I still can’t quite believe Vampire Survivors popularised a subgenre. I’m not mad at it – I adore it. But who would have predicted such a simple-looking and simple-playing thing would inspire such a following? A game in which all you do is move an auto-attacking character around while avoiding the swarms of enemies chasing after you. A game about choosing the right upgrades. It became an obsession! So the copycats and variations followed. But their job was harder: they couldn’t simply recreate it. This brings us to Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, released in 1.0 today, a variation on the theme. And I’m pleased to say it’s marvellous.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise because Deep Rock Galactic, the group-based co-op mining and ‘survive against hordes of aliens’ shooter that blew-up a few years ago was also marvellous. And would you believe it, the concept translates perfectly to the Vampire Survivors idea. You are a dwarven miner sent to dig gold and precious minerals while avoiding hordes of enemies. Kill the baddies, mine the goods, earn XP to level-up and unlock weapons, and repeat until you kill a boss and escape. So much is familiar. Yet there are differences, and it’s here Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor earns its applause.
Number one: mining. This serves as the core theme of the game but it also adds an important mechanical purpose. Along with auto-attacking, the dwarf you control also auto-mines. Run towards a rocky pile to steadily bash it down, which you will need to do to collect the gold and gemmy things which serve as currency in the game and, therefore, determine what you can spend on upgrades between levels. This makes them very important. But you also need mine simply to plough new routes through the level around you, which is essential for escaping overwhelm by surrounding swarms of enemies. Tactical burrowing for the win.
Mining becomes the primary consideration each time you start a level, then, as you search quickly for gold and minerals before swarms begin to amass and mining becomes riskier. Bashing rock with a horde at your back is dangerous in case you get boxed in, so you’d best do it early. Mining therefore gives urgency and purpose to the game.
Difference number two: multi-stage missions. Unlike in Vampire Survivors, a run in Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor is broken into connected shorter stages – four, I believe. Each stage ends with a mini-boss battle and each multi-stage run ends in a boss fight. This condenses the action and allows it to build more quickly than in Vampire Survivors, where it can be a slow-burn and take 15 minutes before your screen fills with an exciting amount of enemies. The break between stages also plays an important part in the upgrade strategy of the game, as you buy new abilities, and underlines the importance again of collecting currency minerals to spend on them. Note that you do also earn a choice of power-ups by collecting XP when killing enemies during the level, as in Vampire Survivors.
This broken-up level approach allows Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor to have a more structured campaign than simply trying to survive for 30 minutes as in Vampire Survivors, which I like. It feels more snackable and encouraging, as you clear earlier challenges and move onto harder ones, and complete a few successful roguelike loops of the game, unlocking beneficial new upgrades and – in this case – gear to equip your dwarves with.
There’s a lot here. The campaign has multiple sectors that contain multiple, multiple-stage levels, with harder ‘gate’ levels separating them. Then there are Mastery, Anomaly Dive, Vanguard Contract, and Lethal Operation variations of them. And still that’s not all; there’s an entire, alternate Escort Duty campaign to change the primary objective when you play.
Mix this with a series of staggered character and level unlocks, and it’s a variation on Vampire Survivors that’s bulging with content and confidence – and some new ideas. Too much? Perhaps. It does feel dense with objectives and ‘things to do’ in a way Vampire Survivors felt blissfully clear of. But such is the responsibility of coming after. Such is the responsibility of needing to justify one’s challenge, one’s existence, and Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor does that undeniably. The thrills of the subgenre Vampire Survivor unexpectedly created are in full effect here, and they’re as potent as they’ve ever been.
A copy of Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor was provided by Ghost Ship Publishing.
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