Diggles Preview
We take a look at this strategy game that involves a race of small creatures known as Diggles.
In the world of Diggles, dwarves aren't the stout, full-bearded warriors you see in Lord of the Rings and Dungeons & Dragons. Instead, they're lanky, potbellied fools with straggly whiskers and a penchant for food and buffoonery. The name Diggles refers to both the game and the diminutive main characters in this upcoming strategy title. Already published in Germany by developer Innonics, Diggles is coming to the US via Strategy First, which hopes to publish the game in early 2002.
Based largely on Norse mythology, Diggles tells the tale of a clan of dwarves, tasked by Odin, king of gods, to perform a special quest. The game takes a few liberties with its source material. In popular Norse myth, Fenris is a gargantuan wolf god, as well as nemesis of the gods. But in this game, Fenris starts out as Odin's cute little puppy and, while on a walk, suddenly turns into a monstrous wolfman that stews below ground in a campaign of evil. Odin, the king of the Norse gods, is also depicted in a less-than-authentic fashion. He is not a wise, one-eyed master--he's a cherubic, long-winded fool. At the game's start, he descends from his throne in Asgard to ask the king of the Diggles for help. Since Fenris is hiding in the underground, the only people who can be trusted to reclaim him are the dwarves, who make the sunless soil their home. In exchange for the promise of full beards, gold, and elevation to demigod status, the Diggles agree to help Odin find Fenris.
Of course, finding Fenris will prove to be a difficult task. Originally, Odin kept Fenris in check with a chain made of six rings. The chain has since been broken, and the six rings are scattered in the dungeons below ground. You have to dig through the vast earth below and look for these six rings. However, crawling about the underground and lairing in hidden caverns and fortresses are trolls that serve Fenris and impede your progress. There are also other dwarf clans that live below ground, and they can either help you or hinder you. Treat them well, and they might give you hints. But steal from them, and they'll come after you with ax and club with as much fury as the trolls.
Diggles is a strategy game, and it plays in real time, but it is unlike any other real-time strategy game you've played before. Despite its 3D graphics, it's really a two-dimensional game. There is little depth in the game's environment, but there is vast width and height. Whereas in other games you are moving across and over a vast battlefield, in Diggles, you're digging down. Imagine Dig Dug, but with resource management and RTS elements, and you'll get a good picture of what this game is about.
You start out above ground initially, but there is so little room for expansion and so few resources that you invariably have to move down. While in the horizon you can see mountains, forests, and even lakes behind your initial camp, you can't actually move into it. Your one choice is to tunnel into the earth and expand your empire downward. Diggles isn't as combat-oriented as other strategy games and definitely does not emphasize large-scale battles or numerous units. The gameplay is very much about exploration, people management, and resource gathering.
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