I had never heard of Deep Rock Galactic until seeing the sale on steam. $10 bucks and "Overwhelmingly Positive" reviews got to look more into it. Recently, I've found that just jumping on twitch and looking for a game is a great way to see how active the game is and is a better sample of gameplay than random youtube videos. I liked what I saw and gave it a shot.
The Basics
You and up to 3 Drawven pals work for an exploitative mining company and are routinely sent into harms way to collect precious minerals. It's a class-based first-person shooter.
Classes:
- Gunner
- Scout
- Driller
- Engineer
Each class brings unique and valuable tools to solve problems. That includes mobility tools to even get around the maze-like caves and locate objectives.
While looking for resources, you'll inevitably be attacked by alien fauna. This ranges from tiny swarmers to massive, exploding behemoths. Meteors can strike the planet at any time, and there are plenty of other hazards to keep you on your toes.
As you successfully complete missions, you can improve your gear (and other things) back in your base, which is a spaceship above the planet.
Special note: the comedy in the game is fantastic. Pressing "V" to cheer some version of "Rock and Stone" will definitely get you in the mood, but the random quips are great.
Upgrades
As you acquire resources, you can spend them on improve your weapons. There are also mods that can drastically change the way they handle. As you level up, you can complete assignments, which are a series of missions to let you buy new/better/different weapons.
Here's my bitching Engineer (you earn cosmetics quickly, too):
I've got about 24 hours of gameplay clocked. The blue 19 in the top right is my overall player level. The red 19 on the left is my engineer level.
I'm currently playing with a smart rifle that auto-locks onto targets. It's actually maybe a bit less effective than the shotgun you start with, but its so unique to this game that I like playing with it.
I'm not high enough level yet, but that large gray empty slot on the right is for Overclocks. These are massive mods that drastically change the way weapons work. Can't wait to earn some.
In general, upgrading feels great. A nice sink for the minerals you collect. A great driver of the core gameplay loop (mine, upgrade, mine even harder).
Conclusion
Best $10 I've spent on entertainment in a long time. I'm not even a big FPS person, but I love co-op FPS games like this. Obviously, I'd recommend picking up the game unless you just hate any/all FPS, bugs, or spelunking in general.
Also, apologies to my teammates in the gameplay video. I was too busy recording and trying to demo the game that I was completely oblivious to the submission (which we failed) and even that it was time to go. It worked out perfectly though for a nice short vid. I thought it captured the hectic nature of the game really well.
▶️ 3Speak