I Played a Game About Digging a Hole. So I Dug a Hole.

One of my favorite things to do since getting Xbox Game Pass is finding a random indie game that looks interesting and just giving it a try.

I’ve done this a few times now. I played SOPA, where you’re literally going on an adventure to find a potato that went missing from your grandma’s pantry. I played Twelve Minutes, where you’re trying to solve a mystery while stuck in the same time loop inside an apartment. And then there are games like PowerWash Simulator, which have proven that sometimes people really do just want a simple game where they can turn their brain off and do one thing for a while.

I am people.

So when I saw a game called A Game About Digging A Hole, there was no question about what I needed to do.

I know I’m not someone who holds myself accountable to finishing things I don’t enjoy. That goes for books, movies, videos, games, whatever. If I’m doing something for fun and I’m no longer having fun, it’s time to change to something that is.

No harm, no foul if I hate it and quit.

So I downloaded the game and started digging.

This is all there is to do… really

When I first opened the game, I wasn’t instantly overwhelmed by how beautiful the graphics were or anything like that. What I noticed was how overwhelmingly simple it was.

The cutscene at the start shows a realtor showing up, putting a house up for sale, and advertising that there is supposedly a $10,000 prize buried underneath the property. Naturally, you buy the property, and the solution is to start digging up your new backyard to find it.

With a shovel in hand and only the yard and garage to explore, you figure out what you’re supposed to do almost immediately.

As you dig, you find different materials underground that you can bring back up and sell. You use the money to upgrade your equipment, which allows you to dig deeper, carry more materials and stay underground longer.

That’s pretty much it.

You dig, come back up, sell what you found, buy an upgrade and go back down.

You upgrade your jetpack, upgrade your shovel, and the only two disposables you get are lights and sticks of dynamite.

The game gets going pretty quickly because it doesn’t take very long before you’re finding materials, making money and upgrading your equipment. You don’t spend an hour waiting for the game to become the game.

And even though you’re technically digging underneath one backyard, it doesn’t feel particularly restrictive. Once you get deeper underground, you realize there’s a lot more space to dig in different directions. There are also little hidden areas you can find with miscellaneous things inside, so there’s at least some reason to look around instead of digging one perfectly straight hole all the way down.

I learned pretty quickly that I needed to pay attention to the battery life on the equipment, lest I lose all the progress I had made since last selling.

I did create a problem for myself

Eventually, you start running into these giant rocks underground that you can’t break with your shovel.

This is where I misunderstood the functionality of the dynamite.

I assumed I would eventually be able to upgrade my shovel enough to break the rocks, so when I came across one, I just dug around it. I thought, “no biggie, it just must be in the next upgrade,” and focused on upgrading it instead of trying other tactics.

I fully upgraded the shovel and dug completely around it.

By the time I realized that I was supposed to use dynamite to destroy those rocks, I had already created a giant open space surrounding this thing.

I tried throwing dynamite at it, but it would hit the rock, bounce off, and fall down the hole I had dug around it.

So now I just had this massive rock sitting in the middle of my hole that I couldn’t get rid of and awkwardly would hit whenever I was descending down the hole.

I went around it (just like how I curve around all the other roadblocks in my life), and I continued digging.

Then there were moles

Eventually, you make it all the way to the bottom.

This is where the game changes a little bit because suddenly giant moles are living underground???

And I mean GIANT moles, probably 5x your size.

At this point, it becomes pretty clear that you’ve finally reached the area where the treasure is probably hidden, but now you have to get around these things without being caught and eaten.

So I started trying to skirt around them and get eaten a few times in the process. I eventually darted past them until I made it through the end of the pathway.

And there it was.

The chest.

The entire reason I had been digging this ridiculous hole in the first place.

The $10,000.

Spoilers from here on out!!!!!!!!!

I got to the chest.

I opened it, and the cutscene started to play.

There was nothing in it.

Confused, I then turned around to find three moles standing there.

Suddenly and without a chance to escape, they ate me.

And the screen goes to black.

So, it was a big ol’ scam all along.

After you die, you see the house again and the same cutscene from the opening plays.

The realtor shows up and puts it back up for sale, once again advertising that there is $10,000 buried underneath the property.

And that’s when it becomes clear what is actually happening.

There is no prize, and it a rather morbid circular death scheme.

They sell someone the house by telling them there’s $10,000 buried underneath it. That person digs all the way down trying to find the money, gets eaten by the moles, and then they put the house back up for sale and do it all over again.

It was a fascinating end I wasn’t expecting, but I very much enjoyed.

Would I recommend it?

Overall, I would probably give A Game About Digging A Hole a 6/10.

It was very relaxing. I don’t know that I would necessarily call it very fun, because there really isn’t that much to it. You’re digging a hole for most of the game.

But it was satisfying.

It was easy to pick up, I understood what I was doing almost immediately, and it was short enough that the simplicity never really became a problem for me.

Most importantly, I actually wanted to finish it.

I think it took me 2-3 days in total, maybe 8 hours.

For someone who has absolutely no problem abandoning a game the second I’m not enjoying myself anymore, that’s a pretty good indicator.

Sometimes I don’t want a game that takes me 100 hours to finish. I don’t want to learn 15 different mechanics or spend the first night playing it figuring out what I’m supposed to be doing.

Sometimes I just want to find something weird on Game Pass, play it for a little while and see where it goes.

This one went into a giant hole filled with murderous moles.

And for a 6/10 game, I had a pretty good time getting there.