i can't say i anticipated enjoying this as much as i do but sometimes my tastes skew far more plain than i posture them. DRG is really charming. in my eyes it's the first cooperative game since L4D2 to really match that game's quickfire energy with accessible yet layered strategizing; the four available classes are idiosyncratic to such an extent that you might feel naked in any given operation without even one of their toolkits. it smartly pairs lite-monster hunter mission variability & team synergization with 2010's procgen & terrain destructibility to create these delicious scenarios where blue-collar panic is the norm as you shuffle and squirm in pitch-black subterranean sprawl. it's you and your dwarven brothers against hordes of starship troopers bugs, a wealth of toxic environs, and really all manners of cave fauna...as well as plenty of other surprises (both the extent of enemy and mission variability were genuine delights to me). i have a fondness for these kinds of titles - one where environment is integral to engagement, not just as a means of circumnavigation but as something that can be excavated, twisted, molded, and manipulated to create opportunity. the missions where you have to construct labyrinthine pipelines (and then RAIL GRIND ON THEM) or clumsily build connections to power machinery throughout convoluted geometry that has been torn apart by explosive combat, awkward digs, or meteor intervention set my brain alight. no more words only rock and stone.

>Playing Deep Rock Galactic
>Walk up to dwarf
>Yell "rock and stone"
>He yells "rock and stone"

it's the little things lads

Deep Rock has transformed from a "just okay" game a couple of years ago into one of my favorite co-op games. The continued support by the developers here has added a lot of depth to the gameplay without making it overly convoluted, as well as some fun progression and cosmetics through their excellent free battlepass system (notably without the FOMO, all items you miss out on are added into a pool of loot you can get later).

The classes here are very well designed, each with a very distinct identity, and you're always missing some tool from another class when you switch. They also encourage natural teamwork through how their unique abilities combine, for example the Scout can use their grappling hook to get to hard to reach minerals higher up and the Engineer can use their platform gun to create a place for the Scout to stand. This combined with the reward structure of your entire team getting the same benefits for completing missions encourages everyone to work together, and even playing this in random public lobbies most people are very nice and cooperative.

The real star of the game, however, is the procedural generation. I've played a ton of games with procedural levels, and I like many of them, but almost all start to feel same-y over time and you start noticing the patterns in them. DRG's levels are so detailed and natural that I haven't yet felt like I've been in the same room twice. There are definitely distinct biomes, and you'll become familiar with those and some of their recurring traits, but each mission feels like a new and unique level within that biome. It's so natural that you don't even notice it as a positive while you're playing most of the time, but thinking about it afterwards you realize that you haven't been playing handcrafted levels. Combining the generation with how distinct all of the different mission types and side objectives feel, it's easy to see how you could dump hundreds of hours into this game without it getting old.

There's still a lot of the later game stuff I haven't explored yet. At the time of writing I've only promoted one class and am close to doing so for a second one, but haven't explored most of the options with the other two and have yet to scratch the surface of Deep Dives and Overclocks. I just wanted to write a review and update my score here because I think the updates to this game have really transformed it from an interesting but slightly shallow game to something I see being in my regular rotation for a long time to come.

Rock and stone

December 18th, 2022
9:01pm
Hazard 5
Egg Hunt with Ebonuts as a secondary objective

Another day playing Deep Rock with two of my friends that have already played this game for over four hundred hours to the point that Hazard 5 is the only way they can even be challenged more. I played Gunner and my friends picked Scout and Engineer respectively due to their synergy. The mission was going smoothly until a meteor hit in our map and we decided to try and do it. The rock crackers spawned way higher up than anticipated and we didn't have a driller so we spent the next twenty minutes trying to set up cables to the rock while fighting for life and death during it. Just as we got the first cable, two bulk detonators show and almost wipe us if not for the fact that I had Iron Will and managed to recover. Our engineer has essentially placed platforms on every location of this big room just to properly place cables and we were already regretting not bringing a driller (I should've went driller). We ended up deciding for our scout to go actually complete the main objectives while I help our engineer with the cables because sunk cost fallacy was starting to kick in. We eventually ran out of Nitra (ammo and health) and our Scout and I managed to get the rest of the materials to actually leave because we essentially had enough ammo for one more group of enemies. My friend insisted we do the event because after spending thirty minutes setting up cables just to leave, it would probably hurt so we ended up doing it. We got destroyed almost immediately. 50 minutes in that cave and we failed utterly with nothing to show for it. But it was the most memorable and fun experience I had in Deep Rock Galactic regardless and why I finally decided to write my thoughts finally.

I love co-op experiences and more specifically co-op hoard shooters of the first person nature.

I've played every notable one from the original Left 4 Dead, Payday 1 and 2, both Vermintides, both Killing Floor 1 and 2, every Borderlands game even the recent Back 4 Blood and the weird part is despite their flaws, with my most hours being over one thousand hours in Left 4 Dead 2. I had fun with each of them to an extent although the "It's more fun with friends" idea does play a large role in my general enjoyment of these titles. I remember being so happy when I got my first laptop and a copy of Left 4 Dead 2 after I made my steam account. Ever since falling off Left 4 Dead 2 and hopping on more competitive team shooters (Team Fortress 2 and Overwatch), I was looking for "the one". The one co-op game I can always come back to in my late twenties that I did for Left 4 Dead 2 in my teen years. Deep Rock Galactic has proven in the two years since I've owned the game and the one hundred and sixty five hours I've poured into it by myself or with my friends that it might actually be "the one".

If I had to spell it out a bit more, Deep Rock Galactic is a co-op first person shooter in which assume the role of one of four dwarves as you do extremely dangerous mining work for Deep Rock Galactic, the namesake of the game and the big corporation you work for. You start right off the bat that working for Deep Rock Galactic is essentially like working for Amazon in that you're completely expendable and are doing the bare minimum to even keep you here. There's no real narrative device driving the experience here other than giving you a premise and the means for it. Going deep is like your nine to five, killing bugs and mining morkite is another Monday for you.

Once you pick a mission from the multitude of main mission types and varied biomes, you're off into the dark depths. The game has four main classes each with a variety of tools as your disposal. The gunner is the guy that never lets go of the fire button with his big minigun, shield to protect your team when a swarm is upon you and a zipline as a utility navigation tool for your team; the engineer is great at holding down a spot with his shotgun and turret which can provide covering fire when you need to transport heavy rocks or precious minerals with being able to create platforms that look like nilla wafers as his utility navigation tool; the scout is your most quick and nimble class with his iconic grappling hook on a low cooldown that lets you dance around the cave in record time as his navigation tool with his utility to the team being a flare gun that can light up even the most dim of areas; last but not least is the driller with his crowd control, explosive armament and his drills for arms as his utility to the team as he can quickly dig through anything to make opening or even tunnels to quickly escape oblivion. No one class is better than the other and if you're missing one, you're gonna sorely miss it with my recent experience but the best part is that everyone can synergize well and it never feels like you're lacking something with a team of one each. An iconic combo is engineer creating platforms in high up places for Scout to grab materials or objective for instance. The caves themselves are one of the crowning jewels of this whole experience too. From an outside perspective, it sounds like procedurally generated would lack polish or even detail that a handcrafted level would make but it complements with the classes well as it allows player expression in how you want to approach things. You are not limited to the walls of the game at all and everything is destructible from the bugs, the walls and everything in between. I think giving the classes these tools to mold the environment into what they want is the best thing you can do when you approach making maps like these. It never feels tedious since you can always forge your own path and you never have the same experience even though I feel like I've seen some similar room layouts but with so many variations to them with how everything can be destroyed that I never notice this and even acknowledging the fact that I'll never notice this. This is all how you can magical moments like my initial memorable recent experience.

Fortunately there's a lot more to it with customization of your own dwarves themselves with a huge majority of the cosmetics being completely able to earn without spending a dime other than the cosmetic dlc packs. The game even has a season pass that's free and doesn't even incite FOMO (fear of missing out) due to the items in the pass eventually being able to be earned ingame later on at no cost. I really think this is one of the best strengths of Deep Rock Galactic: being able to stop playing for a while and come back with feeling like you missed out or behind in any sense. Even the current christmas event gives you every cosmetic you missed out on just for logging in. Apart from fashion, there's customization in the gameplay sense in your tools of the trade. Every class as of this point in time has three main weapons, three secondary weapons and four types of grenades with the weapons having aesthetic customization along with being able to tune the specifics of each gun. More ammo, faster firing speed, more damage to more elaborate tuning like making your plasma rifle shots do splash damage instead of precision damage. The best part is that each weapon acts, shoots and even feels completely different from each counterpart. An example is that the Scout gets a regular assault rifle, the universe equivalent of the M1 Garand or a plasma rifle that shoots out quick plasma balls extremely quick. Gameplay customization goes a bit further with being able to modify your armor properties, how your utility tools work and which grenades to use and even a perk system. Passive perks that grant passive bonus and more active ones that range from giving you a second chance at the cost of going down again soon, hover boots so you can mitigate fall damage more of even the ability to befriend a bug and make them your own ally. Once you get promoted (level a class to 25 and complete the assignment designated to it), you get access to overclocks and deep dives which act like extra things to do more than just purely endgame stuff. Overclocks is where you can unlock more customization options for your guns and dwaves from a fashion sense but also can completely change the way a gun acts and even works. Some are pretty safe but some upgrades, some are an exchange of good and bad and some are drastic like changing the grenade launcher into a fat man from fallout with way less ammo. You can really make most things work too which is the coolest thing but I feel there's never a rush to get something as it feels more lax in progression in general.

Something I don't usually talk about is the community in online games since they're usually par for the course in my experience but Deep Rock Galactic makes playing with randoms surprisingly fluid and fun with how chill everyone usually is. There's a ping system and people are usually quick to talk if they want someone to something specifically but missions in Hazard 3-4 (I usually play these with randoms) go pretty smooth with no problems at all. Even Hazard 5 which leaves little room for error has some people helpful people that rarely rage and know exactly what to do, they rarely put you down and try to bring you up rather which is pretty refreshing. I did get one person that decided to spam platforms in the drop pod so we couldn't leave but that was one incident out of over a hundred of hours of gameplay. With that said, this is just my personal experience mostly playing with randoms in these Hazard levels and there's always a solo experience that's great too if you prefer to play with pause or none of your friends are online right now.

It wouldn't be farfetched to call Deep Rock an "ugly" game due to the amount of polygons being lower than a Rick and Morty fan's IQ but then you realize this game is only like 3GB with me starting out two years ago when the game was only 1GB. In 2020, the game was just about as big as a PSP game with still a lot to do. The game does a great job with the environments themselves being extremely unique with their own dangers themselves. In terms of general performance, it's pretty good and wouldn't be too hard to run on relatively modern computers except when swarms comes and on higher difficulties when there's more of them in general. The soundtrack is just as excellent with music switching from ambient electronic when things are going smoothly until mission control picks up several praetorians are here with the sound of the minigun slowly revving up. When all is said done, it's time to go and the bugs won't let you leave as it becomes everything or nothing as hell literally dragging your heels to keep you here as you rush towards that drop pod since it won't be there for you forever with a triumphant synth playing over when nobody is truly left behind.

I can understand the format not being for everyone and I don't think it's a perfect game for everyone in general sense but it's hard to deny Ghost Ship Games's labor of love that has paid dividends in the gaming space to the fact that I sing its praises and even bought the supporter upgrade in support of these devs. Every gameplay oriented update is free and the only DLC is cosmetic packs not to mention the game is regularly on sale for 9-14 bucks with the current price being 9.90 at the time of writing this review. If you want something to play with your friends, this should be the first pick.

Rock and stone.

It's... ok. It serves as a good multiplayer game that you can mindlessly play while talking to friends, but I don't really think it has much other than that going for it. Having the characters' abilities focus on teamwork is great, but I find the upgrades really dissapointing since they don't expand how you can interact with the environment due to them just consisting of plain numbers. Consequently, all builds feel the same and there's no option to change things up unless you switch to another class.

I was also really dissapointed since I remember the "you can mine the whole map!" stuff being presented as a selling point. While it is true that you can mine pretty much anything, it amounts to nothing since you'll just arrive at a dead end and it's really slow unless you're the driller.

Overall, Deep Rock Galatic is passable as a way to play a simple game with friends, but its lack of depth quickly rears its ugly head.

Deep Rock Galactic is a magical game in which there is a dedicated button on the controller to throw up your pickaxe and yell some variation of “ROCK AND STONE!” to your fellow dwarves. About to head out on a mission? ROCK AND STONE! Thanking your ally for a revive? ROCK AND STONE! Having drinks and dancing at the bar? ROCK! AND! STONE!

Deep Rock Galactic is easily one of my favorite multiplayer games of the last decade. It’s a co-operative 4-player game where you each take on the role of a different dwarf with their own unique loadouts including 2 guns, 1 traversal tool, 1 grenade, and 1 miscellaneous item. Every mission has you battling through hoards of crab-like alien things as you mine resources, capture alien eggs, repair lost equipment, or build sick grindrails to refine liquid metals. It is genuinely incredibly fun and is built to work the best in multiplayer as you’re all using your unique abilities to set up ziplines, drill holes, and build platforms around a level and try to keep each other alive.

Between missions, you’ll retire to your space station where you can drink beer, dance, and goof around kicking barrels. Or you can do actually important things like unlocking new weapons, abilities, and dumb cosmetics to personalize your dwarf’s appearance. The cosmetics in this game are mostly underwhelming, but the nice thing is it’s all free. The season pass and the in-game cosmetic shop are 100% free and there are no premium currencies in the game. But considering the quality of the cosmetics on the season pass, my group was never that enthusiastic about progressing through it to maybe unlock a slightly different mustache from the one I currently have, or different color of camo print for my armor.

The biggest drawback of the game is the late-game progression loop. Once you hit a certain level, you hit a wall - leveling slows down dramatically, you stop unlocking things quickly, and your time feels less rewarding. Additionally, while it’s fine to stick with your one favorite dwarf in the beginning, the late-game progression loop basically punishes you for not dividing your time between the 4 dwarves, which requires even more of a time investment. The endgame introduces a mechanic called “The Forge” which allows you to unlock unique weapon mods, weapon skins, and other cosmetics that you can’t get in the rest of the game. The problem is, it is completely random which dwarf you will unlock these items for. Despite the beards, hairstyles, weapon skins, and all other cosmetics being common across all dwarves, you only unlock access to any of those for one dwarf at a time. After about a dozen hours of endgame content, I unlocked maybe 4-5 items for my dwarf and 20 other items for the dwarves I was not playing as. Nothing lets the wind out of your sails more than spending 2 hours working through a challenging set of missions only to be rewarded with two items for a dwarf you don’t play. Instead of feeling motivated to bounce between different dwarves and triple-down on the time spent in the game, our group just felt like our time was wasted and got discouraged from even playing more of the endgame content.

Despite our frustrations with the endgame loop not feeling rewarding for casual play, our group still had a ton of fun with this game. I looked forward to our weekly mining adventures with our goofy dwarves and for the variety of in-game events Deep Rock Galactic had to offer. I expect we will check back in from time-to-time as they continue to update the game, but for now, after 60 hours of dedication to our dwarven friends, we hang up our pickaxes and give one final “Rock and Stone!”

+ Top-tier multiplayer fun
+ Great gameplay loop with good game feel
+ Good weapon and class variety
+ Fantastic personality with a great vibe
+ Good ongoing support
+ Season passes and cosmetics included for free

- End-game gets grindy
- Random rewards that often doesn't give you gear for your current character
- Missions can eventually get repetitive
- Cosmetics kind of boring

Deep Rock Galactic is the prime example of a game where I was extremely hyped by user reviews on steam and it ended up being a merely good game. I gotta give reviews, especially user reviews on steam less importance.
I was expecting there to be a lot more content and a lot more progression and leveling of skills and gear. It’s been out of early access for a while, so I reckon there won’t be coming much more regularly.
It’s concept however is very nice, it has been a lot of fun playing in coop for a couple of sessions until you far too early reach a point where you feel you’ve done this already. The biomes are beautiful and the mission types that are in there are distinct enough, so that exploring the procedurally generated caves is quite fun. But the payout after each mission has got to be the least exciting ‘filling of bars’ and ‘accumulating $$$’ I’ve ever experienced in a game.
It’s a shame we have abandoned this already after beating the campaign, because I feel like the game never really reached its full potential.