First Impressions: DEEP ROCK GALACTIC: SURVIVOR is My New Favorite Auto-Shooter
Deep Rock Galactic is a beloved cooperative FPS from Ghost Ship Games and now it has its first ever spin-off. Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor comes from developer Funday Games and publisher Ghost Ship Publishing. It takes the world and characters from the original and transports them into an auto-shooter inspired by games like Vampire Survivors. The game launched on Steam via Early Access in February and is available now for $9.99 from Steam or Humble (affiliate link). The team provided me with a free copy for purposes of this review.
Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor is a single player survivor-like auto-shooter. Wield the full arsenal of Deep Rock Galactic, take on hordes of lethal aliens, mine riches, and unlock powerful upgrades. It's one dwarf against all of Planet Hoxxes!
As Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor (DRGS going forward) is just now in early access, this is less of a review and more of a first impressions. The basic premise of the game is that you pick from one of four classes, one of three starting builds, and one of three biomes to go and mine materials. As you’re mining, you’ll have to ward off several bug creatures and the end goal of each level is to defeat the big bug boss. As you level up, you’ll have to choose one of four upgrades and every few levels you get to add a new weapon to your arsenal. Eventually, you can even get bigger boosts for weapons called Overclocks that greatly impact your build. After each run, you can buy account upgrades with the materials that you’ve mined.
I am freaking loving this game. The terrain is really interesting and you manipulate it as you mine, adding a level of strategy. You can attempt to funnel the bugs, you can accidentally open the path up and walk right into the swarm. The addition of Overclocks in addition to standard level ups really helps you adjust your playstyle in the late game. In addition, having the set goal of last long enough to fight a big bug, kill a big bug, and go down another level really helps me stay more engaged. It feels like more than just ‘survive for 30 minutes!’ Also, on each floor, you are tasked with collecting X number of a given item and if you complete that task you get a good amount of experience and gold. DRGS takes a very simple game formula and adds some extra layers of interest.
The four classes are pretty fun with Engineer possibly being my favorite. To make things better, each class has a number of loadouts that you can choose from. One problem that I’m sure will be fixed is that in order to see the loadout for a different class I have to move the cursor to the side and then go over it again (at least on Steam Deck). Speaking of, this game plays splendidly on the Steam Deck, hitting 60FPS with graphics settings maxed out. Another weird Steam Deck thing I found was that in the menus, the D-pad was not very responsive and so you’ll want to use the thumbstick.
Now, let’s talk about areas of the game that are weak in my opinion. While the sound effects and sound design are solid, I’m not in love with the soundtrack. It feels kind of bland and I genuinely can’t remember any tunes from it. Also, the characters are stereotypical Scottish dwarves (not the problem) and their quips get kind of old after a while (that’s the problem). In addition, there are only 3 Biomes (aka levels) which hinders the excitement a bit, but the official roadmap (included below) does share that more are on the way.
The game just barely hit Early Access and it’s already a blast to play. The roadmap highlights things such as new weapons, new missions, assignments, Biome Mutators, and even more integration of Bosco into the game. The areas that I highlighted as weak are very minimal or will be addressed before the full launch. One feature that I would like to see implemented in the future is multiplayer. I love playing a multiplayer auto-shooter with my wife and would love to see that option added. If you’re looking for a new auto-shooter, I do highly recommend picking up DRGS! If I had to assign it a score, I’d give it the following:
