Even after six years, SteamWorld Dig 2 remains one of the best Metroidvania games you can play today, and you can grab it for just $4 for the next week.
I first spotted this deal in the little Steam sale that publisher Thunderful is putting on, but happily, this discount is also available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox (for the next six to eight days depending on your platform of choice). It's actually only $3 with PlayStation Plus, and a still-cheap $5 on Switch.
SteamWorld Dig 2 isn't the only game on sale, by the way. With some variance between platforms, the delightful SteamWorld Heist XCOM-like, SteamWorld Quest card game, and original SteamWorld Dig are also available for cheap. But SteamWorld Dig 2 remains my favorite game of the series, and every Metroidvania fan ought to play it.
SteamWorld Dig 2 is a vibrant steampunk side-scroller about a robot looking for another robot in the bowels of the earth, and it's still as gorgeous as it was in 2017 thanks to its likable, chunky art style. In a nutshell, you dig your way through the ground in search of resources and discoveries then bring them back to base for upgrades for your next excursion, and the ingenious part is how your tunnels down double as your platforms up.
Between scripted platforming bits tied to upgrades that will tickle the Metroidvania receptor in your brain, you basically become a level designer as you carve your way through the dirt, snagging as much treasure as you can while keeping your tunnels safe and navigable. The way you dig changes as you unlock new tools and even weapons, and the resulting sense of agency over your pathing, juxtaposed with the cascading 'Aha!' moments inherent in Metroidvanias, is electrifyingly fun.
I haven't even gotten to the best part. I just checked my Steam stats to confirm this, and sure enough, SteamWorld Dig 2 is about 10 to 12 hours long. That's fairly big Microvania standards, but still pretty modest by the 20 - 40-hour standards of many Metroidvanias. Frankly, this is one of my favorite things about it. It's exactly as long as it needs to be, with just enough overlap in the world design to fuel satisfying exploration but still so little fat that it never feels repetitive or drawn-out. It somehow ticks all the Metroidvania boxes in so little time, and with such imagination to boot.
The next game in this loosely defined series is SteamWorld Build, a promising city builder that made a great first impression when we tried it earlier this year.
