So. You take the co-op swarm combat of Left 4 Dead, mix it with the tone of Starship Troopers, and add bit of minecraft into the mix, you may get something nice.

But someone spilled dwarves into the mix. Angry space dwarves. With guns.

Now you have the best damn co-op shooter this side of the galaxy.

THE GOOD
+ Interactive Lobby with a lot to do (including drinking until you pass out)
+ Utility tools that allow player expression and are as much valuable as damage input
+ Good amount of biomes, but little expression and variety of scenarios and structures thanks to the procedural nature therefore lacking on the worldbuilding departament
+ Levels with different mechanics (oxygen administration, natural hazards, etc.)
+ Developers have been addressing the concerns of the community
+ M.U.L.E. is a fun and very helpful companion
+ Returning to the Drop Pod at the end of matches is always intense and defines who lives or dies
+ Different classes with unique arsenals and abilities that determine the role you'll play
+ Each class has well-defined advantages and disadvantages
+ Good enemy variety with different weaknesses and unique mechanics that can surprise and even guarantee some scares; Many requiring team work to be eliminated thanks to the weak points not being fully exposed.
+ Good atmosphere and a very organic soundtrack that provides the necessary feelings.
+ Low lighting and some claustrophobic / rugged sectors contribute a lot to immersion and highlight the usefulness of each class and once again leads to an appreciation for variety and cooperation / communication.
+ Levels are generated considering information such as the number of players in the game and the type of mission
+ Good difficulty; Every bullet counts thanks to limited arsenal
+ Events

THE BAD
- Lack of variety in missions. All have similar goals: Collect and survive / kill
- Designs are not very expressive and all characters are defined by the dwarf archetype
- Progression is mostly restricted to numeric upgrades
- Many recycled enemies
- The enemies' AI is questionable and stays all the time in "kill" mode
- Enemies will focus characters out of combat, allowing allies to revive him without the need to remove antagonistic troops. The lack of urgency and the discouragement of a more planned and cautious approach is a negative factor that breaks the immersion of the game and contradicts the choices intrinsic to its design.
- The lack of tags on top of dwarfs makes it impossible to recognize allies if they choose similar classes making communication frustrating

THE UGLY
- Very grindy

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CONCLUSION:
Although recently out of early access status, Deep Rock Galactic already promises to address feedback from its community. At the moment it can be faced as a very competent game and, despite being quite derivative, manages to build a solid and charismatic approach within its genre. It's still rough on its edges, but the promise of improvement makes it easily a titan of the genre that is already easy to recommend.

THE GOOD
+ Interactive Lobby with a lot to do (including drinking until you pass out)
+ Utility tools that allow player expression and are as much valuable as damage input
+ Good amount of biomes, but little expression and variety of scenarios and structures thanks to the procedural nature therefore lacking on the worldbuilding departament
+ Levels with different mechanics (oxygen administration, natural hazards, etc.)
+ Developers have been addressing the concerns of the community
+ M.U.L.E. is a fun and very helpful companion
+ Returning to the Drop Pod at the end of matches is always intense and defines who lives or dies
+ Different classes with unique arsenals and abilities that determine the role you'll play
+ Each class has well-defined advantages and disadvantages
+ Good enemy variety with different weaknesses and unique mechanics that can surprise and even guarantee some scares; Many requiring team work to be eliminated thanks to the weak points not being fully exposed.
+ Good atmosphere and a very organic soundtrack that provides the necessary feelings.
+ Low lighting and some claustrophobic / rugged sectors contribute a lot to immersion and highlight the usefulness of each class and once again leads to an appreciation for variety and cooperation / communication.
+ Levels are generated considering information such as the number of players in the game and the type of mission
+ Good difficulty; Every bullet counts thanks to limited arsenal

THE BAD
- Lack of variety in missions. All have similar goals: Collect and survive / kill
- Designs are not very expressive and all characters are defined by the dwarf archetype
- Progression is mostly restricted to numeric upgrades
- Many recycled enemies
- The enemies' AI is questionable and stays on all the time in "kill" mode
- Enemies will focus characters out of combat, allowing allies to revive him without the need to remove antagonistic troops. The lack of urgency and the discouragement of a more planned and cautious approach is a negative factor that breaks the immersion of the game and contradicts the choices intrinsic to its design.
- The lack of tags on top of dwarfs makes it impossible to recognize allies if they choose similar classes making communication frustrating
- The map is not intuitive and does not communicate information properly. Furthermore, it does not allow you to move while using it

THE UGLY
- The map and the lack of some basic Quality of Life aspects

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CONCLUSION:
Although recently out of early access status, Deep Rock Galactic already promises to address feedback from its community. At the moment it can be faced as a very competent game and, despite being quite derivative, manages to build a solid and charismatic approach within its genre. It's still rough on its edges, but the promise of improvement makes it easily a titan of the genre that is already easy to recommend.

A co-op survival game that scratches that Left 4 Dead itch, but with a refreshing twist to it. It's less about killing stuff and more about figuring out how to mine an out of reach mineral, without falling to your death.

Leans the perfect amount into dwarven stereotypes, with many types of customizable facial hair, and beer crafting.

Best with friends over voice chat, and can be a pretty chill game when you're not going on Deep Dives or playing on the higher difficulties.

You also have a button that just yells.

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.