Deep Rock Galactic

What this game lacks in graphics, it makes up for in everything else. I have to admit I thought it was pointless at first. I did two missions and set it aside. Then I gave it another go and after 4 missions, I started feeling the hype and started getting what the fans are talking about. Let me say what makes this game incredible: It gives you the perfect balance between a foreboding sense of terror, action and incredible teamwork. I was plugging tubes to our ship on one mission while a ginormous spider ghost ( you read that right!) was following a teammate. I pinged it, my dwarf shouting, "By the beard, what's that monstrosity!" which was exactly what was in my head. I ran and tried to grab the ghost's attention only to hear our command center saying, "Swarm!!! There's a swarm coming your way!" and sure enough, as I looked at the only exit route, a flood of crawling spiders came out. This is just an example of what makes this game incredible. That and the amount of references to LOTR, Warhammer, etc.

With another weekend I decided to try another PS5 game that the PlayStation plus service has provided me with, that being "Deep Rock Galactic". I only played this one for a few hours before deciding that it's not the one for me.

"Deep Rock Galactic" is a first person, shooting, exploration and mining game. In which you play a Dwarf, blasted to the caves of a distant planet and have to mine specific ores and minerals whilst defending yourself against an onslaught of alien creatures of various sizes. The class of dwarf you select effects the loadout of the weapons at your disposal. Though the game can be played in single player, it's designed to be played by a small group of 4 players, working as a team to eliminate the threats and complete the mission.

And there in lies the problem for me. I don't particularly enjoy online co-op games, especially one that requires communication between the teammates in order to achieve the goal. I only ever played this in single play then, which for me wasn't a particularly exciting or memorable experience. I was stumbling around the dark, quite a bit - unsure where to head to next or which direction the enemies were coming from.

The mechanics were OK, though by my own admittance I didn't really play long enough to get used to some aspects of the controls, I never really got used to where the map was, or the way the grenades worked. I didn't particularly like the pressurised end of level mechanic either - when you've finished mining and filled the "mule" robot to the requirement, you can send it walking to a rendezvous point and then you have a limited amount of time to make it their too, or risk being left behind.

I'm prepared to accept that the issue here might be with me, rather than the game itself. The other review posted here currently talks about giving up at around the point I did, but then coming back and finding the game really clicking for them. I'm not prepared to give it that chance, I'm afraid.

I have basically no complaints about this game

The gameplay is fun and engaging, the art style is beautiful and the music perfectly compliments the game with slow, immersive tracks like Fathomless Tomb that play during cave exploration and fast paced tracks like Dance of the Dreadnought that play during combat. The community is one of the kindest, most welcoming videogame communities I've ever had the pleasure of interacting with. In the ~500 co-op missions I've played I can count on one hand the number of times I've encountered a toxic player. While DRG may at first seem repetitive, the 4 classes, 24 weapons, huge variety of weapon upgrades and overclocks, 10 biomes, 8 mission types, many mission mutators and enemy types always ensure that no two missions are exactly the same. Deep Rock Galactic has become a very special game to me. It's the perfect game to play with friends for more relaxed and team oriented first person shooter when we're not in the mood for more competitive games. Thanks for reading my review. Rock and Stone.