Having never stepped foot under the grounds of 2020’s Deep Rock Galactic, I was surprised to find myself intrigued to test the developer’s brand new game, Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor. Rogue-like games have always been hit or miss for me, excluding the excellent Hades and addictive Vampire Survivors, the latter being my very first 100% completion, including all DLC. Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor’s enemy variety of alien bugs and unique gathering mechanics drew me in, however, becoming another addictive and rewarding experience added into my library.
They’re Coming out the Walls
Survivor‘s gameplay loop is familiar enough and helped me begin a quick start into the game’s first biome, Crystalline Caverns, complete with hundreds of alien dangers that get thrown at the player in multiplied succession. From the beginning, only one class out of four is selectable, and each class offers different gameplay varieties to suit the player. For instance, the Scout is a fast, nimble dwarf rocking a sweet assault rifle and is the very first class players will have to select in order to progress further and unlock more biomes and classes. Another class, my favourite of the four, is the Engineer, who specialises in area control and trap-based gameplay, which can really amplify the amount of damage done to bosses and a large gathering of alien beasts. Each level tasks the player into killing as many bugs as possible to rack up experience points, mine resources, like gold, to spend in-store during interval breaks, and hit milestones that feel satisfying to achieve. These milestones further reward progression by granting new gear and skill upgrades once each dive into the unknown has been completed.
Crowd Control
Spelunking through each biome, players will notice a variety of different enemy types and environmental hazards to challenge exploration. For example, the Magma Core biome includes spilled lava that can continuously damage the player when walked upon, and the Hollow Bough biome contains regenerating red vines that will damage the player when contact is made. In terms of enemies, players will do battle with crawlers that deal contact damage, winged atrocities that fly overhead, exploding buggers that can cause high damage-dealing friendly fire within their own ranks and many more. Throughout my gameplay, I noticed that the best upgrades were movement speed, reload speed and armor as the player can become overwhelmed extremely quickly. Each time a swarm is announced, a whole plethora of different bugs fills the screen from every direction, giving the player a small boost of adrenaline to lock, load and mow down the hordes to clear a safe path away as quickly as possible.
Too Fast, Too Furious
Speaking of quickness, the stages between dives seem to end far too quickly for a game that insists on exploring into deep rock, the galactic way. There are two ways for a level to end: player death, which can occur through regular means or by surviving too long on a level, where the game’s director increases the health and damage numbers of the bugs until they are basically invincible. The other way involves defeating the stage bosses, leading to the arrival of the game’s exit drill, which only sticks around for 30 seconds before leaving, granting a mission failure if players don’t reach it in time. As such, Survivor’s gameplay can be utilised for gamers looking for a quick session, but extensive play may get quite repetitive and medial.
Please Sir, May I Have Some More?
Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor can literally be played with one hand and one thumb as players simply need to run around the arena with all of their weapons automatically firing and reloading constantly. However, this could make it a perfect candidate for cloud gaming on mobile as the lack of button presses would correlate better on a touchscreen mobile device. As of writing, the game only supports controller play on cloud but would greatly benefit from mobile gaming with touch, if the developers optimise it. It would be nice if the game rewarded active skills that could be activated with a button press, like a consumable that increases health or temporary damage boosts to provide an advantage when feeling overwhelmed or to offer a few seconds of power over the aliens. Each class could have their own unique active skills that could match play styles, like a large speed boost for the Scout or a 360-degree spin move for the Gunner to cover all bases. Considering how the game is no longer in early access, opinions on gameplay additions may not be as closely observed.
Final Thoughts
Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor is most certainly another great addition to the ever-growing rogue-like library of video games. Its differences from the original co-op-based Deep Rock Galactic are definitely obvious, a game I researched before starting this review, but the developers’ attempt at an alternative game such as Survivor is heavily welcomed and could be a good starting point for those interested in the series as a whole.
Publisher: Ghost Ship Publishing
Developer: Funday Games
Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, Windows PC
Release Date: 17th September 2025
Gaming Respawn’s copy of Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor was provided by the publisher.
