The Dig offers a riveting and expansive game experience centered around an original science fiction story, and the game's characters and their interactions are complex and dynamic. The player's alter ego is Commander Boston Low, a NASA veteran who leads a team of two -- geologist, Ludger Brink, and journalist, Maggie Robbins -- on what should be a routine mission: (1) blast an asteroid in an unstable orbit around Earth into a stable rotation; (2) become a hero. Unfortunately, they don't make it home for the parade in their honor.

The asteroid transforms into an alien spaceship, and the team is transported to a strange, dangerous and seemingly abandoned planet. Then the apparitions appear. Through exploration and experimentation, the player learns about the species that formerly inhabited this planet -- a species that discovered immortality and now exists in a ghost-like state. They desperately want something from their captive trio. It's a high price to pay, but it may be the only way back to Earth.