Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor Review

Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor Review

EARLY ACCESS

Everyone wants to give Vampire Survivors its flowers and they should because it’s an incredible game. How can something that appears so basic, be satisfying beyond belief and extremely addictive?

Here's the thing, I think Deep Rock Galactic Survivor is better in almost every way and it comes down to a few simple things

ROCK AND STONE

I played a few hours of Deep Rock Galactic, but could never get a reliable group to play consistently. However, those few hours introduced me to the core elements of the series and how much fun it could be due to procedural caves to mine, chaos to find and plenty of bugs to kill.

When it comes to survivor-likes or bullet heavens, you don’t need much time to make judgement. You will pretty much know right away if a game has what it takes.

What truly enriches the experience is staying faithful to the series roots. Despite transplanting the IP to a completely different genre, changing from co-op to single player, Deep Rock Galactic Survivor still retains the core elements of mining and blasting bugs.

Without a doubt, the implementation of Deep Rock elements creates a more stragtic and tactical approach that reverse bullet hells don’t normally offer. The two major inclusions are mining and drop pods

In Deep Rock Galactic, you will eventually back yourself into a corner and will be forced to mine your way out. You also cant get used to the maps because they are procedural, which not only adds to the deployability , but adds limitations that don’t allow you to go on infinitely. Unlike others in the genre, you can’t just kite your enemies around forever. There is a sense of fear and claustraphobia that doesn’t exist in other survivor-likes no matter how many enemies are closing in.

The other side of mining is there are precious minerals littered all over the map, which are required for permanent upgrades after each run. However attempting to mine these minerals will make your character extremely vulnerable by going somewhere you shouldn’t be or focusing efforts on mining instead of killing bugs. Then if you factor in the mining upgrades, you are then forced to make tough decisions on what should have more importance. Should you make stronger weapons to survive now or faster mining to benefit the long term.

Instead of trying to see how long you can last, Deep Rock Galactic Survivor has levels as you drill down deeper towards that core. You face 5 levels each with the first 4 having a mini boss and the final level being a mega boss. Between each level you have the ability to upgrade or heal, depending on how much importance you put into mining precious minerals.

The big caveat is that you have to get back to your drop pod to be eligible for these upgrades and to progress your mission. Once you complete your objectives on the level, your drop pod will arrive and will give you a certain amount of time to get on or it will leave without you ending your mission. It might feel unfair, but it adds a level of strategy that I appreciated even if the pod left without me sometimes.

DIAMONDS

In addition to adding a level of strategy foreign to the genre, Deep Rock Galactic looks and sounds spectacular. The game takes place in caverns across five different biomes and thanks to the great lighting effects it’s a pleasure to be trapped in here with all of these bugs.

There is plenty to do from daily missions, weekly missions, as well as mastery runs to boost levels of characters, weapons and biomes. Each biomes also comes with five different difficulty levels. Deep Rock Galactic brought over the four familiar dwarf classes from the original IP and each one has three subclasses with different traits to approach each mission as you prefer.

There is always a carrot dangling in front of you with some many bars to fill, which constantly incenitvizes you for just one more run and with a very clear UI, you always are aware of what you are working towards and how far from achieving that goal that you are.

The entire package is wrapped in a less than serious tone as still play as dwarves who work for The Deep Rock Galactic mining corporation who will profit on your death. There are loads of quips from your character, as well as your employer and some are quite funny including when you succeed at run they say “I guess we don’t need to pay four guys to do this job, we just need to give you more guns”

COAL

It’s hard to find a lot to critique about when you are judging Deep Rock Galactic in the vacuum of bullet heavens. Deep Rock Galactic Survivor runs flawlessly on Steam Deck and despite how simple the genre might seem, the visuals and lighting are light years above the competition. This is especially evident when you get near the end of the run, with all the different types of bugs, explosions, elemental effects, mining and the visual remain rock solid.

The issue is that Deep Rock Galactic Survivor devourers battery life on Steam Deck, possibly worse than anything I have played on it. If performance can be optimized before Deep Rock Galactic Survivor leaves Early Access that would be a huge plus.

There are plenty of voice lines, but it would be great if they added in a few more because after you have done the same planet with the same dwarf, you begin to hear repeated lines. Luckily, they never cross over into annoying territory with repetition.

VERDICT

Call it whatever you want: survivor-like, reverse bullet hell, bullet heaven, auto shooter or anything else, it doesn’t matter because not only does Deep Rock Galactic Survivor have that addictively satistying loop, but it adds in a level of strategy that just isn’t present in other genre titles. Considering this is still in early access, Deep Rock Galactic Survivor is extremely polished and according to the road map what’s left to focus on is refine and add more content.

Just like for a while you couldn’t talk about Battle Royale without talking about PUBG, you cant talk about bullet heavens without talking about Vampire Survivors. Deep Rock Galactic Survivors is a massive success because it isn’t trying to be Vampire Survivors with a Deep Rock Spin, it’s trying to be Deep Rock with a Vampire Survivor spin. Deep Rock Galactic Survivor is an exceptional bullet heaven experience.

DEEP ROCK GALACTIC SURVIVOR SCORE

9/10

Reviewed by Darren Andrew