Deep Rock Galactic Review

Usually when I play multiplayer games, I get frustrated with how steep the learning curve can be and how much better other players are compared to me. But with Deep Rock Galactic, this is not the case.

Deep Rock Galactic was developed by Ghost Ship Games as an online first person shooter, PvE for one to four players. After spending two years in Early Access, Deep Rock Galactic is finally fully released. The best way to describe Deep Rock Galactic is Minecraft meets Starship Troopers with a mix of dwarves. Essentially, I am mining for minerals while I kill bugs and drink lots of beer. There are four different dwarves to choose from: Gunner, Scout, Driller, and Engineer. I could easily switch between the dwarves after each mission to level them up separately. Each dwarf has their own unique set of guns and special tools. The Gunner has a zipline for everyone to use as well as a shield to repel the bugs, Scout has a grappling hook to travel from wall to wall like Spider-Man, Engineer can make platforms and gun turrets, and the Driller has a satchel bomb and drills to, well, drill through the walls. Every dwarf is also equipped with grenades and a good old trusty pickaxe. Levelling up dwarves gives access to more perks as well as access to different weapons.

Preventing the dwarves from properly mining on the planet’s underground caverns are some bugs or otherwise known as Glyphids. There is a range from your basic kinds to armoured Glyphids, flying bugs, bugs that spit acid, and even some that explode if they are too close to the dwarves. The larger ones always come with a feature such as radiation, poison, freezing, or the dreaded bulk detonators. These are only a few of the bugs that one can encounter as other bugs such as tunnelers can also be found or cave leeches that hide in the ceilings to grab at unsuspecting dwarves. Depending on the difficulty level one plays at, the bugs will swarm at various frequencies leading to a temporary pause in mining to deal with the swarm, otherwise the mission fails. When a mission is failed, about 25% of the total minerals and experience points that were collected are still earned by the players.

Speaking of missions, there are a variety that can be done in Deep Rock Galactic as offered by Mission Control. The missions vary from simply mining a particular mineral, collecting eggs, finding the lost M.U.L.E.s, or eliminating dreadnoughts. During each mission, you can mine for rare minerals that would allow you to upgrade my weapons. I also would mine for gold which pays for everything and mine for Nitra which are required to call in for resupplies for my ammo reserves. There are also Deep Dives that will be available once a character has been promoted past level 25 which allow dwarves to go on “dives” in order to obtain items that would mod their weapons.

Visually, I find the game to be quite good. I do not think that Deep Rock Galactic is groundbreaking in the graphics department but it is on the level of what I would expect from an online game that I can play with friends without having to press my graphics card to its limits. There are times when things are floating in midair. When getting back to the drop pod to end the missions, there are rare occurrences when the entrance of the drop pod will get blocked and make exiting almost impossible. That being said, I do find explosions and environmental damages to be quite awesome. Once, I was swarmed by an army of detonators and two bulk detonators which left a large, red, glowing hole afterwards. The skins of the guns and the dwarves are also well designed and quite pleasing to look at.

One of the best things about Deep Rock Galactic is that it has a pretty shallow learning curve. The tutorial shows you how to use your weapons and special equipment as well as how to determine what each mineral is. You also are shown how to dump your minerals into the M.U.L.E. which the dwarves have nicknamed “Molly”. Once you are able to select your own missions, Deep Rock Galactic first makes sure that you fully understand the game by lowering the difficulties for the first couple missions before you can freely select the Hazard Levels you want to play in. What is also great about this game is that you may play by yourself if you do not wish to join other servers or players. When you play alone, you are given a robot companion called Bosco who is able to help you mine minerals, shine light on things, shoot bugs, and revive you a couple of times if you should fall in battle.

Playing with other people has generally been a blast. Most people right now do know what they are doing and even the newbies are willing to learn. One of the best times I can remember is playing with three other friends where we all had our specialised dwarf classes on Hazard 5. The sheer amount of chaos is unreal and quite hilarious but somehow the team was able to pull through. The Deep Rock Galactic community is so far quite friendly. There are ways to kick people from your server if they are being abusive. The developers are also quite active in the community and during the Early Access stage, took a lot of recommendations into account as they continued to polish the game for a full launch.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoy playing Deep Rock Galactic. I am currently working on maxing out all my dwarf classes so that I can go on more Deep Dive missions to mod my weapons. I have found the community to be very friendly for the most part and the variety of enemy bugs to be diverse enough that I do not find it repetitive. The game is a lot of fun and there are times when the graphics can be a bit off but overall, Deep Rock Galactic is a game that I will constantly come back to play either by myself or with other people. With that all being said, ROCK AND STONE BROTHERS!