1 
0 The day has come, it’s finally here! DIG VR releases today! Developed by Just Add Water and published by Wired Productions this simulation-come-sandbox game aims to accurately recreate sitting in a digger. Don’t worry, this review isn’t a copy and paste, it’s straight from the hands of the person who’s been looking forward to this since it got announced.
When you are at the bottom, Keep DIGging!
A bonus of VR is being able to play wire-free, which also gives you the ability to find your most comfy chair. So, sit back and enjoy playing this joyous game. Can you tell I enjoyed it yet?
Gameplay
When you first fire up the game and take your first virtual steps, you are greeted with a comprehensive tutorial. This takes you through the controls, how to move the digger, and how to manipulate the bucket and the boom arm. I found the controls straightforward and easy to get to grips with. Although having driven a digger in the real world maybe that’s my real world experience speaking!
In DIG VR you can either use the Quest controller grip buttons to grip (funny that) or the Quest controllers thumbsticks to control the action. It’s a nice addition to be able to switch between the driving and bucket controls with the press of both thumbsticks. Personally, I enjoyed manually controlling the sticks, a tilt of the wrist and opening the bucket to dump all that lovely dirt. Yum.
So what can you do in DIG VR? Well actually quite a fair amount to be honest. The main mode is the career, seeing you head to the town of Diglington and grow your business from nothing to multiple diggers. Seeing the game unfold is great fun. Let’s dive into this mode a bit more.
Job Hunting
When you head into the map area you are greeted with the available jobs. A standard complete and carry-on method, meaning you have to complete those available before more unlock. Fear not though as the jobs are neither long nor taxing. Just a methodical mind is needed. The first missions you get involves cutting down trees, installing some new pipework and digging a pond. Nothing that your little digger can’t handle.
After you’ve made it through a selection of missions you can start to expand your digger collection. Opening new slots for bigger diggers as you go. Each one is a new challenge to control and use.
You can also customise your diggers. To do so, head to the little TV screen by each digger and several options become available. From entirely new skins to decals to emblazon your fancy digging machines with! In total, there are over 70 options to fancify your heavy machinery.
Anything Else?
So not only is there the career mode in DIG VR, but you have a couple of other modes to try out. With a sandbox mode allowing you to just have fun and let loose. As well as some fun mini-games to take on your friends with. Fancy playing skittles? Well, head to the posters at the back of your warehouse and you can.
Not to mention the Lost Treasure mode, allowing you to find some treasures using the bucket as a detector. This mode has new items added regularly and was really fun. I loved being a digger pirate.
Graphics & Audio
Graphically DIG VR is pretty good. It’s not going to be hugely detailed as it’s on the Quest 3, however, you get a lovely looking bright palette of colours. The diggers are accurately rendered, and I’m sure that JCB would love a bright pink digger in their fleet!
The environments are all rendered nicely, and the dirt physics are a lot of fun.
From an audio point, the game has great sound effects, but the best thing about DIG VR, at least when talking about audio, is DIG FM. A dedicated radio station that you can turn on or off at your pleasure. Although I’d thoroughly recommend leaving it on. To find out more about the radio station and all the available musical genres, just head over to our news piece here.
Longevity
As with all sandbox games, the amount of time you could spend playing and enjoying DIG VR is limitless. With all the casual game modes available alongside the career mode, it is only going to expand your enjoyment. Then when you’re close to feeling like you’ve done it all, add a friend and you are really in for a treat!
Final Thoughts
DIG VR is a great game, and the first ever digger game developed exclusively for the Meta Quest. With a tonne of fun to be had, you can be assured that Just Add Water and Wired Productions have recreated something here. Something that will keep you coming back for more and more. I just hope that there’s a possibility for post-launch content. And if there is ever another press event, I want to go this time!
I am very pleased to award DIG VR the Thumb Culture Gold Award.
Disclaimer: A code was received to write this review.
YouTube | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Discord | Podcast
About Author
