SteamWorld Dig 2

Pros
+ Instantly fun.
+ A lot of exploration.
+ Quite unique in terms of gameplay (2D Metroidvania + mining).
+ You are free to excavate the mine as it pleases you.
+ Very distinctive environments, atmospherically speaking.
+ Hunting for the 42 missing artifacts is great.
+ Upgrades really change the way you play the game.
+ You are mostly free to explore the world as it pleases you.
+ Some achievements are quite fun to unlock, especially the "Sequence breaker" one.
+ Nice and interesting theme (post-apocalyptic cowboys robots).
+ Knowing how much secrets remained to be found in each area is very handy.
+ A high level of polish makes the game shine.
+ No useless backtracking thanks to a clever teleportation system.
Cons
- The combat is not very interesting.
- The humor tends to be more silly than funny.
- The game tends to be too casual in terms of difficulty (even though instant deaths happen).
- The "Hell" secret level is much too difficult compared to the rest of the game.
- NPC are mostly cliché and not very interesting.
- Overall the story is quite barebones.
- You are too much hand-guided in the story, where to go and so on.
- No side quests.
- Compared to the first game, the light system is basically useless (especially once you purchase the "infinite light" upgrade).
Verdict
If you like silly Flash games where you grind some funny little stuff to get upgrades and do the same thing better over and over, you will find something of the same spirit in SteamWorld Dig 1 & 2, which are games easy to get into, mildly addictive, and borderline casual. But it's also much better, extremely polished, and has a lot more depth. Especially, you are offered a huge world to explore and to get lost into. Sometimes I was amazed to access some secret room which turned out to be a huge corridor leading to a part of the map yet greater than what I had already explored. The additional "caves" spread all over the map usually offer a more puzzle-oriented or platforming-skills oriented challenge, which is welcome.
Briefly speaking, you can't really be wrong playing SteamWorld Dig 2. It's beautiful, it's clever, it's fun, and the game just gets better and better as you play it. It's a very strong recommendation.
How is it better than the first SteamWorld?
It's better in every aspect. Graphics are nicer, the world is bigger, the feeling of freedom is much more intense. It really follows the exact same structure (mining in the overall map, coming back to town to heal and get upgrades, unlocking teleporting point, going into "challenge" caves, unlocking the same new abilities). The environments are more atmospheric, there are much more upgrades available (and you can't have them all at once, but you are free to try different of them each time you go to town, so there is a mild "build" element), and, for some unclear reason, all the ingredients work together even better than they already were.
Overall, SteamWorld Dig 2 takes a step further away from the "addictive Flash game" structure of the first, and sometimes it feels. There are components of the game which are simply relics from the first, for instance the light. You are equipped with a light which runs out of fuel over time. When it stops, you are left in the near dark and it get quite hard (but not terribly so either) to go back to the town if you are away from a teleporter. In the first game, this was quite an issue as you wanted to keep longer and longer in the mine, so you wanted to upgrade that light. Here, it's not that important and you soon end up with an ever-lasting light, as if the devs decided that this component was best left out of the game after all.
As the focus of SteamWorld Dig 2 is much more placed on the freedom of exploration (and it works!), there is less incentive to get the upgrades. I never felt the urge to play "just a tad longer" to get this alluring upgrade within my reach, which was the main driving force behind the gameplay of the first game. The consequence of this is that SteamWorld Dig 2 is a bit less addictive... but has a lot more depth and delivers a more powerful experience of exploration and discovery. You don't care that much about the pick either because there is less difference in the sturdiness of the blocks as you explore the world (in the first one, the deeper you went, the sturdier were the blocks, forcing you to upgrade continually your pickaxe to avoid spending infinite time digging your into the mine; while it is also true here, you discover all different environments before finishing any of them, so the blocks do not because sturdier after a point early on in the game). Even if the two games are closely similar, this shift of focus alters how you feel playing it -in my opinion for the best.
How could it have been improved?
The thing is, the end kinda tells you that the game should receive another sequel. That's exciting, and the new perspective offered at the end only raises expectation. Yet, there are a few elements which could been significantly improved, in my opinion.
First, the "Hell" level is really frustrating. The game is supposed to be played by a large audience: it's pleasantly easy, and the challenge lies into the exploration more than the pure platforming skills. Therefore, adding a secret level, which rewards hours of exploration, just to tell the player "Eh, you started to thought you were good? Nope, you just suck terribly." is mean. I really disliked it, especially considering that I love to explore, to unlock every secrets, and I had to pass on this one.
Second, the game is much too guided. There is a blue cross which tells you where to go. Fortunately, purchasing the "Sequence breaker" achievement, I strayed away from the main story and explored more freely, and it felt extremely good. I recommend to do it even if it breaks the story and doesn't make really sense (perhaps they should have made alternative dialogues to fix this). Also, the NPCs are pretty much useless (you have sellers and characters you are required to speak to to get further in the main story), while they could have given you fun side quests. I would have loved side quests and the game can easily implement them.
Third, the combat is mostly boring. Since the game is quite easy and you have a lot of health points, you don't really bother and I tended to kill every enemies by running into them. You only have a pickaxe that you have to time precisely and that has no range at all, so it's not really interesting. The hook is nicer in that it allows you to slightly push an enemy. Overall, the fight component is really not deeply thought out, and it has almost no interest in the game.
Fourth, there could always be more exploration! The game already improves a lot compared to the firs SteamWorld Dig. But I would have liked to find more secret rooms, completely useless to the main story, more secret passways, and it would have been cool if the artifacts you hunt for in the game have had a purpose (for instance, additional pieces of lore, not just silly jokes which fall flat for the great majority of them). Side quests could also help having areas unrelated to the main story, while giving a purpose to explore them.
I therefore hope the third SteamWorld Dig will have a more non-linear structure, more secrets, and side quests. Combat is not that crucial to improve since the exploration really is the selling point of the series.

Added this in my wishlist, then it goes free within a week. Christmas couldn't have come sooner.

I greatly disliked the gameplay in the first Steamworld Dig game, and delayed purchasing its sequel for a long time, until I obtained it at a really deep discount (~$4.59 or so), my curiosity still getting the better of me, as is all too often the case. However, I just finished playing through this game, and had a really nice time with it. Anyone going for 100% achievements might have a slightly rough time of it, but anyone just wanting to get all the upgrades and beat the game should have a pretty nice time of things.
Steamworld Dig 2's music was quite nice, with each subterranean region having its own music that fit well, and each region also had a distinct look. As with the first game, there are little caves you can dip into with secrets to be uncovered which are very rewarding. The power-ups were a lot of fun, and most of them felt pretty empowering. Some of the little modifications you can spend cogs on (freely insert and extract them to try out different ones) even minimize issues I had with the first game, such as the lantern light dying too quickly. Sure, that's a problem very early on in Steamworld Dig 2, but it's quickly dealt with, and eventually it will never be a problem again.
Narratively, there's a lot more plot in this game compared to the first one, though I will say that it isn't story-heavy at all. The gameplay is the core of this game, and I really had a fair bit of fun with this one. I hated my time with the first Steamworld Dig, but I think I might play Steamworld Dig 2 again someday, because it was a pleasant experience and an all-around enjoyable game for me which compelled me to finish it. Heck, I stayed up an extra hour just to finish up and write this recommendation, too. If you enjoyed the first game, it's quite likely you'll enjoy this one, and if the first game's gameplay wasn't your cup of tea, Steamworld Dig 2's little improvements here and there might be enough to make you like it, as was the case for me. Take care.

wtf got this for free and its actually really good

Pretty awesome little mining platformer. Exploration is lots of fun. There are plenty of things to unlock and upgrade. The puzzles are well done and provide a nice little challenge. No major bugs and controls feel solid. There's a decent story mode to it but you'll likely get lost in the digging and exploration. Great Metroidvania!

Play as a robot Dorothy in a quest to save your long lost friend Rusty. You arrive at desert town with dire situation. Other townfolks robots needs your saving to escape this growing danger to be exploded into thousand pieces. Something is not right and you need to dig deep deep into a dark underground layer filled with tombs and secrets with many paths that leads you back at earth surface. Using your trusty pinaxe with many gadgets that will be presented you in later game that you can be upgraded. From fast charged hard rock crusher to a bomb bazooka. In your journey you will not be alone cause flamie Fen will light your path when the darkness shroud your eyes.
This game reminded me of good old classic DigDug style play. This is much more evolved and tweaked out version filled with greatness.

What makes a perfect sequel? If you ask me (and you implicitly did because you’re reading this), I consider a perfect sequel one that takes everything the previous game did and builds on it in some way. It doesn’t miss any of what made the original good, whether that be in game design, balance, aesthetic, or feel, and only adds more on top of that rock-solid base. There are great sequels that don’t do this, of course, and instead choose to go far afield and make something bold and new that still relates to its roots. But we’re not talking about those games, because SteamWorld Dig 2 is what I call a perfect sequel. Everything that the first SteamWorld Dig did, this one does bigger and better, and then goes on to do even more that I never would have expected.
It’s been a spell since trusty ol’ Rusty disappeared down in the mines, last seen locked in combat with the deadly Vectron. Dorothy, the local shopkeep’s daughter, knows he’s still ticking out there somewhere, and has embarked on a rugged quest to find our wayward hero. The trail leads to an old trading town, perched atop another mine full of beasts and secrets, and we all know what our new heroine has to do there. Digging down through the layers of history, Dorothy discovers forgotten realms and ruins that hold the key to finding Rusty and understanding the strange earthquakes rattling the town. Along the way she’ll find plenty of valuable ores and gems, exactly what she needs to trade for upgrades to keep her tunneling ever further down. But this journey will take her beyond the confines of mine shafts and caverns, and into the clutches of some unexpected foes.
The premise of SteamWorld Dig 2 is definitely similar to the first, with a vast underground world to mine goodies from for the upgrades to mine even deeper. However, the scope of this one is so much greater than the three discrete zones you had to explore in the original. In fact, the tutorial area in 2 already promises a game that will stretch far and wide, with how unexpected it is and also the bits of lore it sprinkles in up front. This is a far more open game, with more creative areas to explore and more to do in each of them, with loads of optional caves and secret alcoves to reveal through clever use of your powers. Even when I made it to the endgame, there were still a load of collectibles and upgrades tucked away in places I never would have suspected.
Your powers and upgrades are a huge part of why this open design works so well. Honestly, this is one of the most fun and transformative arsenals I’ve ever seen in a metroidvania. The difference in capabilities between the start of the game and the end is monumental, and there were no less than three points where I was absolutely gobsmacked that the developers saw fit to give me a certain upgrade. You end up with so much more mobility and so many more options for pathfinding in SteamWorld Dig 2 compared to the first, yet every upgrade feels like a logical progression and fits perfectly into the game’s pacing. The addition of a fully parallel trait system on top of the powers and upgrades from the first is huge, allowing you to swap in new conveniences and capabilities for each of the abilities that you get. And the challenges are designed to push your understanding of these gifts, making them more challenging than before even as your character becomes far more powerful than in the original game.
The gameplay systems aren’t the only parts that got massive upgrades, either. SteamWorld Dig 2 is a gorgeous game, with wonderfully hand-drawn characters, lush environments brimming with color, superb visual effects, and rich sound design. Just running around the world and poking at things is a warm, inviting experience, and makes scouring for secrets more fun that you would ever expect. The story, unsurprisingly, is also a big step up from the first game, with a lot more twists and turns and an ending that I absolutely did not see coming. It’s also a significantly longer game, easily twice as big if not more, and they’ve packed every bit of the experience with something to see, do, or collect.
It’s the easiest recommendation in the world to say that, if you enjoyed the first SteamWorld Dig, then you’re guaranteed to love SteamWorld Dig 2. But even if you skipped the first one, this is a masterpiece of game design. The balance of mining, upgrading, exploring, and progressing is just about perfect, with no low points or frustrations. The new powers and traits flesh out the core gameplay in fantastic ways, and the improved presentation makes this one a joy to play through. I’m a big metroidvania fan to begin with, but SteamWorld Dig 2 has quickly become one of my favorites in the genre, with a sense of depth and freedom that few can match.
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