SteamWorld Dig 2

SteamWorld Dig 2 sends another steambot underground, this time in search of an old friend who failed to return from the depths in the first game. The format is recognisably the same — a side-scrolling platform-mining adventure where most of the world is buried and you carve your own path through it — but the sequel pulls harder on metroidvania conventions than its predecessor did, with a more structured upgrade tree and bigger, more deliberate zones.

Mining still anchors the loop. You break rock to expose resources, haul them back to the surface in finite inventory slots, sell or refine what you find, and reinvest the profits into picks, drills, lights and movement abilities that open new layers of the underworld. Where the original was largely a vertical column, the sequel branches sideways into intricate cave networks with bespoke set pieces, hidden upgrade rooms and the kind of off-the-path secrets that reward players who already think like a metroidvania veteran.

Combat is more present here too. The underworld is haunted by shadowy creatures and what's left of a long-dormant electrical threat, and traversal tools — the Hookshot that swings you across chasms, the Jet Engine that lets you fly through caves — double as combat utilities. Underneath the mechanical layer is the missing-friend mystery that the developers, Image & Form, treat with more weight than the slightly cartoonish presentation might suggest.