Cosmodrill (v2026.08.15)

A mining run turns into a compact sci-fi adventure when a strange device strands its pilot far from familiar space. Cosmodrill mixes arcade action with subterranean exploration, asking you to bore through planets, chase distress transmissions, and piece together the purpose of ancient extraterrestrial ruins. Its mood is colorful and energetic rather than oppressive, but danger waits both beneath the crust and in open space, where pirates control abandoned stations. The result is a focused campaign built around the satisfying fantasy of piloting a heavily armed drill through places no ordinary ship can reach.

Most of the action revolves around choosing a route through destructible terrain, collecting valuable materials, and managing how far your machine can safely travel before turning back. Resources feed a straightforward upgrade path that improves drilling power, flight capability, resilience, and combat effectiveness, opening routes that were previously too deep or hazardous to handle. Hostile ships and station encounters add twin-stick-style shooting and drill-based abilities to the mining loop, so progress is not only about digging efficiently. Five environmental regions keep conditions changing, from molten ground and volcanic eruptions to hostile creatures and electrically unstable asteroid fields, while optional detours reward players who investigate more than the critical path.

Cosmodrill stands out through its fully diggable celestial bodies and its brisk pacing: it delivers a complete story in around two hours, with exploration and secrets capable of roughly doubling that time. Rather than stretching its systems into a huge sandbox, it treats upgrades and new biomes as reasons to keep pushing into increasingly strange territory. The alien mystery gives the journey more direction than a score-chasing mining game, while pirate battles prevent the excavation from becoming repetitive. Players who enjoy the destruction-driven exploration of SteamWorld Dig, but want a shorter, spacefaring action game with more direct combat, find plenty to like here; it is approachable for newcomers and still rewarding for completion-minded genre veterans.