A glowing underground forest – complete with giant bouncy mushrooms – and a lava-filled domain prevent a dominance of brown hues. Not only is the gameworld far larger, with an intertwining temple to explore around the halfway mark, but it’s also much more varied too. It’s worth exploring the surrounding mountain ranges for riches, as the game’s Metroidvania-nature allows access to previously unreachable areas. Artefacts can be found, too – these well-hidden objects can also be traded in when back at the town, unlocking valuable rewards. The reward for beating a puzzle room is usually a cog, used to unlock a perk via a workbench back at El Machino. Box shoving, switch flicking, precision platform jumping, and tricking enemies into doing your dirty work – all these bases and more are covered. Trial and error is occasionally called for, but overall, each puzzle room is a delight to solve. These mostly take the form of challenge and puzzle rooms, all of which have a neat nostalgic feel – if you mess up and destroy accidentally certain blocks, you must exit and re-enter the room to reset the puzzle. Warp tunnels make reaching the surface an effortless pursuit, and there are plenty of distractions along the way. The townsfolk of El Machino are eager to assist in her quest, giving pointers of where to head next, and so there’s never any confusion as to which direction to start digging. With every new upgrade – purchased using the various riches excavated from the mine – the further Dot can descend. This adds a wonderful sense of progression, almost making self-improvement the central theme. Upgrades and new items unlock at such a rapid rate that it’s uncommon not to return to the mine without a bigger backpack, improved pickaxe or similar. Dot later gains the kind of upgrades that Rusty could have only dreamed of, lending a whole new set of skills. As such, the opening hour feels like far less of a slog. That’s to say, it’s slightly more advanced than the tech Rusty started out with. After being hit by a mysterious earthquake the mine is back to being clogged with dirt, and no time is wasted getting back into the swing of digging and drilling for riches.ĭot starts her quest to track down Rusty with an assortment of crude but effective mining equipment. But in a good way – excavating is Dorothy’s forte, after all.Ī lead on Rusty’s whereabouts brings Dot to El Machino, a mountain town sitting directly under a sprawling complex of mines and caves. She’s soon joined by Fen, a powerful glowing orb of light who’s rather fond of destruction. The storyline is more heartfelt too, with robotic cowpoke Dorothy (Dot) out to discover the whereabouts of Rusty, the likeable lead from the original SWD. It’s immediately apparent that production values are far more lavish, boasting sharper, more richly detailed visuals, and ambient lighting. So, how do you improve on something remarkably close to perfection? Simply double down on the good stuff. With few criticisms and complaints to rectify, they were presumably free to focus on improving every aspect that made the original a joy to play. With this in mind, Swedish developer Image & Form must have found themselves in a fortunate position when it came to this sequel’s pre-production. The original SWD was hard to fault without resorting to nit-picking. To say SteamWorld Dig 2 is built on a sturdy foundation is an understatement.
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