Five years ago, Ghost Ship Games released Deep Rock Galactic, a cooperative title where up to four players took on the roles of space dwarves tasked with mining resources, battling hordes of aliens, and completing objectives before extraction. Now, Funday Games, in collaboration with Ghost Ship, revisits that universe to create something different: Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, a reinterpretation of the original game within a new genre.
This time, the game dives into the realm of the Bullet Heaven, a relatively new subgenre that flips the formula of the classic Bullet Hell. Instead of dodging countless projectiles, the player is the one generating the bullet storm. The objective is to explore different planets to collect resources, while your character automatically fires at endless waves of enemies. After several rounds, a boss appears, and defeating it allows you to move on to the next stage up to a total of five per planet.
The collected resources are used to upgrade abilities, unlock new characters, game modes, and higher difficulty levels. The entire experience follows a Roguelike structure, where progress depends on repeating the same sequences over and over again at a pace that can feel painfully slow. However, the gameplay is so addictive and easy to pick up that it’s hard to put down: you don’t even have to press buttons to attack, just move, dodge, and choose upgrades after each round.
Visually, the game stands out among others in the genre, which often rely on retro or pixel art aesthetics. Here, everything is fully rendered in 3D, featuring models from the original game, along with impressive lighting and reflective effects that give it a polished, modern look.
Unfortunately, Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor lacks a meaningful narrative, offering little motivation to keep playing beyond unlocking content or experimenting with new characters and planets. While its gameplay is solid and its technical presentation shines, the absence of narrative depth and its repetitive nature eventually wear down the experience. Moreover, its release on consoles or PC feels questionable, as its design seems better suited for short, mobile-style play sessions.
Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor delivers a fun and visually impressive experience that shines within the Bullet Heaven genre, but its lack of depth and narrative motivation keep it from being truly memorable.
Final Score: 4/5
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