The best offense is a good defence if Dig or Die’s core gameplay loop is anything to go by.
More than a few years back, before Battle Royale’s became the hot new thing, sandbox games were having quite a big moment. It was then that Epic Games announced Fortnite, a game all about scavenging with friends during the day, building up a nice strong base and then defending that base from zombies at nightfall. That version of Fortnite is, of course, not the version that ended up released; but it was the exact thing that people wanted at the time. Explore, Build, Defend. That’s where Dig or Die comes in.
Dig or Die is much closer to that original Fortnite dream. You go out and explore the world, pushing forward to find more resources (as with most crafting or sandbox games) however those resources have to directly transfer into your base defences because enemies come thick and fast when they do. ‘Defences’ in most games of this type — by which I mean Terraria and Minecraft, if I’m honest — are player-wielded and travel with you. Here you need to set up defences on and around your base, it’s literally the only way to survive.
Now, most people’s minds will immediately start spinning up some concept based around stacking weapons upon weapons, chokepoints (as best you can in a 2D game) and more — all in the spirit of breaking or bending it in ways that would just slurp away all the challenge. There’s physics here though. If you build up a ceiling and you don’t have adequate support then the whole thing will collapse. You also need to power things, with a great hydroelectric system running off a solid liquid-physics system. This opens up some fun options, and encourages you to think differently, something that’s always good in games with a sandbox spirit.
The final standout mechanic is that enemies will only join the night-time horde once one of their kind has been killed in the day. If you’re a clumsy shot then you’ll get yourself in a lot of trouble, but if you’re a careful, evasive sort then you can manage to keep things light for a while.
It’s been almost a decade since Dig or Die first appeared on PC, with its full release back in 2018. This review is specifically because it has just launched for console, and with that comes some complications. For a start, keyboard and mouse is much, much better at delicate things like building a waterproof base, not placing a turret in the wrong place and not shooting a new enemy. It suffers for pivoting to analogue sticks, but hopefully a patch will sort out the sensitivity.
Dig or Die isn’t the deepest, most robust or prettiest of the sandbox exploration games, however the physics systems and focus on defence makes this well worth playing.
Dig or Die is available now for PC, Xbox One and PS4/5.
