Digging games. What’s the deal with digging games? Video games offer us the ability to visit fantastical worlds beyond our wildest dreams and do things that we never could possibly do in real life, and yet, there is something so alluring about a game that has you digging down into the dirt. The Steamworld Dig games, my personal all-time favorite Doug Dug, I Dig It!, even games like Minecraft and Terraria, all of them make shoveling earth something fun to do virtually when there’s pretty much zero chance of enjoying the same in reality. Now I can add another digging game to my folder of favorites with Dig Odyssey: Cosmic Mining from developer Andrey Abrosimov aka Double Reality Games.
Like some other digging games, Dig Odyssey is built around the idea of digging into the ground, collecting various types of resources, and then using those resources to upgrade your gear once you resurface. Then, with better equipment in hand, you can dive down once again and go a bit further than you did the time before. Rinse, repeated, get sucked into the loop. However, where Dig Odyssey seems to differ is that it’s not some endless game or high score chaser (well, not strictly anyway), and instead there’s an end to all your digging once you get down deep enough.
I have yet to do such a thing, I should add, but at least with the time I’ve spent so far I’m having a heck of a good time trying in Dig Odyssey. You have limited air and when you run out that’s when your run is over, but air canisters are buried alongside all the resource types so there’s a bit of strategy involved in what directions you dig and what sort of stuff items you go for in your limited time. Then of course the upgrading which makes you incrementally better feels very rewarding, and naturally the deeper you go the more interesting and varied the underground environment becomes.
It’s not reinventing the wheel or anything, but Dig Odyssey has a really strong appeal in terms of mechanics and it’s built especially well to be played with just one hand, making it perfect to pop into at any moment. While there are leaderboards for most time spent underground and fastest to complete the game, I can definitely see the fun growing stale at some point, but for a buck or two depending on which IAP you buy (either remove ads, resource pack, or combination of both) I’ve already gotten my money’s worth out of it. Plus this feels like a strong foundation to build on top of, if that’s something the developer chooses to do. Either way, if you fancy digging a hole in the ground virtually, the free download of Dig Odyssey is worth your time.
