Archaeology In Space!

The Dig sounds very much like a stereotypical archaeology video game, right?  You might think your character goes around to different sites and digs for treasure to sell for a tidy sum later on, but you would be wrong.  There is no glorified theme of treasure-hunting and the setting takes place in outer space!  Considering that the game was developed by LucasArts, it's not that surprising that archaeology is given a sci-fi spin.

The story starts out non-archaeologically related.  A decently-sized asteroid is headed towards Earth and a team consisting of an astronaut, a journalist, and a geologist (a weird combination, in my opinion) are dispatched to set explosives on the asteroid's surface to change its trajectory.  After the task is completed, the team explores around the asteroid and finds out that it is actually a spacecraft.  They are then carried away to a desolate planet far, far away.  The planet contains remnants of architecture and technology that suggest an advanced civilization, but there is nobody around.  The team has to dig for clues to try to get home.

This game doesn't reflect archaeological principles.  The characters decipher the civilization's language and seem to solve every mystery on the planet.  In real-life archaeology, you wouldn't be able to solve the entire history of a civilization in a week or even one lifetime.  A positive is that the game doesn't feature digging for treasure and selling it.  However, archaeology is only seen as a means to the end and not as a process in and of itself.  The Dig is primarily a science-fiction game tinged with themes of archaeology.