The main loop of SteamWorld Dig is very fun. Explore, mine, return and sell. Manage your inventory to not waste ores. Manage your health or you will die very quickly (before you get later upgrades at least). Predetermined caves to explore are placed around the randomly-generated world to change up the loop a little bit and avoid the game getting stale.

I mostly enjoyed the game, but there are a few things that hold it back for me. First off, the combat is extremely limited and not very fun to engage in. You have only a few tools to deal with enemies and enemy variety is almost non-existent. You're better off simply ignoring enemies unless combat is absolutely necessary.

I also found the movement very awkward to start with. Rusty slides around a lot and the walljump took some time to learn to use effectively. The cramped environment doesn't really help either. I got into the groove of it by the end of the game, but I wouldn't call SteamWorld Dig's movement good.