Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, my favourite dwarven mining autoshooter, descends into early access this month

Surprise, miners. Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, the Vampire Survivors-like spinoff that puts a bullet heaven twist on one of the PC's best co-op games, is launching into early access just a couple of weeks from now. It’ll be out on Steam from February 14th, incidentially gifting the possibility for all kinds of cheap Valentine’s Day slogan gags. You are my Rock and Stone? My Ommoran Heartstone belongs to you? Drill you be Mine? Hilarious. Also, there’s a trailer.

Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor - Release Date Announcement Trailer

While it’s barely been half a year since I played a basic DRG: Survivor build, it looks like there’s loads more stuff in the early access release. That includes a full selection of four playable dwarves, a more diverse array of underground biomes, loads more weapons, and extra alien bugs to squish. Unlike Deep Rock Galactic, this is still a strictly solo affair, but in typical Survivors-like fashion you’ll be able to kit out each dwarf with permanent upgrades and weapon overclocks on top of any unlocks earned in the field. Or the cave, I should say.

Having only tried the Scout class thus far, I’m especially keen to try the Driller and Engineer – the former’s drill hands should be ideal for tactical terrain-carving, and I like how the latter can slap down a veritable battery of sentry guns. Hopefully you don’t have to reload them all manually, mind. Whenever I play Engie in the original DRG I can barely remember to top up just the one.

Anyhoo, February 14th’s the date, and £10 / 10 / €10 will be the price. DRG: Survivor is being developed by Danish studio Funday Games, with help from series creators Ghost Ship Games.

"We’ve come a long way since we met the Ghost Ship team two years ago during Gamescom," said Anders Leicht Rohde – Funday’s co-founder and creative director – in a press release. "That’s where the idea of a Deep Rock Galactic shoot’em up spin off was born, and our team’s been hard at work since to make sure the game stays true to the original, but also offers new ways to play. We’re looking forward to releasing into Early Access, as it’ll give us a chance to listen to feedback and shape the game alongside players!"

DRG’s other upcoming spinoff, however, remains dateless. Announced last year, Deep Rock Galactic: Rogue Core is a roguelite spin on the more familiar first-person, co-op shootering, and remains under development by Ghost Ship Games themselves. Meanwhile, the original game’s Season 5 update has been delayed to June 2024, supposedly to help make room for all these side projects.