LucasArts puzzles are obscure at the best of times, but here they’re oblique to the point of farce. They are, by far, the worst thing about the game. There are a few moments of action, including a run-in with a giant alien spider, but mostly you’re just wandering around, solving puzzles, and poking through the ruins looking for a way home. The Dig is a slow, understated game that’s more Solaris than Star Wars. Whoever lived on this barren world has long since gone, leaving behind strange ruins. That’s a dramatic name for what is actually quite a peaceful setting. The planet is never named, but a novelisation by Alan Dean Foster calls it Cocytus: the lowest circle of Hell in Dante’s Inferno.

Getting home becomes their next priority, and this is where the game proper begins.

It’s actually an alien spacecraft, and whisks Low and his team to another planet, light years away. The mission goes to plan, but there’s more to the asteroid than meets the eye. The planet is never named, but a novelisation by Alan Dean Foster calls it Cocytus: the lowest circle of Hell in Dante's Inferno. The natural-sounding banter and confident acting are among the game’s strongest points. From the earliest scenes you can sense the tension in their dynamic, and it only gets worse as the game goes on and their situation grows more dire.

While other LucasArts adventures boast large, colourful casts, the majority of The Dig is spent in the company of these three and their conflicting personalities. A pre-mission press conference introduces us to the game’s stars: commander Boston Low, journalist Maggie Robbins, and scientist Ludger Brink.

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