The main theme is so stellar that I find myself humming it even while not playing the game. Image & Form managed to contract El Huervo, who did the soundtrack for Hotline Miami and it really shows. The soundtrack for Steamworld Dig 2 is absolutely excellent.
Instead, you can swap out cogs or even buy more from a hawker at El Machino to create the character that your heart desires.
#STEAMWORLD DIG 2 ALL ARTIFACTS UPGRADE#
The upgrade cog system is also pretty novel because it doesn’t lock you into certain upgrades once you’ve chosen them. There are lots of clever ways the devs have hidden these items for you to find.įinding all 42 artifacts will prove a challenge but you’ll be granted a special blueprint for your various weapons and armor, so the reward is definitely worth the frustration. I finished the game in around 10 hours and despite every effort I made to be a secret sleuth I still finished with only 75% of the secrets found. The various dungeons hidden throughout the mines provide a good excuse to go spelunking and to pay attention to your surroundings, since each dungeon has hidden artifacts and epic gems worth lots of moola for you to find. The hookshot becomes an indispensable tool for getting around, but it can also be used to turn those pesky cultists to avoid their flaming spears. The order in which you get these upgrades naturally changes the way you traverse the levels and provides new and unique ways to deal with enemies. Your character’s progression works much the same as most Metroidvania games, where you find a huge contraption and step inside to be granted a unique power. Sometimes the puzzles are simple enough to figure out, while others are devious and require a good amount of backtracking once you’ve got your complete set of powers. It’s an exploration puzzle-platformer that has obvious influences from games like Metroidvania, but the bite-sized dungeons that are littered around the map feel like playing 2D versions of the shrines from Breath of the Wild. GamePlayĪt its core, Steamworld Dig 2 is a pleasure to play thanks to a myriad of gameplay systems that work very well together. Image & Form addresses all those complaints in Steamworld Dig 2 and the result is a truly polished game that is a joy to play from beginning to end. In fact, my only criticism about the original was the lack of puzzles and cohesion that comes from a game with a story to tell. The mine was randomly generated and went straight down, so it felt more like a roguelike mining game than anything with more substance. The original Steamworld Dig was one of my favorite Nintendo 3DS games, even if it felt a little rough around the edges.