T The Dig is one of those entertainment projects whose long and tumultuous history makes for more compelling material than the final product itself. This is not a knock on the end result, which is a noteworthy game in its own right, but this title is probably best known for redefining "development hell" than anything else. Begun as early as 1989, the game was shelved and restarted across no less than three iterations before finally being released in 1995 (the lengthiest adventure production in the studio's history), marking the end of what many might call LEC's "Golden Era." While the weakest link in LucasArts' adventure line-up, The Dig is a solid, memorable and financially successful story game with many strengths, and whose troubled development makes for a fascinating read to boot.

The initial spark for the game's premise was conceived by none other than Steven Spielberg, who initially thought to use it as a plot for his Amazing Stories television series. In a nutshell, Spielberg's idea was Treasure of the Sierra Madre meets Forbidden Planet - a story involving a team of astronauts who wind up on a forsaken alien planet and who struggle against growing mutual distrust in order survive and hopefully escape. For logistical reasons, the story never made it to the small screen (nor the big screen, an isolated possibility that had been rumored at one point), but Spielberg decided to bring the idea to his buddy George's video game studio. (Spielberg has always been a notable fan of video games, and old-timers of LucasArts have recalled that he would drop by the studio with curiosity to see what developers were working on more often than Lucas himself did.)

A team was assigned to build a graphic adventure game out of Spielberg's basic idea in 1989, a team led by Last Crusade key man Noah Falstein and including designer Dave Grossman, who spent some time on the project between his duties on the first two Monkey Island games. Artist Bill Eaken also volunteered concept work and helped flesh out the game world and visual style. After lots of conceptualization (among the proposed gameplay ideas was the inclusion of RPG-like survival elements such as the constant need for food and water), this incarnation of the game was shelved. Later, the project was restarted from scratch with a new team (this one led by Loom's Brian Moriarty and including relative newcomer Bill Tiller as an artist), and it would not be for the first time. (The ending credits of the final game even include a list of the "Ghosts of Dig's Past" to acknowledge developers who'd worked on the game over the years.) Such a cursed production probably would have killed any game not under the personal protection of George Lucas, who insisted that it be completed, which it ultimately was under the direction of Sean Clark, co-project leader of Sam & Max Hit the Road. The game's problematic development is documented through countless interviews, pieces of discarded art, and otherwise the dedicated detective work of die-hard fans (the fruits of which are routed to later in this article), complete with intriguing details and glimpses regarding what might have been; the only thing we can actually judge, however, is the game in its final form.

The storyline begins on present day Earth at a space observatory in Borneo, where it is discovered that an asteroid named Attila is on a devastating collision course with our planet. NASA immediately puts together a small team in an attempt to shift the path of the trajectory out of Earth's way through the calculated placement of two small nuclear explosives. This mission is successful, but after the charges are laid and detonated, the average joe-like Commander Boston Low reveals to the other two members of his landing team – independent journalist/linguistics expert Maggie Robbins and extensively trained German archeologist Ludger Brink - that a second purpose of the mission is to investigate the asteroid for evidence of alien origin. In exploring the asteroid's hollow interior, the enigmatic space debris turns out to be a starship that the team inadvertently activates, and the three astronauts wind up in another solar system on the desolate terrain of an apparently abandoned planet with Earth-like qualities (such as atmosphere, gravity, and breathable air) but which is otherwise less than inviting due to its state of decay and plethora of dangers.

In looking for a means to return home or at the very least prepare for long term survival, Brink is killed in a digging accident, leaving Low and Maggie to explore the remnants of what was evidently a civilization in such forms as a holographic library, mysterious ghost-like guides, and advanced, fully functional machinery (such as spherical trams that the characters initially use to get around the planet). In his own exploration the survivalist Low stumbles upon a stash of green "life" crystals which successfully resurrect Brink, who finds himself stronger than ever upon revival but with an irrational obsession with collecting life crystals in bulk.

After the rather effective opening cutscene which depicts the circumstances that lead the protagonists to space over credits, the player is given control of Commander Low, hovering with the two other members of his landing team over the space shuttle, preparing to begin their work on the surface of Attila. Once the game hits the alien planet after this brief, linear prologue, the story begins in earnest, giving way to a lengthy, challenging, and relatively nonlinear adventure game that will be particularly pleasing to those who like their puzzles high on difficulty and low on sanity.

The game runs on a version of the SCUMM engine, which seems like a no-brainer (all LEC adventure since Maniac Mansion were) but was actually a last-minute decision. Prior to Sean Clark taking control of the reigns, the game was running on a brand new story system dubbed StoryDroid to account for some of the game's technical innovations, though from the look of screenshots from this incarnation the changes must have been far more obvious on the programmer's side than on the end user's. Whatever hurdles were experienced in getting there, the gameplay of the final The Dig is extremely familiar, and in a good way. Its interface, like Full Throttle's, is heavily streamlined and features no onscreen verbs, providing the game world with the whole screen. The inventory is reminiscent of Hit the Road, accessed by a right-click.

What The Dig adopts for the first time is a "one click does all" mechanic that bears many similarities to what one encounters in a Telltale game. When the player hovers over an interactive hotspot, a sentence line will name the object, and when clicking on it the natural action (such as it picking it up if it's a loose object or talking to it if it's a character) will automatically be taken by Boston. Like Full Throttle but in a somewhat different way, the game makes accessibility and a streamlined experience a priority but eliminating senseless repetition. (It's unfortunate that these efforts to be welcoming do not extend to the puzzles, which aren't decently designed but generally tend to be aimed toward tedium, excessive backtracking, and frustration.)

Another new element of note is the "PenUltimate" found in Boston's inventory. In addition to being the source of a minigame, this PDA-like device allows Boston to communicate with the other members of his team, and will often be used automatically in the game to drive the story forward. It is through this device that most dialog trees are instigated, though they are in a Hit the Road- like icon form (without the vagueness, at least not intentionally) rather than text. Although Boston is the only playable character, interaction between the crew is important throughout the game, as Boston often finds himself in need of vital information that only his fellow team members have. (Their clashing personalities often get in the way of a smooth relationship, which is where the Sierra Madre influence comes in). Like all other LEC adventures, there's also a level of depth to The Dig that's hard not to appreciate. A few "Easter egg" type gags are hidden within some conversation trees, and the game even dusts off an old tradition by including a slightly alternate ending based on a decision you have Low make near the climax.

The biggest strengths of the game, however, are unrelated to gameplay, solid though it is. The tone of the production is a departure from any LEC adventure before it (with Loom and to a lesser extent Full Throttle coming closest) in that the game takes itself completely seriously. There is humor to be found, to be sure, but the game is a drama, not a jokefest.

A reputation that this game has unfairly acquired is that of a black sheep because it is not comic; I disagree. Although it certainly has different aspirations than the likes of Monkey Island or Sam & Max, I argue that it is not the game's relative humorlessness that makes it stand out as perhaps of a lesser caliber than the company's other output, but simply that the quality of the writing isn't as high. Any direction taken can be successful, but The Dig's storytelling isn't as consistently strong as it might have been, the characters occasionally fall too far into stock personalities, and the sometimes cheesy dialog struggles to carry the game's weighty tone. (The exchange that occurs after Brink's "death," for example, doesn't have the resonance that it feels like it really should.) These faults aside, The Dig still stands as above average compared to contemporary competition outside of its own studio, and it takes the direction of the company's adventure genre into a new and entirely welcome territory.

From a technical standpoint, The Dig looks a bit inferior to Full Throttle, which was released earlier in the same year. This disparity, which is mostly with regard to the characters and cutscene work, is not surprising considering how long the game was in development. The character sprites are a bit lacking in detail, and the numerous FMV cutscenes, while well-animated, are done in a cartoony style that feels jarring by comparison to the in-game look, which while not super-realistic, feels like it belongs to a different game.

Still, these trifling issues do little to hurt the game's presentation, which, like all other LEC adventures, relies on quality artwork more than anything else. The near two hundred backgrounds of this epic-sized game were and remain stunning achievements and are peppered with nice enhancement effects, from subtle water ripples to the extensive use of 3D models, the latter used to render some of the strange creatures that roam the planet, that bring them to added life. The quality of the visuals is also indebted to the game's animation, which is of the high caliber the company was known for. Armed with a distinct and gorgeous game world, The Dig's visual style and art work may very well be its greatest asset.

As mentioned, the game is also gifted with a remarkably strong soundtrack, which as always was subtly supported by iMUSE. Composed by Michael Land, the Wagnerian music of the game has a simultaneously majestic and somber vibe to it that effectively conveys the sense of a world that's now an empty shell of what it once was. The voice acting, as one would expect, is also generally above average. I think compared to Full Throttle the voicework feels somehow weaker, though I find it hard to figure out if the sometimes iffy nature of line delivery is the fault of the actor, the dialog itself, or both. Perhaps technology itself can be pinpointed to some degree - it is no doubt more difficult, especially with the still severe limitations on delivery timing, for drama to be pulled off with great success. With humor, flaws and technical constraints can be made light of, but with serious tone, all is laid bare. As with the writing, I would probably say that while it is perhaps, within the context of when it was released, the weaker entry of LEC's later adventure games (which were utter home runs in this regard), the voice acting is acceptable for the company that it was produced by, and superb for any other. Notably, the talented and well-suited cast is led by film actor Robert Patrick, who voices army-trained Boston Low, and who doesn't look all that dissimilar to his computer character counterpart.

It's interesting to note that The Dig is, according to LucasArts, the most successful adventure game it ever put out, said to have pushed 300,000 units worldwide. Even with those kinds of numbers, it's hard to imagine that the game's no doubt astronomical budget was a whole lot more than recouped, and one wonders how much of a factor Spielberg's name on the box was in propelling copies off store shelves, but it's nonetheless an impressive figure, especially in the face of mixed reviews and a decidedly split reaction among gamers. Between it and the smash hit Full Throttle, 1995 was a banner year for LucasArts adventure games. Unfortunately, even such successes would turn out to be insufficient for the long-term relevancy of genre (which was retaining the same market size while production budgets and competing genres were growing fast), and The Dig marks the end of LEC's golden era of adventure games in terms of output quantity and financial success, if not quality. Indeed, two of the three remaining graphic adventures the company had left in it are arguably the best it ever put out, a stark contrast with the less than awesome internal state the company would find itself in during that era.

The Dig is not a bad game; it is merely the most obvious weak spot in a line-up that is mostly occupied by incontrovertible masterpieces. It's a memorable, haunting story title with a deserved following, and is both a worthy addition to any self-respecting graphic adventure aficionado's library, and a necessary addition to anyone who calls themselves an LEC adventure fan. Although its own story might not be as interesting as the story behind how it got made, there's no denying that the journey of NASA's Low, Brink and Robbins is in the same family that the adventures of Guybrush, Manny and Bernard are, and belongs there.