Without ammunition, without light and lost in a cave full of incessant hordes of enemies. Only the previously launched flares serve as a guide in their labyrinthine tunnels and, as if they were bread crumbs, they direct me to the exit while a giant monster is on my heels.
I reach the escape pod by the hair, with life trembling and the joy of having carved a good booty in addition to having completed the two objectives that I had in my foray. And then, when you get to the base safe and sound, Deep rock galactic He takes you by the shoulder and whispers in your ear: another game?
Darkness as a game mechanic
It's amazing how what is essentially a game of pure farming and shooting, something like a mixture between Minecraft and Left 4 Dead past laps, dodges the fact of becoming an excessively repetitive game. It was the biggest fear I had before I started playing and, with a good bag of hours behind me, I am aware of how much remains to be seen.
Launched in early access a couple of years ago and reaching its final version today, Deep rock galactic It puts us in the shoes of one of its four dwarfs to travel to the depths of a planet and meet various objectives. The most basic, the one that serves as a tutorial and then twists as the games progress, is the one that asks us to get 100 crystals of a specific type in its labyrinthine caves.
Armed with two weapons, a tool that facilitates moving from here to there and a fourth option of support or attack, our objective is explore caves randomly generated in the most absolute darkness. Shy mineral glitters here and there are joined by the dim light of our helmet and three temporary flares whose lighting barely lasts just over 20 seconds.
Despite this, being completely dark throughout the game is difficult. The flares are recharged every few seconds and, although their brightness is limited and is not capable of illuminating several meters around, it helps you get an idea of what is around you, be they walls or tireless enemies.
But that does not take away the least potential of the stress and stress that being there, almost blindly, while listening to the screams of bugs approaching you. Or even without the enemies entering the garlic and just for the mere fact of finding those crystals that you lack and that the flare does not reach the ceiling to light on which they probably rest. It's great.
Fun solo, but much more cooperative
Not seeing beyond your nose implies that this cave system may have a good handful of holes waiting for you to make a wrong move, but also that the path you are looking for is several floors above where you are. Luckily the combination of support weapons makes this whole journey a more affordable drink and, especially if you play with people, much more accessible.
Playing solo, he always pulled the dwarf Scout, wearing an assault rifle, a shotgun, a flare launcher and a hook, getting from here to there was very easy. Shooting flares to the ceiling and watching a whole cave gradually light up is a sensation very satisfying, but also a vein that you will soon miss when you run out of ammunition.
With the rest of companions something similar happens. There is one who can launch a zip line that takes the entire team from point A to point B, which has a flamethrower capable of sweeping everything in front of him and who can mount turrets to make things a little easier when it's time to defend the position in one of the missions.
Four classes They complement each other perfectly and, thanks to a ping system and specific voices for each situation, it makes playing with strangers much more affordable. But as you can imagine, with friends and voice chat the game adds even more integers.
Drop me a sparkler here. Not that I have few left. Put me on a zip line, otherwise I won't get there. Stop shooting me that there is friendly fire activated … The laughter and the challenge are assured at the same level, and only certain Connection issues They have managed to limit the number of hours I have spent in company.
An addictive progression system
With a difficulty system that you can tweak to receive more or less rewards, I have had no major problems overcoming any of its missions. Finding minerals, stealing eggs, launching a rocket, protecting a base or eliminating bosses are some of the variants that it offers today. Deep rock galactic.
As a prize to each of them, money and experience along with all the extra loot in the form of special minerals you've found out there. Essential if you want to get fully into your progress system and improve the robot that accompanies you alone or any of the weapons and equipment you have.
And when that starts to come up short, new orders to get new weapons and cosmetic items with which to continue to personalize your dwarf and expand your chances of surviving tougher commissions, raids and events with slight changes like oxygen-free caves, exploding monsters or ghost bosses that you cannot annihilate and will not stop chasing you.
However, the great asset beyond its variety is how well caves are calved. After many hours in the game still I have not come across repetitive patterns They make you believe that you have already been there and, with main and secondary objectives that are constantly changing, the feeling that the game is getting heavy has not made an appearance.
Only its stability, with two or three levels with broken textures in which it was impossible to advance, have managed to blur an experience as addictive as it is fun.
Waiting to see how the latest changes fix all those errors, including the connection with friends -I do not know if it is a problem with the version of Xbox or also occur in Steam-, both the basis of the game and everything that they promise to continue implementing in the future gives to have confidence in it. For its originality and the solidity of its proposal, Deep rock galactic deserves it.
