Miner Dig Deep is probably the most accurate game title I’ve ever read. In the game, you play as a miner and you dig deep. The game does not tell a story. There are no enemies. You do not have a horrific harpoon gun with which you can impale creatures and inflate them until they burst. Your arsenal consists of a pick ax, a kerosene lamp, and the drive and determination to dig deep, damn deep.
Box art for the non-existent boxMiner Dig Deep is an indie title available on Xbox Live Marketplace. The goal is to mine for valuable gems and metals, which you can then sell at the store and then use the money that you earned to buy better equipment to mine more effectively. It’s a harsh circle, but miners aren’t it for fortune and glory, they’re in it for the dig. It’s hard to put into the words the immense satisfaction one gets from digging a deep mine. It’s definitely similar to playing an RPG, where you get to watch your character grow, but instead of grinding away on countless enemies, you’re carving a hole underneath the surface of the Earth.
Let me take through a day in the virtual life of Miner Dig Deep. Once you load up your game, you’ll appear outside of your house, which acts as your save point. You make sure the kerosene in you lamp is full; you don’t want to run out when deep in the mine and then get crushed by a boulder you never saw coming. If you’re far enough along in the game to own an automatic drill, you make sure it’s fueled up and ready to go. Otherwise, you sling your pick ax over your shoulder and head down into your pride and joy. Again, depending on how far along you are in your game, it may take a minute or so to ride a series of elevators down into the depths. But the wait is pleasant due to the soothing folkish guitar in the background, which, before you know it, has you thinking about all sorts of things and wondering whether a deep, dark mine is really where you’d thought you be at this point in your life.
As you travel downwards, you can actually see the goodies hidden in the dirt around you, thanks to your magical lamp. When you see something valuable, you just dig towards it. Watch out for boulders that fall when you dig underneath them. If you one crushes you, you’ll be knocked unconscious and rescued, and then you’ll start back on the surface minus everything you had collected. Once you fill up your bag, it’s time to head back to the surface and sell everything. Over time you’ll buy bigger bags and lamps that hold more kerosene, allowing you to stay down in the mine for longer, as well as other equipment that makes the actual digging easier.
I’m obsessed with Miner Dig Deep. It allows me to live some sort of blue collar lifestyle that I never knew I wanted. Normally after playing videogames for hours, I feel obligated to do something productive. After a few hours playing Miner Dig Deep, I just want to crack open a beer, put my feet up, and fall asleep watching Larry the Cable Guy.
Miner Dig Deep is 80 MS points, which is less than three bucks, and I’ve already played it for hours and don’t intend to stop any time soon.
