Aaaah January, the dark time for new game releases. It’s something that I think we all tacitly know about but given the glut of titles that release in the pre-holiday season most people aren’t exactly going wanting for something to play. Then there’s the usual raft of sales as well which does a great job of drowning out any new titles seeking to make a splash on any one particular storefront. It was a phenomena I got most familiar with when my 1-game-per-week rule also included only playing games that year but it became even more apparent when I started doing statistical analysis of releases on Steam. It would seem anyone would do anything to avoid the January release window.
Which is why I found myself rifling through a number of different titles to see what might catch my fancy and, after seeing a mate spend an inordinate amount of time in it, I figured Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor was probably worth a shot.
I’m no stranger to the IP, having played the original Deep Rock Galactic back in 2020, and I think that’s what kept me away from it initially. I remembered it being OK but it didn’t really grab me in a way that made me want to come back for dives after dives, especially when my crew wasn’t playing it on the regular either. Survivor, on the other hand, being both singleplayer and in my current preferred dopamine generator genre: vampire survivors clones (there’s gotta be a better name for this genre as bullet hell doesn’t seem right either) made for the tantalising prospect of it being a game I could lost quite a few hours on.
Survivor feels right at home with other top down isometric style games with its stylized slightly cartoony aesthetic. The low detail is done very deliberately as the game quickly devolves into a screen filled with numerous particle effects, NPCs galore and an ungodly number of calculations that’s sure to stress even the most grunty of PC rigs. That being said though in its default state Survivor seems to run without any issues at all, seemingly only starting to struggle when I was deliberately trying to outrun the largest swarms I’d ever seen which then forced it to spawn even more enemies on me. It was still fully playable even in that messy state though.
The core game loop reminded me of Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel with its numerous permanent progression systems layered on top of the bullet hell/vampire survivor gameplay. You’ll choose a class, take your pick of a number of different scenarios and then go through the usual levelling up/upgrade weapons/spend currency loop that you’re likely largely familiar with. Survivor adds another layer with the gear system it’s included as well as the varying different game modes that help freshen up the otherwise repetitive nature of the core game modes. For those who like to really soak themselves in a game Survivor gives you the opportunity to in spades with its linear progression paths and countless things to unlock along the way.
The combat is solid, if entirely unforgiving. You’ll start off with a single weapon, which you have some choice of, and you’ll then be offered another 3 during the course of the run. As you progress the various character classes and complete challenges you’ll unlock a wide variety of other weapons only some of which will be available to each character class. This enables you to specialise pretty heavily, giving all the min/maxers out there plenty to theorycraft around. You’ll quickly figure out which character class and config suits you best.
For me that seemed to be the driller as in his default state he has two advantages that negate the weaknesses of my particular playstyle. They were a) his starter weapon fires behind him which is a good thing when you’re mostly running from something and b) the fast mining speed allowed me to manoeuvre around the bugs more effectively. Until I unlocked him though I was a big fan of the gunner as you could really lean into the full bullet hell style build with him. Both of those builds were slightly weaker against single target enemies which often lead to me failing right at the end of a run. That is by far one of the biggest letdowns you can have in the game and I won’t deny that I put the game down multiple times because of exactly that happening.
Progression comes steadily enough although if you’re looking for a game that has an inbuilt number of broken builds you won’t be finding it here. It’s clear that everything is gated to gear levels and trying to go to the next hazard level without the requisite gear is likely to be an exercise in frustration. The game tells you that this is basically by design though, so it shouldn’t be unexpected, but if you’re looking for one of those games that you can turn into an endless romp then this probably isn’t the place to go.
Which, I’ll admit, is kind of what I was looking for ala Desktop Survivors 98. Now I’ll be the first to admit that’s my problem, not the game’s, but the weariness I’ve had over every game needing to be challenging seemingly sinks into every title I play these days. I will say that Survivor did win me over in the end as, even though ending a run with a death always feels like a kick in the teeth, I came to appreciate its pick up/put down-ability. It’ll probably make it into casual rotation when I just need something to play and don’t want to have to think to hard about it.
Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor might not have hit all the buttons I was hoping to but it’s a very competent game nonetheless. Combat is fun, progression is steady, there’s a vast variety of things to unlock and it’s very fairly priced to boot. The unfulfilled power fantasy is all on me but it’s something I keep putting out there as I know I can’t be the only one who feels challenge fatigue. All this being said Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor feels like a great game to plug holes inbetween titles, something you can back to and mindlessly grind when the need hits you.
Rating: 8.0/10
Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor is available on PC and Android right now for $18.95. Game was played on the PC with a total of 7.7 hours playtime and 15% of the achievements unlocked.
