I recently had the opportunity to discover Dig or Die. In early access since March 2015, it's only recently that this action / strategy sandbox has welcomed multiplayer.
In order to familiarize myself with the game, I started my discovery with the single player mode. There are five different difficulties, providing a suitable environment for all types of players. Not very confident in my abilities, I chose the ease of the "not so easy" mode, resisting the urge to opt for the peaceful mode because it does not seem very fun to miss all the fun!
I continue with the creation of my character by choosing the sex, the hairstyle, the color of the skin, the hair and the eyes.
The story is embryonic, limited to a simple sign that appears just before the actual launch of the game. You will notice in passing, if you have not already done so, that the game is fully translated into spanish.
And now, I am lost in the middle of nowhere ... and it sucks! I don't have much to get through and successfully rebuild the rocket that will allow me to escape: a gun, an item maker, and a resource recovery tool. I wander without really knowing what to do around the rocket I crashed into the planet with. By left clicking, I retrieve what I am targeting: plants, earth, wood, stone ... Everything ends up miniaturized in my inventory.
Responding to the call of that red flashing question mark, I open the tutorial full of helpful tips to better understand how the game works and avoid the dead beasts.
Tutorial
Concretely, I have to improve my auto-builder, each stage requiring more and more complicated resources to recover. To get these resources, I need to improve my tools, but also increase my effectiveness in terms of defense (armor) and attack (weapons) because this world is dangerous and full of aggressive bugs. As if this were not enough, the pests get angry at night and attack in packs, requiring the creation of defenses to counter their attacks, therefore dedicating part of the resources to this effect.
There are resources all over the planet's surface, but this is only a tiny fraction of what this area has to offer as the entire gigantic open world can be dug out and there is much more to discover. in the meanders of the basement.
The more I advance in the game, the more efficient my character is and able to explore dangerous areas protected by more powerful critters. And so I improve my auto-builder, and I access new objects that are always more useful for my survival, to explore even further.
The game is based on realistic physical rules, mainly at the level of the flow of water, undoubtedly the number one enemy of this planet where there is moreover not only water which flows and kill (lava burns, never forget that!). There are regular torrential downpours flooding everything and forcing constant digging to successfully evacuate the streams, or even lakes, that are created. The management of forces, the resistance of the materials and the weight of each element are also used for constructions. Stacking too many large stone squares is not a good idea!
And the multi?
After my solo experience, Clamoune and I relaunched the duo adventure. There are no servers, one of the players has to host the game and the world disappears when the host leaves the game. The parameters at creation allow you to choose the difficulty, the name, the access (public / limited to friends) and a possible password. Once all of this is done, players who meet the criteria will be able to join the game. The rest is then similar to the solo version: improve the auto-builder by collecting increasingly hard to find resources and survive against the hordes of villains, keeping in mind the objective of creating the rocket for himself. escape.
Note that death is not the end of the game: the character reappears with the destroyed rocket. Including in multiplayer.
Conclusion
As you can see from the screenshots, the game is visually cool, although I regret the look a bit too cubic. The music is clearly not the strong point of the title, for my part I chose to play without, which does not take much away from the atmosphere. The character is easily steered on the keyboard, he jumps very high and even higher using the recoil of the weapon. Suddenly, there is no precipice deep enough to stop me. It is still possible to make stairs in the earth anyway and I keep small wooden surfaces in stock to put stairs if necessary, which is faster than digging (platform that can be recovered).
The game mode is based on a circle which, in the long term, can turn out to be a bit repetitive (improve the auto-builder, improve weapons and tools, recover resources that are more difficult to obtain, improve the auto-builder. ..) even if the experience accumulated over the course of the parties hides this aspect for the moment because I am still in a phase where I wonder how I could improve my efficiency or how I could create the perfect refuge to better survive at nights. In addition, with each new step that I manage to take by improving my auto-builder, I discover new parameters to take into account (such as the generation of electricity with solar panels or even this water which finally finds a use).
And the multiplayer brings an even bigger renewal, to wonder how this mode was not added earlier. After playing in a duo, I no longer want to play alone in my little universe.
Suddenly, I only have one question left to ask you: are you ready to join Craft & Co in your turn?
The game is currently on sale for € 9,99, its third price increase for the game which started early access at just € 2,99. Eventually, it will sell for € 11,99 ($ 12) so don't hesitate to invest now if the concept tempts you before it increases. You only pay for what you have! They do not plan to do any promotions on the title to thank the players of the early hours, or for that matter DLC.
