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Your author actually made it out of this, but not that much further. (credit: Kevin Purdy/Ghost Ship Games)
Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor
started as a talk over a beer between two development teams, according to Søren Lundgaard, CEO of Ghost Ship Games. Ghost Ship, ramping up its publishing arm after the multi-year success of
Deep Rock Galactic
, gave Funday Games license to graft its quirky dwarven corporate dystopia onto the auto-shooting likes of
Vampire Survivors
.
I'm glad they had that beer, and even more glad they've offered up the resulting game for Early Access on Windows PC via Steam (and Steam Deck, and Linux via Proton).
Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor
is my favorite of the genre I sometimes call "strategic walking." I am, of course, biased by the flavor and familiarity with
Deep Rock
Galactic
(
DRG
). But the elements of
DRG
Funday has put into
DRG:
Survivor
makes for a fun, cohesive game, one that's easy to play in sessions and not be overwhelmed—mentally, at least. Bug-wise, you are absolutely going to get trampled.
Launch trailer for
Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor
.
We
peeked at
Survivor
in June,
and it's gotten a lot of polish since then, along with entirely new character classes, biomes, and upgrade mechanics. The basic mechanics remain the same: You complete mission objectives and mine resources while an increasing horde of insectoids chases you, and your weapons automatically fire at them. Some weapons shoot in wide patterns, some blast up close, and others do things like hone in on the creature with the most hit points. The big decisions you make are where do you move, so as to pick up dropped experience points and angle your shooting, and what do you pick for your upgrades when they come available.