Deep Rock Galactic is a cooperative first person shooter developed by Ghost Ship Games and published by Coffee Stain Publishing. You and up to 3 of your friends can take on the role of dwarven miners employed by Deep Rock Galactic and sent on various missions that can range from collecting minerals to industrial sabotage. These excursions can range in length and complexity. The available missions rotate over time and take place across 10 different biomes, each with a unique flora and hazards.
You get to choose from 4 different character classes. The Driller can easily mine the fully destructible, procedurally generated environment. The Engineer can place sentry turrets and platforms to help defend against the numerous hostile bugs that attack you. The Gunner has some big weapons and can protect their team with shields. The scout moves around a lot more quickly and can light up spaces more easily for their teammates. As you play, these characters can gain levels and unlock new perks and equipment.
This game really feels like a mash up of left 4 dead and minecraft. Mining your way through a fully destructible environment scratches that exploration itch and the beautiful biomes make for a wonderful backdrop. The variety of objectives make it easy to change things up whenever you want and are different enough that it doesn’t just feel like slight variations on the same basic mission structure. The hordes of bugs provide the right amount of challenge in my opinion and the different types keep you changing up your strategies. It hits that sweet spot where you can explore and play while listening to a podcast or something, but if you bump up the difficulty and complexity of the caves, you can find a good challenge. I love the aesthetic of the space dwarves and the goofy industrial take on fantasy tropes. Despite all of this, I feel like I rarely hear about this game and as someone who was looking for something to scratch the left 4 dead itch after Back 4 blood, I’m so glad I gave this game a try.
