LucasArts' The Dig is a masterpiece. It has all the qualities that I value most highly in a graphical adventure game--a fascinating world to explore, well-developed characters, skillful pacing, realistic dialogue, intense drama, a subtle yet effective interface, and a gripping storyline. The Dig demonstrates the dramatic narrative possibilities of interactive fiction.
The Dig
My friend and colleague Mat Tschirgi has been telling me for months that I needed to play LucasArts' "serious" GAG. "It's really something different," he told me, "but very well done. I think you'll like it." He was correct on all counts. The Dig is a special project with ties to Steven Spielberg and Orson Scott Card (author of Ender's Game--if you haven't read it, do so immediately). Spielberg is credited for the basic idea of the game, and the game's rich dialogue is credited to Card. While I'm a bit hazy on the details of this collaboration, I can easily see their influence on the game--particularly in the pacing and transitions. The embedded narrative is woven very skillfully into the game, with the puzzles actually working to increase the player's knowledge and interest in the story rather than distract her from it.
Probably the single hardest thing to get right in a GAG is the pacing. Most GAGs have short bursts of narrative intensity followed by long, disconnected segments where the player must solve puzzles or discover the game's affordances and constraints. These bursts often take the form of cut-scenes or embedded "story elements" like diaries or letters. Some games depend strongly on their embedded narratives to keep players interested, whereas others depend on witty dialogue (either between characters or from the narrator directly to the player). Many GAG players rightly complain when a game clumsily grafts on narrative at the expense of their ability to make non-trivial decisions. Others like to be led a bit more by an "author," and want their avatar's actions to be part of an unfolding and more overt narrative. Perhaps on one extreme we could place The Sentinel: Descendents in Time or Rhem, both of which have almost neglible storylines that seem to only arbitrarily relate to the game itself (i.e., you could change them up considerably and they would still "work"). On the other extreme we might put games like The Longest Journey or Beneath a Steel Sky, whose narrative components could only be removed and replaced with great difficulty. In the middle we might put games like Myst or Schizm, which have great emdedded narratives that may nevertheless elude casual players--who might just ignore them. LucasArts' games typically downplay narrative (the storylines of most of their games are simplistic or B-movie fodder) and concentrate instead on character interaction and witticisms from the narrator (and avatar). LucasArts' games seldom take themselves seriously, preferring to poke fun at themselves and the genre rather than risk alienating the typical ADHD player by asking for more investment in the narrative.
The Dig is a bold departure from the usual LucasArts' strategy. One thing that is instantly noticeable is the total lack of self-referential humor. Most LucasArts games are intensely self-reflexive. Players are constantly reminded that they are playing a game and shouldn't take their activity too seriously. The Dig abandons this proven technique and bets on the intensity of its narrative and the dynamics among the characters to hook and maintain the player's attention. Fortunately, and perhaps even amazingly, they succeed. Rare indeed is the videogame that has given me some insight into "what it means to be human." Like most people, I get such insights by watching great films and reading great works of literature. What's so impressive about The Dig is that it is able to be so affective without sacrificing gameplay.
The Dig unfolds its embedded narrative by a crafty combination of cut-scenes and dialogue. Many readers might cringe at the word "cut scene," but as I've argued elsewhere, they can be highly effective if done right. Games that use cut-scenes are usually so bad because (a) they are poorly conceived, (b) they are poorly executed, (c) they are too long, or (d) they are too frequent. The worst transgessors violate all four. The Dig demonstrates how great cut-scenes can be when they are done with grace.
One of The Dig's Cut-Scenes--note the intensity of the emotion portrayed here.
The cut-scenes in The Dig look a bit like Don Bluth's cell-animation (Titan A.E. in particular). I've always appreciated it when game developers implement techniques from traditional animation. The marriage is usually a fruitful one for several reasons, but most particularly because so many of the conventions we have developed for watching and understanding cartoons and comics work very well for videogames. Live-action seldom works well, and CGE is still distracting enough to call too much attention to itself (Myst V: End of Ages is a good example of this). The cut-scenes in The Dig look great, but the best part is the emotional intensity the characters are able to generate by their facial expressions and movement. While the quality of the cut-scenes is obviously superior to that experienced during gameplay, the switching is not as jarring as you might think. The trick is that the perspective during gameplay-mode is distant enough to help players deal with the low resolution, whereas the cut-scenes are reserved for close-ups. It's almost reminiscent of the depth-of-field effect.
The dialogue is handled in a somewhat unusual manner. Whenever the avatar engages a character in conversation, a menu pops up with a question mark, an exclamation point, and icons representing objects or locations of pertinence (these change depending on what the player has discovered). While I normally avoid dialogue-heavy GAGs for fear of being bored to the point of chewing my mouse cable, I savored the dialogue here. It probably helped that Card wrote it--it is believable, emotive, and germane to the action. The three main characters are distinct and have a dynamic relationship to the avatar. At times they can be incredibly frustrating and insulting, but they are never boring or flat. They seem like real people, and that's about as good as anyone playing a GAG has a right to expect. I cared about these characters and thought about the drama during the game and long afterwards.
Perhaps one caveat I might express here is the rather arbitrary question mark and exclamation point. Supposedly, one of these is to ask a question (you don't get to select what question) and the other is to "say something profound." This latter option is just plain silly. Boston (the avatar) rarely says anything "profound," his whole point is to be a "regular guy." It's also a bit off-putting not to know what question Boston is going to ask--perhaps it's one he has already asked. Unfortunately, neither the characters nor the avatar seem to have a good memory when it comes to what's already been said, and repetition gets irksome after awhile (since you will likely want to try all the options). Boston tends to say the same few phrases when examining or interacting with objects. They become grating after awhile, and I had to wonder how hard it would have been for the developers to eliminate this problem. I'm nitpicking here, but these things tend to stand out when everything around them is done so well.
Another thing I like about The Dig is the ease with which your avatar can get around. Instead of having to watch Boston amble across each screen (a problem in many GAGs), a double-click on an exit instantly zaps to the next screen. I think this is a good example of the movie-like pacing. Why force the player to watch mundane activities like plodding across the same screen time after time? While there is some backtracking required (particularly towards the end, which feels a bit drawn-out at times), the world is nicely organized like Cyan's Myst into islands and a nexus. These are connected by a pinball-like subway system (and later an air-bridge network) that speeds up travel time considerably and thereby encourages exploring and investigating more possibilities.
Of course, no one can review a GAG properly without evaluating its puzzles. Puzzle design is a critical aspect of GAG development, yet so few manage to do it well. Usually, the culprit is unclear or ambiguous constraints and affordances. When players have no idea what actions their avatars can and should do, the only option is tedious trial-and-error. Thankfully, The Dig does not suffer from this problem. The puzzles are not especially difficult, and most can be solved with a few moments thought. Better yet, they all make sense given the constraints of the story and gameworld. Only a few solutions seemed arbitrary. I had to consult UHS on two occasions, but never had to go past the first level of hints (I just needed a nudge in the right direction). I seem to have a recurring problem with puzzles that require that a mouse button be depressed and held down. I tend to click once, and if that doesn't do anything, I assume there is some other problem. There is one of these "mouse must be held down" problems here that stumped me.
Another spot requires some manuevering. The problem is how to catch a rat-like creature in a trap. The trap is easy enough to setup, but there is nothing with which to bait. The avatar tells the player that he "must be a sheepdog," but this clue went right over my head. I kept looking for something to bait the trap with. Eventually, I gave up and went for hints. The solution was simply to move the avatar so that he herds the creature into the trap. I know we're supposed to "think outside the box" occasionally, but nowhere else in the game is manuevering important. (I am reminded of the absolutely horrid moment in Myst IV when you are required to pet a snake using some arbitrary mouse movements.)
Still, these are small problems and shouldn't consume our attention. The important thing is that The Dig manages to successfully integrate a mature, sophisticated science fiction story into a balanced and well-paced interactive context. Indeed, it is the best GAG I have played yet in this regard and a great example for others to follow.
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