The survivors-like genre (as coined by the game Vampire Survivors, despite the idea predating that game by decades) is a surprisingly tough nut to crack. What on the surface appears to be a simple matter of “Lots of enemies, automatic attacks, number go up” actually needs arguably more creativity and innovation than other genres do in order to actually remain interesting and fresh.

Some survivors-likes bombard you with 120+ items so it’s the creative combos that keep you hooked, some rely on deeper RPG elements and player choice to make the games more in-depth, others add co-op to allow synergy (or sabotage) between players that adds a layer of unpredictability that NPCs alone can’t provide.

What does Deep Rock Galactic: Survivors do to the formula to stand out?

Unfortunately, not much.

Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor – At a Glance

Reasons to Install

• Solid Survivors-like gameplay with progression across multiple classes
• 5 different biomes with their own enemies, interactive environmental effects and rocks to mine
• ROCK. AND. STONE. With all the character quirkiness that entails
• Unique mining mechanic lets you shape maps as you play to create choke points or carve escape routes

Reasons to Skip

• Weapon options, but not as many as Halls of Torment…
• Elemental effects, but not as many as The Spell Brigade…
• No Co-Op, which from being based on a 4-player Co-Op experience is a little odd
• Difficulty scaling is slow and impersonal

Most Unique Feature

While DRG: Survivor does go beyond a simple “move and hit” style of play, all the areas it tries to explore have been done elsewhere in the meantime (Arguably, done better as well). The one unique feature DRG: Survivor has is the mining mechanic. Every character will automatically mine rock and minerals you approach. This doesn’t stop you firing, throwing or deploying any of your weapons. There’s a number of ways this spices up the levels:

1. Horde control. Many survivors-likes rely on carefully controlling hordes with nothing other than parallel movements, turns and stops. DRG: Survivor lets you manufacture channels through the rock for beasties to get stuck in. Enemies can and will break stone themselves too, but you have a greater degree of control than an open field.
2. Resource Gathering. Unlike many survivors-likes, DRG: Survivors has currencies that do not drop from enemies at all. EXP is earnt from defeating enemies, but other resources like Gold and the multitude of minerals for upgrading are found from mining veins in the rock of the level.
3. Levelling. EXP is also earnt from mining collectible materials, so even when the flow of enemies is low or you know they can be easily quelled later, you can get some extra levels by mining. This provides more motivation to explore and uncover than survivors-likes that only rely on killing enemies.

This might all sound like great additions to the formula, but realistically it feels like DRG: Survivor is too little, too late. Or at the very least, a nice passing fancy that is enjoyable within the genre before you turn back to something else, potentially even just a more robust survivors-like.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

For every bit of uniqueness that DRG: Survivor provides, it manages to only achieve the bare minimum.

Resource Collection Should be a Temptation, Not a Chore

For example, the main differentiator is the mining. However, different resources have no real sense of identity or purpose, and you’ll end up just haphazardly mining almost everything. The diverse economy of minerals also means that character upgrades are sporadic, with Gold often not being what’s stopping you but rather some obscure “slightly-different-green-from-the-other-one” gem.

The idea that in a level we have to balance exploring, mining, and killing so that we have the right amount of resources and EXP to progress is interesting; that should really work! But, the reality is that the systems the mechanic and currencies fuel are just too shallow.

If each weapon type or class had specific minerals they cared about, that enhanced only those things (And could be traded at a steep rate for other weapons type / class materials) then at least we’d have more motivation and temptation towards specific mining spots. We’d feel the greed to go stand an extra second or two even when the horde is at our backs for the chance to upgrade our favourite weapon.

As it stands, though, the only buffs these minerals are needed for are meta-progression incremental upgrades. And I mean incremental. We’re talking Movement Speed going up 1% levels of incremental.

Series Identity is More Than a Setting

I wrote an article a while back on how community identity for games can become defined by a single quote or idea. We’ve got Helldivers crying “For Democracy!”, Porters wishing sincere “Keep On Keeping On”s, and more.

Deep Rock Galactic’s community is incredibly strong, with the chorus of “ROCK AND STONE” heard in forums and conventions across the industry. This partly comes from the worldbuilding, crass characters and brilliant narration. However, it also partly comes from playing together. Co-op is such a core element of the original Deep Rock Galactic that having a game sharing the name, even a spin-off like Survivor, the expectation is that this thing will have co-op.

While Survivor might entice solo players of the original, and cater to brand new players who haven’t set foot into DRG before, it doesn’t particularly meld with the wider player-base that DRG has already.

No Equipment is Better than Bad Equipment

Beyond the character upgrades and class traits, there’s also gear you can equip. These provide 1 or 2 passive bonuses that are always on (+7.2% Crit Damage, etc) and can, more interestingly, also come with per-level perks.

For example, I got a chest that gives me +Max HP whenever I upgrade my armour. This makes armour upgrades more appealing when I level up, giving me greater control and greater conflict over what to choose.

Ideally, you want as many options when a player levels up in a survivors-like to be as appealing as possible. Not only do you want the player feeling good about the choice they made, you want them excited to make another one, and another, and another. The moment a character is “done”, is the moment the timer to boredom starts…

These “per-level” perks on gear are a great idea. Unfortunately there’s no control over what you roll, and the effects are generally minor enough that the change will be noticeable, not build-defining.

Diverse Biomes Without Enough Meat

DRG: Survivors does present a great array of levels. Biomes have their own interactive environments such as healing stones, jump-pads and even controlled cave-ins to crush enemies. They also have bespoke, pre-chosen enemy sets. This means enemies can be a little quirky and unique, because the devs know they’ll always appear in those specific levels.

Again, this sounds promising. But, in reality, the areas don’t scale well enough to work in the long-term over and over. By the end of the second Gate (How you unlock new difficulty levels) I’d seen every biome at least twice (Assuming you never failed a run it’d be twice, else this number will be higher) and the differences between Gate 1 and Gate 2 weren’t enough to draw me in for another go on the merry-go-round for Gate 3.

I could see the differences, I used each biome’s mechanics, but it just isn’t enough when, just like the resource collection, those mechanics exist to fuel a progression system that feels dead-on-arrival. There’s no surprises waiting, no beastly build-changing unlocks to save up for and spur me on, it’s just SSDD.

A Nice Distraction, But Not Your New Mains-Stay Survivors-Like

Overall DRG is worth checking out if you really like Survivors-likes. I do, I have tried a myriad of genre’s big boom on steam and many of them bring something new to the table. DRG: Survivors brings a great idea with the mining and resource management aspects, but doesn’t take that idea anywhere we haven’t seen before.

Of course, not every game needs to be something new and original. It’s still fun to drop in, slay, and mine for a while. But that’s really the extent of the experience. That’s not a problem if that’s all your looking for, but it’s a shame to see such a solid core skeleton not be given enough meat on it’s bones.

Something like Halls of Torment has more nitty-gritty, with meaningful equipment that can make or break builds. The Spell Brigade has Co-op. That new Viking or medieval one has a full campaign. DRG: Survivors just doesn’t bring enough to the table to replace whatever survivors-like is your go-to, even if it does provide 5-10 hours of power-trip fun.