you have to work through puzzles and problems with your stranded clues as you learn more and more about this apparently extinct alien civilization in your attempt to learn how to get back home.

As I said, the graphics need a little getting used to, and given that it's an old game, one may run into some compatibility problems (works fine on XP, Vista was giving me some "can't run in fullscreen mode" errors, of which there are a few ways to address). The voice acting in this game, however, is one of it's bright spots, as there are voice acting both in the cut scenes and during the gameplay itself.

Overall, if you want to play a really good game and don't care about it's age, definitely consider picking The Dig up.

The Dig is a great game. It's a puzzle game, with some very easy puzzles, some very hard ones, and other ones that are qute strange. The game is short, I played it before and I went through it in roughly 10 to 12 hours, but I knew most of the earlier puzzle solutions. The graphics are good (for it's time, not now), and there is real voice acting throughout the entire game, not just "cutscenes". I loved the game, the gameplay is simple, the story is interesting, although a little confusing, if you want the whole story, you'd have to buy the book, or audiotape under the same title.

This was one of the best adventure games I've ever played. Even though the graphics are far outdated, the sound quality is still very comparable to modern sound in games, and aside from that, it's a great story in my opinion and has some excellent replay value. They made very good use of the graphics technology available back then, so the artwork is very good. The story is serious, but with humorous things added here and there, and with a good amount of suspense and surprises. There is a soundtrack and novel of this game--now they just need to make a movie of it!

This is an absolutely wonderful game, full of mystery, puzzles, music, and voice animation. It takes us to a world far from ours; a place one might want to stay for a while. But they must go back to earth, and the only means available is to solve the planet's mystery and activate 'the machine'. Use team work with the characters to work out the unknowns. Meet the aliens, kind and gentle, a victim of their own technology. Discover that life after death may not be so wonderful. This is not a game of violence, blood, or guts. It is a game of discovery, teamwork, compassion, and visual pleasure. The scenes are of old style graphics; low on detail. But who cares? Star Trek was low on detail, too, and it is still being shown.
Don't let the bats poop in your eye.