SteamWorld Dig 2. There's More Digging to be Done!

Steam's Black Friday sale was an opportunity for me to impulse buy a bundle of games for a nice, low price.  I snatched up three SteamWorld  games for under under $20 and have been gradually playing my way through them.  At first I was worried that I might've wasted my money on something that I wasn't going to like, but boy was I wrong!  I've had fun playing all three of the games (if you're interested you can read about SteamWorld Dig here and SteamWorld Heist here) and after finishing up SteamWorld Dig 2, I feel great about my purchases.

SteamWorld Dig 2 continues the story of the spunky, steam powered robots who populate a place that is very much like the old American West.  Rather than playing as Rusty, the robot protagonist from the first game, you play as Dorothy--the cute, little robot vendor from the same game.  The story follows Dorothy as she tries to locate Rusty, who disappeared after he handily defeated the evil robot mastermind, Vectron.

Dorothy visits the town of El Machino.

Dorothy finds herself searching the area around the robot town of El Machino.  On the way she stumbles across an odd, sprite-like entity known as Fen.  Fen is a feisty little bugger who enjoys destruction and serves as a sort of helpful follower.  Similar to SteamWorld, the town of El Machino is filled with robots who provide a number of helpful functions--there are vendors who buy minerals and sell upgrades, there are pneumatic transportation tubes to quickly zip Dorothy to different locations around the map, and there are friendly robots to chat with.

The gameplay in SteamWorld Dig 2 is very similar to the first game--much of it revolves around digging through different areas and searching for minerals and caves to search.  Luckily, the developers paid attention to some of the minor annoyances in the first game and did a fabulous job of addressing and changing some of them.  As players dig further below the earth they will find that the pneumatic tube system is much easier to find and use.  There's no need to depend on expensive teleporters as a more efficient source of movement--you can use the map and easily teleport directly back to El Machino.

Dorothy has access to a number of handy implements that greatly improve her movement and make digging and navigating a literal (and metaphorical) blast.  The grappling hook is handy for grabbing onto and boosting Dorothy over and above certain obstacles.  It also alleviates one of the problems I ran into in the first game--digging a shaft too far down and then getting stuck because you couldn't wall jump out--which meant you had to rely on ladders, which cost gold.  As you progress even farther into the game you unlock the rocket pack which allows Dorothy to briefly fly.  When used in tandem with the grappling hook, there's almost no movement that's impossible--you can fly up into spaces that seemed unreachable or traverse wide areas.

Another aspect that was improved was the upgrade system.  You can still upgrade your tools using the money you make from digging up minerals, but there is also an upgrade system that uses special cogs that are hidden/sprinkled throughout the game.  These cogs grant special abilities for each tool--for example, you could put a cog into your lamp slot and gain a bonus to the amount of light that your lamp provides.  As you collect more cogs you have to figure out exactly what abilities will be the most beneficial--some upgrades cost only one cog while others might require three or possibly four cogs.  The nice thing about the cog system is that you can easily swap cogs from one ability to another since they aren't locked.  Many of the challenge caves have cogs hidden throughout them and they are well worth finishing just to find more cogs.  There are also hidden "artifacts" that you can trade to a certain archaeologist robot to unlock special blueprints that unlock cog-based abilities.  Each blueprint requires you to find a specific number of artifacts and increases as you make progress.  (I think I found something like 42% of the artifacts--they are hidden well!)

Besides all the gameplay related improvements there are plenty of other things to like about SW Dig 2.  The soundtrack isn't really what you'd expect from a game that is set in an area that resembles the American West and instead has a cool, electronic ambiance (especially El Machino).  The variety of environments you will find yourself in varies from the traditional mine shaft to an ancient temple filled with conveyor belts (and puzzle-like areas) to an area filled with bioluminescent plants and unfriendly critters.  The story has some interesting twists and turns and even manages to give you a large dose of the feels.

I would heartily recommend SteamWorld Dig 2 and would say that purchasing the entire Image & Form Games bundle is a good idea.  Even though the three games aren't directly linked, they take place in the same universe and it's fun to see the connection between them.  (I don't want to spoil it, but when you finish SW Dig 2 you get a strong feeling that it and Heist could be closely related in the future).  Get your dig on!

Pros:
--Digging and navigating has improved since the first game.  It's still very similar, but it's better.
--A mix of old and new tools.  There's the ol' reliable pickaxe used for most digging but there's also a
   grappling hook and rocket pack.
--Fleshed out upgrade system that rewards players for exploring and finding cogs hidden throughout
   the world.
--Cute story and characters.  All the robots have unique personalities and Fen, your friendly guide, is
   good for some laughs.
--Variety of environments to explore.  Mineshafts, ancient ruins, glowy, plant-filled areas...you won't
   get bored.
--Challenge caves offer a fun way to earn extra cogs/minerals/artifacts.  My personal favorite was the
   "Floor is Lava" cave (covered with buttons and required you not to touch any of the buttons while
   utilizing the grappling hook to navigate).  It took me about twenty tries, but I finally unlocked the
   artifact at the end.
--Replayability.  Making it a priority to try to find all the artifacts in the game could provide a reason
   to replay.
--Family friendly.  There's some violence and fighting, but this game would be appropriate for kids.
--Keyboard/mouse controls are good--you don't really need a controller.

Cons:
Hmm....I don't really know that I have any serious concerns.  I wish Dorothy had more hats like in SteamWorld Heist.

Happy holidays everyone!  The SteamWorld games would make a great gift for gamers of any age.