Cave Digger [Xbox]
MeKiwi’s Cave Digger started its life as a VR game, before recently coming to Xbox. Armed with a pickaxe, you’ll need to take the elevator down the four levels of the town’s mineshaft to retrieve gems and oil, as well as an abundance of relics. You also have access to a cave system for further mining, and as you repair the town’s train-tracks you’ll be able to travel further into the caves. Both options play out differently, with the mineshaft being a sort-of static position, where you dig away the four walls surrounding you in timed segments, going down a floor every 30 seconds (but remember to chuck the treasure into your cart, otherwise it vanishes when the elevator moves again!); and the caves being more of a free-roaming deal, that you travel by train (with a fast travel option unlockable) to reach, and you have a little chest companion named Chompy that follows you around to gobble up your findings.
The game starts off quite slow, with your capacity to hold gems (as well as dig them out in the first place) increasing over time as you purchase upgrades. It doesn’t really hold your hand, dropping you right in without much explanation for what to do or where to go, but luckily this isn’t too difficult to figure out after a bit of wandering. There are nine different endings to find, all requiring different things to trigger, including a few cool references. Thankfully, after you trigger an ending the game continues on and you can keep on gathering more and more gems, without the worry of being reset to zero each time.
Visually, Cave Digger has a simple western style, taking place in a small mining town with various buildings that can be upgraded as you earn money from your digs. Sadly, it’s quite flat looking, so I hope to see a future game that improves upon this. Upgrading your equipment as well as the buildings of the town are your two main priorities, as doing so will enable you to do better and better each time you go down the mineshaft. New equipment will become available to you to buy at a table next to the mineshaft, ranging from things such as dynamite to quickly blast the walls of the mine to get into all of the gems easily; to a power glove of sorts, to punch the rocks to free the gems and vacuum up a lot of gems to dump into your minecart (as one at a time is just too time-consuming), as well as further upgrades for your equipment. Building upgrades can be purchased via the General Store, and improve the appearance of buildings and give you things such as a display case for your relics. The relics you find are often little pop culture Easter eggs, such as Indiana Jones’ whip and the mosquito in amber from Jurassic Park.
As you play, you can hear radio stations in the background with mentions of strange happenings. This is really interesting and definitely piqued our interest into finding out more about their discussions. Music plays from the radios, too, fitting the Western style, and changing slightly in different areas of the game. This can be switched on and off via the sound system on the train if you’d prefer the silence. The train upgrades allow for you to add and improve the sound system, increase the top speed of the train as well as add on a train horn for good measure, and more.
Controls are a bit finicky, and are unable to be adjusted for preference, which is a little frustrating. The A button, which is to run, is the most awkward choice as it prevents you from fully using the right stick whilst running, stopping you from looking around whilst in motion. Within the game you can press Y to see controls listed atop the left hand side of the screen, as a handy guide of sorts. Unfortunately this states that A is to use the Ghost Hand, whereas that is actually the B button, so bear that in mind if you’re playing this.
With a variety of collectible items as well as nine different endings to trigger, there’s a fair bit here to keep you interested. There’s a few issues with the achievements on Xbox, with some being flipped around, and others being a tad confusing. It takes a while to grind out enough money for all of the purchasable items and upgrades, and whilst it can sometimes feel a tad repetitive, it also has this serene, soothing quality to it, that makes it really enjoyable to keep revisiting. At £12.49 on the Xbox Store, it’s a decent price if you’re looking for a relaxing game to pass the time with.
In the end, we decided to give Cave Digger the Collecting Asylum rating of 7.5/10.
Have you played Cave Digger yet? What did you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to MeKiwi for the Cave Digger Xbox review code!
