Deep Rock Galactic
Deep Rock Galactic is a cooperative first-person shooter video game developed by Danish studio Ghost Ship Games and published by Coffee Stain Publishing. "Deep Rock Galactic" was fully released on May 13, 2020 for Microsoft Windows and Xbox One after spending two years in early access. The game was released on the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 in January 2022, and was available to PlayStation Plus subscribers at no additional cost until the end of the month. Gameplay. "Deep Rock Galactic" is a 1-4 player cooperative first-person shooter video game in which players work  together while exploring destructible procedurally generated cave systems. The game focuses on PvE combat, meaning there is no benefit to killing other players. Players take on the roles of four space dwarves assigned to various missions, which include many objectives such as mining specific minerals, stealing alien eggs, eliminating targets, or retrieving lost equipment. These are usually the main objective, required to complete the mission. It is also possible to complete a secondary objective (usually collecting other materials or items) to receive extra credits (which are used to improve the player's weapons and abilities of the classes) and experience  points (which increase a player's level). The game takes place underground on Hoxxes IV, a dangerous planet full of minerals, biomes, and bugs. Missions take place in large caverns and tunnels, with varying terrain generation, objectives and enemies depending on the biome and mission type. Players fight insect-like aliens as they attempt to complete the mission objectives and collect materials for crafting. Classes. There are four playable classes to choose from: the Engineer, the Gunner, the Driller, and the Scout. Each class has their own experience level, accessories, and promotion level, with the player's progress shown as  their player rank. Once a player has reached level 25 on a class, they are offered a promotion after completing an assignment (a specific set of missions), resetting their class levels and unlocking end-game content. A player can do multiple promotions with the same class; however, only the first one has any gameplay benefit. Players can choose their class while in the lobby by using the character selection, loadout selection, or cosmetics terminals inside of any of the players' bays, or while joining a mission. Each of the four playable classes has three primary and two secondary weapon options . Initially only one primary weapon and one secondary weapon is offered to the player, with the other weapon options unlocking as the player progresses through the game. Weapons can be upgraded by choosing a weapon upgrade at specific levels. Weapons can also be overclocked; some overclocks add a small benefit with no downside, some have balanced upsides and downsides, and others offer a huge upside with a significant penalty. Class Summaries. The Engineer uses a shotgun as his primary weapon and a grenade launcher as his secondary weapon by default. His primary can be replaced with an electrical submachine gun  or a smart rifle which locks on to opponents. His secondary can be replaced with a plasma gun which fires horizontal plasma beams. To support his team, the Engineer has a platform gun that fires circular platforms, and a deployable sentry gun that automatically targets enemies. The Engineer is particularly effective at holding a defensive position, by utilizing his sentry gun to thin out any approaching swarms. His secondary weapons further enable him to handle large groups of enemies, as his grenade launcher can eliminate a large number of standard bugs at once, while his plasma gun can be especially  potent against any number of armored targets. He synergizes well with the Scout, as his platforms can provide the Scout with a place to stand while mining ore veins in high places. The Gunner uses a minigun as his primary weapon and high-caliber revolver as his secondary weapon. These can later be replaced with a high-caliber autocannon, a guided missile launcher, and a rapid fire pistol. To support his team, the Gunner uses a zipline gun that fires anchored ziplines, and a deployable shield generator that creates a protective shield bubble. The Gunner's shield bubble causes enemies  to retreat from its area of effect, while also blocking all projectile attacks. The Gunner acts as the team's source of heavy firepower and is able to kill a large number of bugs quickly. His zipline gun makes up for his lack of mobility and allows the team to traverse difficult terrain such as chasms and cliffs. His shield generator provides protection for his team during Glyphid swarms, which can be particularly helpful if one of his teammates needs to be revived. The Driller uses a flamethrower as his primary weapon and semi-automatic pistol as his secondary weapon . His primary weapon can later be replaced with freeze cannon or a launcher that fires corrosive sludge, while his secondary can be replaced with a plasma pistol. The Driller uses handheld power drills as his utility tool, which can be used to dig through terrain at a much faster rate than the regular pickaxe. As his deployable tool, the Driller also has a satchel charge that carves out a large portion of terrain, or kills enemies in its blast; caution is advised, however, as the blast may also harm nearby teammates in addition to the Driller himself. The Driller is  the most efficient digger out of the four classes, as he allows his team to navigate through terrain easily with the help of his power drills. This is especially useful when returning to the drop pod after the mission's objectives have been completed. Additionally, the Driller fills a semi-supportive role in combat, as his primary weapons and satchel charges are particularly efficient at eliminating many weaker bugs at the same time, which can enable his teammates to handle larger threats without the fear of being swarmed. The Scout uses an assault rifle as his primary weapon and a  double-barreled sawed-off shotgun as his secondary weapon. These can later be replaced with a semi-automatic rifle based on the M1 Garand and a plasma rifle with a high rate of fire. The Scout can also unlock a pair of machine pistols, which he dual-wields. The Scout uses a grappling gun as his utility tool, which enables him to navigate caves and to escape from danger quickly. He also uses a flare gun to deploy high-intensity flares that are brighter and cover a larger area than the standard flares used by every class. The standard grenade  for the Scout is the "IFG" (Inhibitor-Field Generator), which slows down enemies in the affected area. The Scout can gather important information for his team. His flare gun enables him and his teammates to spot ore veins and enemies that would otherwise be obscured by darkness, and his grappling hook allows him to efficiently find hidden ores (the mining of which can be made easier by using the Engineer's platforms). The Scout's arsenal of weapons is particularly effective against single targets at further ranges, which allows him to focus his damage on a single high-priority target . However, he can struggle to handle multiple targets at once. Development. "Deep Rock Galactic" is Ghost Ship Games' first game. The team took inspiration from both Minecraft and Left 4 Dead. The team felt that a problem with Left 4 Dead was that it was unbalanced for new players who wanted to play with veterans, as such they wanted to design a game where all teammates would be on even footing regardless of experience. Ghost Ship Gamess said they benefited from an early access model, as having community feedback allowed them to iterate on the mechanics and design of the  game and to choose what features to prioritize. The low-poly art style was chosen because of the speed with which they were able to add models and content in, compared to a more detail-oriented art style. The most difficult part of development was creating the procedural world generator. Co-founder and CEO Søren Lundgard would later said "Our CTO just took a week away and when he returned he said, 'I have something'... Then he had this prototype of a crazy mesh generated procedural look that we ended up with, and it's still like, this is just  awesome, but how does it actually work?". "Deep Rock Galactic" used Unreal Engine for development and was made with the engine's Blueprint scripting. The game continues to be developed, with intermittent updates adding new biomes, equipment and accessories. "Deep Rock Galactic" entered early access on February 28, 2018, where it spent about two years prior to the full release. Reception. The Early Access version of "Deep Rock Galactic" was well received by critics, who praised the game's atmosphere and challenging levels. Multiple reviewers compared parts of the experience of "Deep Rock Galactic" to "Minecraft" and "Left 4 Dead . The full version of the game was released on May 13, 2020. Deep Rock Galactic" received positive reviews from critics, ending up with an averaged score of 84 on Metacritic. Nic Reuben of Rock, Paper, Shotgun enjoyed how the game's classes meshed well together in co-op, but were each viable for co-op, saying that ""each class is both viable and enjoyable"". Matt Miller of "Game Informer" appreciated how the unique secondary objectives gave the game a risk/reward dynamic. Phil Iwaniuk, writing for "PC Gamer", enjoyed the tension that the exfiltration phase brought to each mission, and  the persistent upgrades that let the player customize their dwarf. Leana Hafer of "IGN" praised the distinct abilities of each of the dwarves and the low-poly visual style, but criticized the game for its connection issues, saying "About one in every five missions, I’d run into connection issues that could cause other players to lag severely and disconnect." In January 2021 Ghost Ship Games said that "Deep Rock Galactic" had sold over 2 million units, and reached 3 million sales by November 2021. In March 2021, Ghost Ship Games and Coffee Stain Publishing won Indie Game of the  Year and Excellence in Multiplayer awards at South by Southwest.