DigDigDrill review

DigDigDrill is a deliberately relaxed experience. It’s a game with no enemies, no fail states, and no time constraints. Progress is limited only by how much time you’re willing to invest. As such, this gradual descent through a destructible underground won’t be for everyone. But if you don’t mind a bit of repetition and some leisurely pacing, you might enjoy excavating through this massive, destructible subterranean environment.

DigDigDrill’s objective is uncomplicated: descend to floor 999. Since your drill automatically breaks through terrain, movement is the only input that’s required. As you descend downward, you’ll collect different kinds of metals, uncover buried treasure chests, and eventually return to the surface every time your carrying capacity is maxed out. And since drilling uses battery power and spent cells fill up your inventory, this will happen repeatedly.

A Serene Descent That Might Be Too Laid Back for Some

In concept, this sounds like a tedious experience, and it certainly can be early on. However, solo developer Toorai injects some escalation in an attempt to keep things interesting. As such, denser rock layers slow or even temporary halt progress while unlockable abilities improve the efficiency of your drilling apparatus over time.

Occasionally, you’ll find bombs that explode when mined, saving you a bit of work. Torches help light some of the dark subterranean tunnels that you’re digging. And after an hour or so, you’ll unlock one-way warp gates which let you instant teleport back to the surface. But unlike say, SteamWorld Dig, which required you to create passageways that can be used to backtrack, here you can hollow out the landscape without worry. So go ahead and excavate the entire environment if you want.

The Allure of Steady Progress

Like most incremental games, DigDigDrill offers a gratifying sense of progression. Sure, piercing through those first hundred floors is slow going and you might be tempted to give up on your downward expedition. But soon, you’ll forge better drill bits and upgrades that help to offset the resistance of stronger rocks and the burden of having to rapidly return to the surface. As with many games in the sub-genre, once these augmentations begin rolling out, there’s a good chance that DigDigDrill will sink its hooks into you. While I wasn’t totally engrossed in mining different metals, I also had a hard time quitting. That said, I do wish you could delete your save file and start over.

Much of the game’s progression comes in the form of new blueprints, which function as templates for improved drill heads. You’ll find these scattered underground as you dig, often lurking inside treasure chests. Once you have these design documents, you’ll need to actually forge the drill bit it depicts, revealing DigDigDrill’s crafting component.

Constructing new heads means placing Tetrimino-shaped pieces on various gridded boards. Each found metal has a different shape, strength value, and bonus affinity, allowing you to construct some appreciated augmentations with some shrewd, Resident Evil 4-style positioning. Mercifully, you don’t have to fill every square (there’s a help card that tells you this, it can be easy to forget). The best part is that each new drill bit feels different, with bonuses that allow you to chew through rock faster, provide a movement bonus, or my favorite, throw out dead batteries, which not only open up inventory slots, but will occasionally explode.

Sparse Sounds and a Subtle Style

Your descent is accompanied by a chiptune score that doesn’t offer many tracks. What’s included is great, with one song that boasts some classical qualities. But the playlist soon loops, emphasizing the game’s rather repetitive nature. I would have appreciated more tracks to dig into. Visually, the Unity-powered title is rather utilitarian with pixelated storefronts on the surface and blocks cast by different fields of lighting underground. But largely, personality is rooted in the game’s tranquil tempo and cyclical nature, rather than any aesthetic accomplishment.

DigDigDrill isn’t a thrill ride. Toorai’s incremental excursion is a slow burn that rewards patience with a drip feed of upgrades that provide efficiency. The game’s relaxed pacing, minimalist structure, and occasional flashes of ingenuity make it easy to lose track of time while chipping away at the depths below. If you need constant action, it’ll feel too mellow to hold attention for long. But if you do find satisfaction in steady progress, this underground odyssey might deliver an oddly tranquil kind of fulfillment.

DigDigDrill was played on Switch with review code provided by the publisher.