Digseum is an incredibly well-done short idle game that lets you feel the progression ramp up quickly and effectively. We highly recommend this title to fans of the genre.
Digseum quickly makes a name for itself as one of the instant greats in a world saturated by idle clicker games. The gameplay is straightforward but has enough content for me to stay interested in the main mechanics for about 85% of my gameplay.
Unlike some of this game's predecessors, you don't JUST click and earn idle income. You visit dig sites and perform what essentially boils down to a scratch-off lottery ticket system, looking for artifacts to put in your idle museum. The upgrades you buy from the income either increase your income or your digging effectiveness, which is necessary to progress in any meaningful way.
What's nice is the near-constant progression as long as you're successfully uncovering things while digging. Each artifact has its own level, and the more you find that artifact, the more you'll earn passively from owning it. In addition, each artifact you uncover at a dig site goes towards a speeding leveling process for the dig site itself, which increases what you'll earn passively from ANY artifact from that dig site.
This mechanic was satisfying and well done and initially got me instantly hooked, but it eventually fell by the wayside. However, that does not score any negative points for the game, as mechanics becoming unnecessary is a natural gameplay element of idle clickers.
As of writing this review, I have 2.7 hours of gameplay, and probably only about a quarter of that was spent idle, as the prestige mechanics are quick enough to be nearly constantly prestiging after the first couple. The prestige system is very standard to most idle games. Still, instead of just earning "prestige points" relative to your score, you uncover a unique artifact that will only be used to upgrade things after prestiging.
After my gameplay thus far, I have achieved 8 of 10 achievements. The other two are hidden, so I'll be returning to look for easter eggs to fill those out. The achievements thus far haven't been challenging and have naturally been obtained from the regular game progression.
The developers used the phrase "Digseum is a short incremental journey…" in their description. I could not word it better. It's short, and it's incremental. The only thing that occasionally annoyed me was the character that would speak to you at new locations, as it was unskippable. I could have prestiged in the time it took them to finish their dialogue, which sometimes led to frustration.
Digseum is available on Steam for a very fair price of $2.99 USD, and it contains zero in-app purchases.
I will be returning now to finish the last two achievements and leave a glowing Steam review, and I recommend you do the same!
If you enjoy the content Hyperfocused puts out, check out our Discord Server for further discussion and announcements.
