I thoroughly enjoyed playing through Home Groan Games’ The Grave Digger during the heat of Summer, but a cold Winter seems like a much better time to dig up some graves for fun and profit. While the visuals may look a little rough around the edges, the stealth/puzzle gameplay in this game is really solid and built around an interesting premise. Digging up the dead isn’t going to be easy, although it will be pretty funny along the way.
The Grave Digger asks players to dig up graves, something that requires digging down deep into the ground while intensely focusing on your task. Digging a hole doesn’t exactly sound hard, but as soon as your shovel touches the dirt you’ll be dealing with all of the angry spirits you woke up through your desecration. With varying patterns of patrol and degrees of enemy aggression, you’ll need to be careful while you relieve the dead of their valuables. Don’t forget how intensely you focus when you dig, either, as the game narrows your range of vision the deeper you dig into a hole, so you might not notice a ghost creeping up on you until it’s got its cold hands around your character’s throat.
I had a solid time with it, and now, Home Groan Games is looking to get this game out to more people by putting it up on Steam Greenlight. It’s got some great challenge for stealth fans, and the writing in the story, while laugh out loud silly, also touches on some morbid topics in ways that were pretty interesting. It’s a really nice package from a studio and game that deserves more attention than it’s getting, so go on out and give them a vote if you like stealth/puzzle horror games as much as I do.
At the very least, listen to the main character’s voice. Try to tell me that isn’t worth a vote all on its own.
