Deep Rock Galactic, a game which holds a special place in my life, is a first-person shooter that sends you to randomly procedurally generated caves with endless possibilities - you will never run into the same cave twice. With 4 classes to choose from, each with their varying equipment of weaponry, utility and methods of traversal; Deep Rock Galactic will test your ability to maneuver through the multitude of biomes the game has to offer, as well as your ability to work alone or with up to 3 other players. You’ll travel through tunnels, narrow and wide, from room to room, sending bullets at anything that moves along the way - there’s totally… 100% …most definitely… isn’t any friendly fire...! You’ll also have to remember that you’re a miner and that management needs to you to be a s̶l̶a̶v̶e̶ faithful employee dedicated to mining the gold and precious minerals that the planet Hoxxes IV has to offer.

What kind of player will you be?

The Gunner is a class that caters to those who just find joy in shooting bugs, protecting the team, and making the team comfortable with less things to worry about. What they lack in mobility, they make up for with their intense firepower and ability to deploy temporary shields for the team to hide under, as well as a zipline gun that allows for easy traversal across difficult terrain.

The Scout is a class for those who like to be able to go anywhere with little difficulty, equipped with a submachine gun to spray your enemies down or a sniper for those who like to hear the pings of a M1 Garand. In their arsenal is the handy flare gun that shoots projectiles that stick to walls and light up the caves for your teammates.

The Engineer, the scout’s best friend, has a platform gun that shoots pancake shaped platforms to make cave exploration easier for the entire team. It also allows the scout to mine stubborn minerals that happen to be on the ceiling. Fitted with a buildable turret that automatically shoots at bugs, and a shotgun that makes anything think twice about getting close.

Or will you be the Driller? Who makes the terrain his playground, with his drills that allow him to mold unfavorable terrain to the perfect piece of art that your parents would be proud of. Burn enemies to death with a flamethrower, or freeze them into ice sculptures with the cryo cannon! Like explosions? Their C4 is your best friend but your teammate’s worst enemy!

From biomes such as freezing tundras, to sandy deserts and hot lava filled caves, Deep Rock Galactic will always keep things interesting. With mission types such as Mining Expedition which has you collecting minerals and journeying to the deepest depths of the caves. Egg Hunt which has you collecting alien bug eggs throughout the cave. Escort Duty which has you escorting and protecting a huge drilldozer to the Ommoran Heartstone to mine the goodies inside, or for those who love to challenge their speed and swarms of enemies; there's Point Extraction where you have to collect big blue mineral chunks called Aquarqs and quickly extract before the alien bugs amass more and more as time passes, or if you're looking for boss fights and challenging long fights, there's Elimination, which has you waking up a variety of Dreadnoughts and eliminating them, who will end up victorious? Only one way to find out! There are many more mission types to discover and appreciate or not appreciate.

Play with friends and watch yourselves die in stupid ways such as friendly fire or fall damage, or play with strangers that challenge your teamwork skills.

If playing co-op isn't your cup of tea, you can play solo but you'll get your own flying bot companion named Bosco to accompany you on your journey to mine the hard-to-reach minerals and illuminate the dark areas of the caves. Bosco is also outfitted with weaponry that assists you in combat and either missiles or frost missiles which you can signal Bosco to use on unfortunate alien bugs. Deep Rock Galactic is extremely friendly to all styles and methods of playing and makes sure you can control the kind of pressure you're facing in regards to who you play with.

Deep Rock Galactic and its random procedural generation of each mission ensures endless hours, that is sure to make the purchase worthwhile. You can also earn cosmetics for your hearty dwarf along the way, with many customisable options to your outfit, your guns, your hair and facial hair, as well as colour options for everything listed above, you can make yourself look dashingly handsome or incredibly stupid.
The developers, Ghost Ship Games, have earned themselves utmost respect from their community. Deep Rock Galactic's Downloadable Content (DLC) are all purely cosmetic, have no game-changing effects on the game, and it is widely known by the community that people buy their DLC first and foremost to support the developers and to encourage future content updates, while the actual content of the DLC is purely a bonus we receive as thanks for the fun and amazing memories we've made.

On a more personal note, this game has connected me with many people, some of which, I am still in contact with regularly outside the game. Deep Rock Galactic has an amazing community and unspoken game etiquette, an atmosphere that is able to create meaningful friendships with the people you play with. There may be times where you join a random lobby and click well with someone, when both of you know your roles, your surroundings, the position and presence of other players and your teamwork becomes so unbelievably synced with each other. You stay for another game, then another, then all of a sudden you've played 4 matches with these people and friend requests are sent. I speak from experience that Deep Rock Galactic is capable of connecting people, all they need to do is be open to learn the game and open up to other people.
The learning curve of the game can be difficult and overwhelming at first, there may be times where you will want to quit. However, once you allow yourself to be vulnerable and start exploring the beautiful caves, testing out the various classes and discover your playstyle, I can wholeheartedly say that the experience and time spent will not be regretted. The more I played, the more confident I became, the more I grew, and the more I realised I couldn't stop playing. After unlocking almost everything there is to obtain, I made it my mission to join lobbies of newer players and help them on their journey of discovering what Deep Rock Galactic has to offer, and I am proud to be a part of a community that cares about other players.

Rock and Stone!