Missing Subnautica? Try A Game About Digging A Hole

The only thing holding you back is your own fear of going deeper

Subnautica is one of my all-time favorite games, in part because of the way it gets into your head. You're stranded on an alien planet made entirely of water, no one is around to help you, and your survival depends on your willingness to plunge ever-deeper into the crushing depths of the alien ocean, foraging for minerals and other raw materials to upgrade your tech. Unfortunately, I've had a hard time finding anything else like it. Even its spin-off, Subnautica: Below Zero doesn't quite hit the mark, mainly due to the overabundance of chatty-Cathy NPCs who never shut up long enough for the player to experience a building sense of dread.

But over the holidays, as I was rummaging through the Game Pass catalogue in search of something to pass the time, I stumbled across a hidden gem that finally scratches my Subnautica itch.

A Game About Digging a Hole does exactly what it says on the tin. You play as a new homeowner who just bought a modest abode for a mere $10,000, but the house isn't the interesting part here — what you're after is the treasure rumored to be buried in the back yard. The gameplay loop is quite simple. You start off with basic tools, including a shovel with a built-in metal detector, which will explode when its battery gets too low. Each time you dig, the battery charge is slightly depleted. Should it explode on you, your health will take a serious hit, and you'll lose any ore you've collected in your inventory. You can sell this ore at the computer in your garage to make money for tool upgrades, battery refills, and to top up your health bar if you do accidentally blow yourself up. Just like in Subnautica, the ore becomes more valuable the deeper you go. Also like Subnautica, A Game About Digging a Hole is a solitary experience. You're all alone.

Until you're not.

As you dig deeper, you'll find more than just ore. Strange structures become more common, and later on, unsettling sounds will begin to echo through your man-made cave. It's clear that there's more than just treasure waiting for you down there, and things only get creepier the deeper you go. Getting back out of the hole (so you can reach your garage, sell ore, and buy upgrades) also becomes more difficult the farther down you dig. You can purchase a jetpack for a mere $6 to make getting out of the hole easier, but it also uses up battery charge, so you need to keep an eye on your battery level as you dig, just like you need to keep an eye on your oxygen gauge in Subnautica if you want to successfully make it out of an underwater cave and back to the surface without drowning. It's possible to design your hole so you can climb out of it with minimal jetpack use, but one wrong step can lead to fall damage, so you're usually better off using a combination of manual climbing and jetpack-boosting.

Ultimately, A Game About Digging a Hole is satisfyingly simple in both premise and execution. It's not a deep, lore-rich world like Subnautica, nor is its story as dramatic. You can finish the game in about an hour if you're not a completionist who wants to dig up every inch of your back yard. But its solitary gameplay experience, combined with the subtle threat that something terrifying is lurking just below still makes for an entertaining, Subnautica-esque experience in which the player is only held back by the tools at their disposal — and their own fear of venturing deeper into the darkness.