Welcome to Deep Rock Galactic, where you – a Dwarven miner – will collect valuable objects and minerals from the volatile planet of Hoxxes IV. Be careful, though, as dangerous beasties make your job even harder – and that’s just upper management!
Seriously though, there are things that want to eat your face, if it hasn’t been disintegrated by the inhospitable environments you find yourself in.
Oh no, I’ve got myself another job again, haven’t I?
Deep Rock Galactic, developed by a Danish studio called Ghost Ship Games and published by Coffee Stain Studios (the Swedish minds behind Goat Simulator and Sanctum), is a 1-4 player co-op FPS, where you are given objectives to fulfil in a procedurally generated map.
There are several types of tasks: mine minerals, find objects, connect pipelines (currently, my favourite), and kill a number of specific enemies. For each mission, you will have a primary objective that you must carry out or else you fail the mission and a secondary object which is a nice-to-have. You get extra XP for the secondary objectives, and for any additional resources found, so get that pick-axe ready and take them to your faithful trash-compactor M.U.L.E (Mining Utility Lift Engine) we’ll all call Molly. Molly will look after the shinies.
These tasks take you across a handful of varied regions, each one with an aesthetic theme – usually revolving around what environmental hazard will kill you. Will you burn in Magma Core? Get radiation sickness from the Radioactive Exclusion Zone? Freeze in Glacial Strata? Maybe management will give you a nice chill mission in the Azure Weald? Head to the mission terminal to see where your assignment takes you.
You can choose between any of the four self-explained classes to play as – Gunner, Driller, Scout, and Engineer. They all have different equipment to help perform their duties, and you can change class between rounds. Playing multiplayer? The game doesn’t restrict you based on your buddies, so gear up as whatever and get to mining.
The lobby in this game is actually a lobby. Not one of these loading screens with names, oh no. You’re on the Deep Rock Galactic Rig. Terminals allow you to change cosmetics, equipment, classes, and more. If your friends are still faffing about in terminals, why not wait for them at the bar? Lloyd, the bartender, will happily provide you with a pint. Some beers are fun, with little features that list a few seconds before fading, while others provide bonuses for your missions.
If you decide that the idea of spending time in a mine with no one around sounds good but difficult, don’t fret. Deep Rock Galactic value their minerals, and they won’t get them if you don’t make it back. You have a drone to help you out, Bosco. Bosco can be upgraded and has cosmetic items too, so he’s just as customisable as you!
I bought this game with the expectation that I’d probably play it for a week with my friends, but then not after that. It’ll be the thing we play hard for a few days before we find something else, and it would be fun but not a main-stay. That’s a pretty common occurrence in our circle, so I didn’t expect anything different from this. It’ll be another indie game we bought on sale, played for a few hours and then pushed into the depths of my Steam Library.
And I was wrong. I really enjoy this game, and there are still calls in the group chat to play it. I have grown oddly attached to the robots you find, and one particular voice line which goes “Sometimes I wonder if there’s more to life than shooting bugs and moving dirt… then I punch myself in the nose.”
Enlist Today
If you would like to enlist in Deep Rock Galactic and explore the hostile undergrounds of Hoxxes IV, you can find the game on PC, Xbox, and Playstation!
As a Humble Partner, I do receive a tiny kickback when you use my link to buy the game but it costs you nothing extra!
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