Developer: Ghost Ship Games
Publisher: Coffee Stain Publishing
Platform: PC, Xbox One
Tested on: PC
Deep Rock Galactic – Review
In this modern-day and age, developers either follow the current hype or try to create something completely new. Sometimes they take a few popular ideas and combine them into a new game. Deep Rock Galactic plays like a combination of Minecraft and GTFO as you will mine for ores while battling many waves of monsters. They are angry about the sudden invasion of dwarves coming to steal their riches.
Story
Your career starts as a gunner that is sent on a mining mission to gather some ores. Your boss seems like a huge asshole that doesn’t care about your well-being at all. This is noticed when he writes you off the moment a wave of enemies comes in as he only cares for the gold, not for your life. After you survive this, his tone will change. Many recruits come and go but only true survivors make it out of the cave. After the first mission, you will start working for the corporation and do all kinds of mining operations. There isn’t much backstory to the game or flow during it, you just pick a mission and go mining alone or with friends. The absence of a story isn’t missed, as you will have enough stuff to worry about anyway.
Graphics
It is hard to describe the graphics as this style is rather unique. The developers have chosen for retro-inspired visuals by using many straight lines and rectangular shapes. There are smooth surfaces, especially when mining, and there are many fine details found in the world. Because of the special mixture between high-quality assets and old videogame graphics it makes for a very unique experience.
The best part of Deep Rock Galactic is how the lighting is done. You are mining deep underground, so there are no natural lighting sources. As you lay down flares and use your flashlight, you will see clearly what you are doing, yet when the flares die out, you will be reminded about how dark it is down there.
Sounds
Sounds are very essential when it comes to creating the right atmosphere for a game. In Deep Rock Galactic every note just hits right. Characters are all voiced in different accents, giving each class a different feel and they will respond to every situation. From nicely telling the robot to come over, to cursing out the many monsters that rush you. All weapons sound powerful and are empowering while in use. The music changes from lowly cave-dwelling sounds and random creatures saying hello to some intense shoot-em-up high energy, fast-paced combat music.
Gameplay
Deep Rock Galactic is an action-adventure game where you must mine for ores or collect items while making your way down deep, dark caves. The gameplay is presented as a blend between Minecraft and GTFO. You get dropped into a randomly generated cave where you must collect the needed items and deposit them into your Mule bot. When your robot is full, you can call in the extraction and you only have five minutes to make it back. As everything is random you sometimes must completely create new paths to get to your objective. When extracting you can follow your Mule back, but it can get through small paths so be ready to dig your way out.
The game is meant to be played with friends; yet if you play alone you can opt for assistance from a bot. This flying friend will engage with hostiles to cover your back and after an upgrade, it will also help you mine. If you do play with friends, be sure to pick the right role for each person. There are four classes to choose from, from fast tunneling and securing the perimeter, to scouting ahead and lighting up the place. You cannot simply take your time in the caves, as random waves of hostiles will swarm your location and ammo is limited. You can buy ammo on the fly, but only after finding the right resources to trade for them.
In your hub, you will have many options to customize your character, modify weapons and select missions. There are a lot of missions to do, but it is advised to do these with friends as going in solo can be really boring from time to time. The gameplay is really fun and lighting your way through dark caves while fighting monsters is surely stressful. Controls are very easy to pick up, it plays like a shooter game with only a handful of button inputs.
As you are free to dig and search, you will have to put your gadgets to good use. Ideally, the scout is great because he has a grappling hook that can be reused infinitely. Just be sure not to trap yourself in a deep hole. You can grab any resources you can find, these will be used to purchase upgrades in-between mission. When you do your job right, you will gain XP and level your miner, this is needed to unlock various upgrade stations and will give you extra reasons to do more effort during missions.
Conclusion
Deep Rock Galactic is a great game to play with friends, yet allows solo players to have some help on the field. Missions will take some time as you must explore and find the things you need to bring back. There is a lot of content to explore and many things to unlock. The four classes are greatly balanced and each one is fun to play with, in their own way. The graphics are special with nice visuals and the sounds are on point. Controls are easy to learn and in no-time, you will fly through the caves like a boss.
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