Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor Announced as a Single-Player Top-Down Auto-Shooter

Gamers and dwarves have a new reason to yell a triumphant “Rock and stone!” Developer Funday Games and Ghost Ship Publishing have shared the announcement trailer for Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, which is taking the space dwarf epic in a new mechanical direction, with a single-player roguelike experience that will have players tackling caving from a top-down perspective. More specifically, it’s a “survivor-like auto-shooter” with a “reverse bullet hell” experience.

While the 30-second trailer only gave a few snippets of actual gameplay from Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, it appears that players will gain weapon and skill upgrades as they mine precious gems and other materials, offering choices between different perks and firepower improvements with each level up. When the game releases into Steam Early Access sometime this year, it will initially include four playable characters, 30+ weapon types, 10+ enemy types, upward of three bosses, three-to-five biomes, multiple mission types, and a “deep system of perks, artifacts, and upgrades.”

Despite the major change-up in gameplay, Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor still appears to have many of the staples from the original title, including the Space Rig, dark space caverns filled with crystals and bioluminescent materials, and, of course, a whole lot of bug-like Glyphids. Whether this aesthetic translates as well to the Vampire Survivors or Hades style of gameplay remains to be seen, but it’s a creative new take on a game that has been played by a lot of people.