I ignored Miner: Dig Deep for a long time. This is largely because the few times I’d heard about it, it was branded a casual game. I’m not generally a fan of casual games; they’re usually puzzle games or simplified versions of better games or, god forbid, Facebook applications.

But while the casual moniker certainly applies here — you’re just digging, after all — there’s enough progression and reward for someone like me.

Gameplay

As the title suggests, Miner: Dig Deep is about digging. But it’s also about gathering the resources to buy nice things.

At the start of the game, you’re given a little money and some basic equipment. Just a small bag, a cheap lantern and a dull pickaxe. Beneath the shop is a mine with a few tunnels already dug, presumably by you.

Your job is to expand upon this early framework. The lantern illuminates the surrounding dirt, revealing the treasure stashed all over the map, but it runs on kerosene. As the fuel runs out, the light dims. With your pick you clear the dirt one square at a time. Clear a square that contains some resources, such as the copper or tin that dot the shallowest areas of the mine, and you stash the metal in his bag. When the bag is full, or your light runs out, it’s time to head back to the surface.

The shop buys your valuables and sells you new equipment. In addition to kerosene and better picks, lanterns and bags, it sells latters, elevators and any new equipment you discover. To unlock new equipment, you have to find the schematics hidden underground. Why they’re hidden underground is never clearly explained, but you need the new equipment to dig past certain obstacles.

There isn’t much that threatens you in the mines. There are no brain-sucking insects or psychopathic mole people out to get you. Of course, it’s still possible to screw up. Dig the dirt out from underneath a rock and the rock will fall. If you’re under the rock when it lands, you’re returned to the surface without any of the resources you’ve acquired. The same thing happens if you fall from too high a height or if you get yourself stuck in a hole and you can’t get out.

I’ve read that you can also trigger a cave-in by digging out too much dirt in one area, but I failed to do so. That’s largely because I’m a cautious, random miner. I dig in one direction until I’m bored, then backtrack to an elevator.

Because there are few threats, you’re not really working against anything. You’re free be in as little or as much of a rush as you like. I took the title literally and dug deeper whenever I could. After all, the deeper you dig, the more the resources you find are worth. So I left huge parts of the mine untouched. My girlfriend picked up the game after me, and she did the exact opposite, clearing as many resources from each level as she could before digging down.

Story

This game is the story of a miner and his quest to find the biggest gem in the world. And that’s about it.

Style

The utilitarian graphics don’t stand out, but they don’t detract from the game either; most of what you’ll see is a field of brown dirt anyway. But they had grown on me by the end of the game. And there are a few things that Miner: Dig Deep does well. For one, the lantern’s light is perfectly implemented. The light dims so slowly that it’s almost unnoticeable; there’s no moment when you think that it’s too dim. And there’s a short point right when the kerosene is about to run out that light illuminates enough to see resources but not enough to see if there is a rock above. It’s the only point where mining becomes truly risky.

The same can be said of the sound. You’ll hear the same clink of a pick diving into dirt thousands and thousands of times during the game, and it should get annoying. For many, I’m sure it does, but it never bothered me. And the people who live with me didn’t complain once. But the sound the miner makes when he finds a resource is one of joy, and I loved hearing that sound every time.

Everything Else

It’s hard to pin down the appeal of this kind of casual game. The casual genre. One, obviously, is that it drew both me and my girlfriend into the experience, turning us both into digging zombies. Another is the peaceful state I found myself in whenever playing, reinforced by the simple, unencumbered graphics and the repetitive sounds of the pick punctuated occasionally by a cry of joy whenever a resource is found. It sucked away hours of my time and I didn’t even notice.

[DIYgamer.com was not provided with a copy of Miner: Dig Deep for reviewing purposes. This, in no way, affected the outcome of the review. The game is available for 80 points in the Indie Games section of Xbox Live's marketplace.]