Deep Rock Galactic is a sci-fi themed multiplayer first-person shooter game published by Coffee Stain Publishing and developed by Ghost Ship Games. It supports up to four players online. The game location is set on the alien planet Hoxxes IV. As a dwarf miner of the Deep Rock Galactic Company, the player will dig for gems and minerals from the depths of the planet's surface, and defend from the attacks of alien creatures known as Zergs when mining. The game has a 100% destructible terrain giving players plenty of freedom to explore and a good variety of enemies to battle.

The overall experience of the game is still very good, especially with a cooperative Left 4 Dead component to it, but at the same time there is a similar feeling to GTFO. The game uses a cartoon artstyle, and when destroying the environment you cannot help but make comparisons to Minecraft. After my first time playing Deep Rock Galactic, I was immediately hooked on it.

The game supports 1-4 player cooperation, also letting players choose from 4 different classes each having their own weapons and abilities. With your lineup according to your own preferences, coupled with the mutual cooperation between teammates, you can complete the task efficiently. In Deep Rock Galactic, there are four classes to choose from, scout, gunner, engineer and driller. Each of the four classes has its own characteristics, gameplay, weapons, tools, and skills. You can also unlock new skills and modify them for each class.

Deep Rock Galactic also has a large amount of enemies and materials giving a huge amount of variety for players to keep coming back again and again.

Finding the perfect team composition and having each teammate work together is the key to a successful expedition. This is also the key ingredient to what makes Deep Rock Galactic so entertaining. In the more difficult levels, lacking teamwork is a recipe for disaster. You’ll soon find yourself overwhelmed by the massive amount of enemies that will swarm you.

The difficulty is well balanced, with areas being dark and having to find ore which has been spread out. Having enemies swarm you as you get the last few materials you need is incredibly intense. Using each classes’ abilities helps you navigate the terrain for example ore located in higher places can be retrieved by using a zip line (similar to Pathfinder from Apex Legends).

The most difficult part is the evacuation phase after collecting the ore. Players must evacuate within a limited time, otherwise they will fail. At this time, a large number of aliens will swarm the players forcing them to survive wave after wave of enemies. If this isn’t scary enough, the cave will also collapse on the players so escaping together quickly is crucial.

After playing the game, it gave me a sense of the massive amount of potential this game has. The cartoon style of the game makes the overall tone more entertaining. At the same time, the sensation and feedback of the ore mining is also very good. Even though the game is incredibly fun, adding extra classes and abilities will undoubtedly attract more players. In the single-player mode, the overall difficulty of the game is still too hard. During the early stages of the game when weapons have yet to be upgraded, the damage you do is minimal. This is especially obvious when having to deal with swarms of enemies by yourself. Depending on the terrain it can be almost impossible to deal with them yourself. Another issue in single player is the ammo consumption being really high. Even when calling for more resources, you can only recover 50% of your total ammo. This is clearly not enough when playing on your own. This is also an issue in multiplayer, when summoning extra supplies you still only recover 50% of total ammo that is shared across all of your teammates which is punishing for those playing a class which relies on ammunition.

The visual style can also be an issue with players that have vertigo and motion sickness. Traversing the terrain for long periods of time could cause some problems.

These issues should be considered based on your needs and requirements. One of the biggest positives however is that the game itself doesn’t demand the latest hardware. Even on lower end PCs you should be able to enjoy the game without sacrificing graphical quality.

At present, this game has a consistent high score on all major video game websites. IGN gave 9 points and claimed that this is the best 4-player cooperative game. At the same time, it has also received a 96% praise rate on Steam (Making it Overwhelmingly Positive with players). Metacritic review scores are at an impressive 87 out of 100 and user scores still give it a solid 8.5 out of 10. Clearly Deep Rock Galactic is worth your attention, thanks to the quality of the gameplay. So if you are interested, it is well worth giving it a try.

Deep Rock Galactic