First Impressions: DEEP ROCK GALACTIC: SURVIVOR is my new favorite auto shooter

Deep Rock Galactic is a beloved co-op FPS from Ghost Ship Games and now it has its first spin-off. Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor comes from developer Funday Games and publisher Ghost Ship Publishing. It takes the world and characters of the original and transports them into an auto-shooter inspired by games like Vampire survivors. The game launched on Steam via Early Access in February and is now available for $9.99 from Steam or Humble (affiliate link). The team provided me with a free copy for the purposes of this review.

Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor is a single-player survivor style auto shooter. Wield the full arsenal of Deep Rock Galactic, face hordes of deadly aliens, extract riches, and unlock powerful upgrades. It’s a dwarf against all the planet Hoxxes!

AS Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor (DRGS in the future) is right now in Early Access, this is less of a review and more of a first impression. The basic premise of the game is that you can choose between one of four classes, one of three starting builds, and one of three biomes to go mining for materials. As you mine, you will have to ward off different insect creatures, and the ultimate goal of each level is to defeat the big insect boss. As you level up, you’ll choose one of four upgrades, and every few levels you’ll add a new weapon to your arsenal. Eventually, you can also get bigger weapon upgrades called Overclock that greatly affect your build. After each run, you can purchase account upgrades with the materials you’ve mined.

I’m loving this game to death. The terrain is really interesting and you can manipulate it as if you were mining it, adding a layer of strategy. You can try to funnel the bugs, you can accidentally open the path and walk straight into the swarm. Adding overclocks on top of the standard level increases really helps you tweak your playstyle late in the game. Also, having a set goal of lasting long enough to fight a big bug, kill a big bug, and go down another level really helps me stay more engaged. It sounds like more than just “surviving for 30 minutes!” Also, on each floor, you are given the task of collecting X number of a certain item and if you complete that task you get a good amount of experience and gold. DRGS takes a very simple gameplay formula and adds a few extra layers of interest.

The four classes are pretty fun and Engineer is perhaps my favorite. To make things better, each class has a number of equipment you can choose from. One issue that I’m sure will be fixed is that to see a different class’s gear I have to move the cursor to the side and then swipe it again (at least on Steam Deck). By the way, this game runs beautifully on Steam Deck, hitting 60FPS with graphics settings maxed out. Another strange thing I found on the Steam Deck is that in the menus the D-pad wasn’t very responsive and so we recommend using the thumbstick.

Now let’s talk about the areas of the game that I think are weak. While the sound effects and sound design are solid, I’m not in love with the soundtrack. It seems a bit bland and I honestly can’t remember any parts of it. Also, the characters are stereotypical Scottish dwarves (not the problem) and their jokes get old after a while (that’s the problem). Additionally, there are only 3 biomes (aka levels) which hinders the excitement a bit, but the official roadmap (included below) states that more are on the way.

The game just arrived in Early Access and is already a fun to play. The roadmap highlights things like new weapons, new missions, quests, biome mutators, and even more integration of Bosco into the game. The areas I have highlighted as weak are either minimal or will be addressed before the full launch. One feature I would like to see implemented in the future is multiplayer. I love playing a multiplayer auto shooter with my wife and would love to see this option added. If you are looking for a new automatic shooter, I highly recommend you buy it DRGS! If I had to give it a score, I would give it this: