I still remember distinctly back in 2018 when Deep Rock Galactic was released in early access. Back then I had friends who were willing to game whenever but at that point in my life, I was extremely busy. In a short period of time I got married, started a new job, moved to a new (but very old) apartment, and had a kid.
You can only imagine how thin (almost non-existent) my free time was. Especially for gaming. Now, fast forward to present, I have more time but friends who are willing to play it? Not so much.
Luckily for me, last year in September they fully released a spin-off called Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, which doesn’t require other people. To make things even better, it was inspired by one of my favorite indie games, Vampire Survivors. I know, a lot of surviving.
This will be a rather short review due to the nature of the game but here are my thoughts about it anyways.
Gameplay
Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor is a first-person single-player mining and shooting game. The main point is clearing sectors that usually consist of different biomes. For each biome you have a certain mission you need to complete.
The way it works is that they drop you in the first cave and you’ll have 4 to 5 minutes to gather materials and level up until you have to move to the next floor. The level up is done by collecting exp from the swarm of enemies that attack you from the moment you touch ground.
Each level up you can pick one upgrade for the arsenal that you have or get along the way.
The game also features 4 playable characters, Driller, Engineer, Scout, and Gunner. Only one is available from the start, and the rest you can unlock by playing more. Each character has 3 special roles that offer unique weapons and bonuses.
I wouldn’t classify it as particularly difficult but there are moments where you’ll need to pay attention from which direction swarms are coming. And maybe pay a little more attention to what weapon you choose.
I’ve been playing it religiously for the first few days but as I went deeper, my progress slowed down due to reduced playtime. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a nice game but once you kinda test various builds and have done a good amount of missions, the game starts to get a bit repetitive. At that point the wisest option for me was to move on to the next game.
Conclusion
If you’re someone with a Steam Deck or proclivity for mining games then Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor is definitely a game for you. As for me, even though I enjoyed playing it and got obsessed with it for a time, I’d still prefer to play Vampire Survivors or Megabonk. Did you ever get a chance to play Deep Rock Galactic when it originally came out? Would you be willing to play with me? Let me know in the comments.
