Gameology: Commentary and Resources for the Game Studies Community

I actually have never played The Dig all the way through-- a friend of mine had it ages ago, but ended up returning it because the game was too short.

You're definitely right about the tone of the game being less smart-ass than other LucasArts titles.

I somewhat disagree about the narrative element with LucasArts games, however. LucasArts did concentrate on narrative, but they also made NPCs have enjoyable personalities that one could relate to.

Not that Sierra Online's GAGs had bad writing consistently or anything, but LucasArts was consistently better at making cohesive GAGs with puzzles that tied into character motivation and story. Every GAG is going to have a silly puzzle or two, but that's to be expected with the genre.

Excellent point about the pacing, however. I need to work through more GAGs to catch up with your amount of reviews! ;)