SteamWorld Dig is your average robo-western Metroidvania. You play as Rusty, a steam-powered robot who comes to the town of Tumbleton with a deed for a mine from his uncle. The mechanics are pretty simple: You dig down, mining valuable ores while avoiding traps and dispatching enemies, and return to the surface when your light runs out. There you can cash out your ores and buy upgrades to your pickaxe and other tools before returning to the mines once more.
In classic Metroidvania fashion, exploring leads to acquiring new skills which make things a bit easier for you. I thought the progression of earning skills could have been better: Some of the skills were useful but not strictly necessary in order to reach new areas, which is unusual for a Metroidvania. I prefer when new areas are gated to a new skill — You can see how to get there, and when you finally get that new skill, you know where to go. SteamWorld Dig doesn’t always lead you on in that way, and while that may have been a deliberate game-design choice, for me it led to some confusion. Ultimately the game didn’t feel as satisfying as, say, Guacamelee, where the progression is more clear.
All in all, I liked the mining twist on a familiar genre. I already bought SteamWorld Dig 2 on sale a while ago, and am excited to see how it compares to this first installment.