| Let me say from the outset that Fenris shall always remain a myth to me. I tried to finish this game–actually, the first section–but I just couldn’t bear to watch the Diggles do their thing any longer. Though cute on the outside, Diggles rapidly become a pain to control and manage. The box claims that "each Diggle has unique character traits (ranging from nasty and stubborn to hard-working and cuddly)." It seems that most revel in mediocrity.
The goal of the game is to guide your Diggles through four different worlds to capture Fenris, the hound of Hell, who also happens to be the pet of Odin, the Godfather of all the Diggle people. This is accomplished by both exploring the underworld via a lot of digging while also providing food, shelter and inventions for the little ones. I think the game would be better off were it to focus on one of these themes rather than all of them. Educating the Diggles just isn’t any fun when I want to go kick some Troll butt (or expose my Diggle to the very real, and often welcomed, possibility of bodily harm).
The Diggle day is divided into work and leisure time. During work time, the Diggles do the tasks you have assigned, though in no particular order and without a sense of urgency. Though it would seem intuitive to assign tasks to the Diggles, this often backfires. For example, if you assign a certain Diggle to work at a particular fireplace, other Diggles will shy away from working there. Thus, Diggles will starve before taking someone else’s job. Diggle work is also affected by how far each task is from your hub of activity (usually where they feed and rest). While there is an automatic setting for assigning tasks, jobs a long way off will take forever to get done, and some Diggles are just too stupid to go back home to eat.
Leisure time has a significant impact on the game. To continue the Diggle clan, Diggles who share leisure time will procreate; the parents’ skills are passed on to the child, greatly hastening Diggle education as the game progresses. They also eat and rest during leisure time. Therefore, if the day is work-heavy you will generate some angry Diggles who will eventually refuse to work and carry picket signs. Controlling how the Diggles entertain themselves is limited.
The Diggles are rendered in an almost 3-D world. While there is not much depth to the game, you can rotate the game camera around either the horizontal or vertical axis. This gets around the occasionally difficult prospect of selecting something directly behind another object.
The music in the Diggles rates highly compared to other game music I’ve suffered through recently. Often the music is the first clue you get that your Diggles are being attacked; the news ticker often lags behind. This usually happens as one of your clan is digging and encounters a dog-like beast called a Wurker. Thankfully, they’re fairly easy to kill.
Game controls are a mixed bag. The map in the corner is helpful to give you a sense of the overall lay of the underworld. The easiest way to move the screen is simply to scroll off the edge; this can get frustrating as most game controls are located on the periphery of the game screen, often leading to unintentional screen movement. Another option to move the screen is to select a particular Diggle in the longer list on the right side of the screen. On my system this worked about half the time; I can’t explain why it wouldn’t work the other times.
One of the most useful screens is the overall Diggle screen, giving you a snapshot of what each Diggle is carrying, what education they have in each of several fields, their lineage (to help you prevent inbreeding), and how well they can fight. This screen also allows you to select a Diggle from the list and move the game screen to wherever that Diggle is (this worked consistently). The "techtree" screen is helpful to figure out what you need to work on next to make your Diggles the best they can be.
Should you wish to fight, there is a skirmish option separate from the main campaign. Be warned: You still need to develop better weapons and technology.
This game loaded very slowly (several minutes) on a Pentium 4, 1.5 GHz machine with 256 MB RAM. Play on a slower machine at your peril. Loading from a saved point from within the game is only slightly quicker. Once loaded, the game ran smoothly with only an occasional hiccup while trying to scroll the screen.
Overall, Diggles is a game I’d like to love, but just can’t bring myself to spend more time playing. If you like detailed micromanagement of multiple game aspects, often with competing interests, this one’s for you. | 
