The dwarf mining mayhem of Deep Rock Galactic is one of 2020’s best co-op experiences
Games Features What Are You Playing This Weekend?
Every Friday, A.V. Club staffers kick off our weekly open thread for the discussion of gaming plans and recent gaming glories, but of course, the real action is down in the comments, where we invite you to answer our eternal question: What Are You Playing This Weekend?
I’m standing in the escape pod, happy to have (barely) beaten the clock counting down to its departure, when I notice that our Scout is dead—again. Forty minutes into this mission of Deep Rock Galactic, and inches from victory, the cry heroically goes up: Save our dwarf! And so the team (which is to say, the parts of the team that are not me, i.e., our Engineer and our Driller) start running to revive our fallen comrade, more out of altruism than any actual need. After all, the mission—launch into the inky blackness of space, set up a dwarven refinery for liquid space rock, fight off the bugs who want to eat said refinery, get back to the drop ship—is pretty much already done. In fact, I reflect, as my Gunner lazily fires a zip line for my teammates to potentially use (or not) from the safety of the drop ship, I’m doing the team a favor by not also running back into the hostile alien wasteland to drag the Scout back onto his feet. What if there was nobody in the drop pod when it launches back to the safety of our home base, huh? Wouldn’t that make everybody sad?
I’ve written before about how co-op gaming brings out the worst—i.e., most accurate—parts of me, and Ghost Ship Games’ absolutely excellent dwarf mining simulator, currently available on Steam and Xbox, is another great expression of all my various deep and depressing character flaws. In this case, I’ve settled comfortably into the role of our crew’s Gunner, i.e., the guy with the biggest gun and the best armor, to make sure that when the giant acid-spitting radioactive bugs show up, I’m not snack bar item No. 1. Really, though, Deep Rock Galactic does the great class-based gaming thing of making each class feel vital to the overall proceedings, even if they may have chosen that class primarily because they did not want to become bug food. The Scout (when he’s not serving as the object of almost certainly Pyrrhic rescue missions) can provide light for mining operations, and zip around caverns to dig out hard-to-reach resources. The Engineer sets up automated turrets, and creates impromptu platforms. The Driller takes the walls apart, only occasionally getting everybody lost in a long, aimless mineshaft that’s been dug in the complete opposite direction from where we’re supposed to be. (Ahem.) And me? I gun. (I’ve also gotten pretty handy with that zipline gun, which allows me to slowly drift over a monster-filled cavern, firing my minigun down from a vantage point that is, above all else, safe.)
DRG, which has become my online gaming crew’s latest obsession, has a lot to recommend it: Some reasonably charming dwarvish flavor, a surprising number of mission types (ranging from “mine out x rocks” to “skateboard down refinery pipes while fending off big goddamn bomb bugs”), and a meaty progression system that I’m only just now coming to terms with. (So far, my basic upgrade philosophy has been that more and bigger guns means smaller and less bite-y bugs.) Its greatest pleasure, though, is in the rise and fall of its bug-blasting action, a careful management of tension that positions it within the lineage of Valve’s classic Left 4 Dead. Nowhere is that white-knuckles-gripping-a-pickaxe anxiety clearer than in the finale of every mission, when that desperate race to get to a distant drop pod suddenly erupts. Running through darkened tunnels while alien insects bite at my heels is the closest I might ever come to making my way through the big action climaxes of a movie like Aliens—even if I am most likely to find myself firmly situated in the Paul Reiser role.
As for that desperate rescue mission that I, uh, strategically withdrew from: You’ll be happy to know that they did get the Scout successfully back on his feet—just as another swarm hit. The Driller went down fast, but the Engineer and the rescued Scout were inches from the ship when the timer finally hit zero. The two of them leapt for the suddenly rising ramp as the pod launched off, scrambling up it for safety. Triumphant, the Scout crossed the threshold at the literal last second—at which point, the door slammed shut in the heroic Engineer’s face, leaving him behind to die in the cold, bug-filled expanses of space.
Rescue accomplished!
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Having completed nearly everything My Time at Portia has to offer, I picked up Hollow Knight midweek to give it a second chance. My original romp through the intro probably dead-ended because I was half-asleep while playing it. After getting the first ability, it was very easy to tell where I was supposed to go next, and I quickly broke past the spot that originally made me feel like I was aimlessly wandering around the first major area of the game.After mapping out several areas and repeatedly shaking off the feeling that I’m not supposed to be here, I’ve accepted that there are a lot of sections you can do in a variety of orders, you don’t need to listen to NPCs who try to hint that maybe you’re in over your head if you try to face off against that boss just ahead, and until I know this game inside and out, the fact that I’m dealing with spiders and shit means I’m always gonna have a sense of foreboding, everywhere I go.I just unlocked the double-jump and once again probably have access to new power-ups and hallways in just about every section of the game. Exploring is fun, boss fights are wonderful, and I’m really starting to wonder if the game’s just going to continue to sneak bosses into previously unexplored corners of areas I’ve been to, if it’s going to keep revealing new areas, or if I’m closer to the end than it feels.I’m happy I’ve avoided Hollow Knight Twitch streams for the past few years, as this is one of those games where there are so many things that give you a sense of wonder – grotesque enemy types, interesting boss patterns, eerie scripted sequences, and the constant internal dialogue that, no, no, no, this is definitely a late-game area. Why am I still exploring this? It’s called Deepnest, for Christ’s sake. I’m about to wander into the jaws of the final boss and I’m going lose all my Geo.I’m glad I picked up a good handful of metroidvanias during the Steam fall sale. I know that’s a much maligned term, but I have a lot of nostalgia for Metroid and Castlevania 2 dating back to the late 80s, and a well done metroidvania really does recreate that childhood feeling of being lost in a hostile world that seems to go on forever, and until we coin another term that everyone can agree on, I really do play them to relive that first-time feeling of all the 2D Metroids and all the Igavanias, and Hollow Knight’s scratching that itch hard.I have no idea how much of the game is left, but given that there’s a speed run achievement for beating the game in under 10 hours and I’ve been playing for about 10 hours in a very cautious and meandering exploration of the game world, I don’t think I’m beating it this weekend unless I do nothing else, and once I’m done, all the achievements that hint at challenge runs and all the tweets I’ve seen about boss fights people never cleared make me think I’m probably still going to be playing this through New Year’s. I don’t know if I’m going to do everything the game has to offer if the endgame/postgame stuff is as brutal as people make it sound, but it feels like this game has a lot to offer, and I don’t see myself rushing to get it off my to-do list.I’ll probably sneak in a game or two of Everdell this weekend. I appreciate the solo rules as both a challenge in its own right and as a means to learn the expansions’ mechanics so I’m ready to teach them at a proper board game night. I can see why the creators don’t recommend combining all the expansions, though – not only does it add a lot of set-up to throw on every side board and shuffle every new card in, but the limited number of turns means you’re not really going to be making use out of every mechanic every game. Bellfaire still combines wonderfully with either of the other two expansions, if only to add creature-specific abilities for asymmetric gameplay and slightly modify your strategies, but I don’t see a world where my favorite variant of the game includes both Pearlbrook and Spirecrest at the same time.But what a game. I’m always impressed with how my grand plan from one game feels nothing like the grand plan I came up with last time. There are so many different ways the cards synergize with one another, so the cards you’re dealt make it feel like a new challenge every time. I can honestly say I don’t regret dropping $200 on all the collector’s editions of all the expansions just before the pandemic hit, I lost a roommate, and I had to completely rework my budget. Everdell is an absolute gem.
. I don’t know if I’m going to do everything the game has to offer if the endgame/postgame stuff is as brutal as people make it sound, but it feels like this game has a lot to offer, and I don’t see myself rushing to get it off my to-do list.Presuming you have all the DLC*/the full Voidheart edition, HK has got you covered for endgame/postgame challenge. And maybe, by the time you finish the game to your satisfaction, Team Cherry will have released the sequel.*I believe all the DLC is free, so it would be weirder if you didn’t.
I’m not surprised it’s getting a sequel given the warm reception of the original, but this is actually the first time I’m hearing about it. That’s how complete my media blackout was. Looks like they’ve been tight-lipped about a release date up until now, but yeah… maybe that’ll be one more metroidvania to throw onto my Steam backlog while I play other games I didn’t get to for 3, 4, 5 years after purchase.
Hmmm… and work just handed out $25 Target gift cards for the holidays, which happens to be the exact price of Hades. So I own Hades now. That might alter my weekend plans.
Been sating some of my wanderlust with No Man’s Sky, which has a few more updates- terrain’s more varied, there are now these gigantic trading posts on planets which also act as data repositories, I spent a lot of time just in one system scoping out some especially odd planets. This is a good chill time.Also wanted to look more at The Old Republic. However I ended up spending the better part of a day just waiting for the goddamn 42 GB patch to download at a very slow speed. I’m not sure why it downloads slower than anything else on my connection, but that was Hellish. Anyway I’m on Taris now, which is actually good because I was never clear on what it getting shot to smithereens in KOTOR actually entailed. I’ll play more when I have time to actually play and not just download the damn thing. And I’m closing in on wrapping up Picross S4. Color Picross is quite interesting, but I still honestly prefer just the regular puzzles over anything else (especially the Mega Picross ones) and would trade some of the special format stuff for just more of those.
can u visit it ?i think that usefulhttps://www.bft-kapimotoru.com/
As the resident The Old Republic fan on this here WAYPTW page, I’m curious about what class(es) you intend to play. Also, yes, it is for some reason by far the slowest game I have for downloading patches and updates. I believe the most recent update is for doing Life Day content that involves dressing Wookiees in Santa hats. I’ve temporarily uninstalled, but plan to hit my fourth class story (Bounty Hunter, possibly as a Togruta) come January.
I’m just playing Scoundrel now. May try other characters once I’ve made some progress with this one.
Got a Civ 5 session, this time I’m England so I’ve focused on taking control of the seas. This is somewhat hampered by the thick jungle surrounding all my cities, hampering production; and by the invading NPC Greeks.Will also be playing some other multiplayer game, probably Minecraft. I really want to get into the tech mods, but I always end up burning out on a given map before I can get suitably intricate assembly lines going. Hopefully this time’ll be different; if not maybe I should pivot to Factorio.Finally, if I find time for solo gaming I’ll probably slip back into Grim Dawn. I’m at the point now where gear upgrades are pretty much incremental and level-ups are a few hours apart, and stomping everything except for some bosses is getting old. I wish they’d named the difficulties better instead of that vanity-sizing “Normal is the lowest difficulty” bs. Hopefully I can turn it up mid-game.
can u visit it ?i think that usefulhttps://www.bft-kapimotoru.com/
I’ve been playing game set in a dystopian near future featuring characters with upgraded cybernetic hardware, jacking into cyberspace, making a safe house at a sex work adjacent location that’s loosely based on an older tabletop RPG. Yep, that’s right:
Shadowrun Returns. (Were you expecting something else? I’m still trying to find a dang GPU/CPU in stock before I build a Cyberpunk 2077 capable PC. Plus I’ll probably wait a year and buy the inevitable GOTY edition with the bugs patched out). Shadowrun Returns has been a lot of fun to play. I’m doing the basic “Dead Man’s Switch” story running as an Orc Street Samurai with a big axe and melee/charisma focus. The tracking down a killer story that feels like the first half or so of the storyline has been fun, and I did manage to track down the Emerald City Ripper. I’ve also gotten to the point where I’m discovering more about the person behind the Ripper. The adventure feels very linear and the dialog isn’t exactly stellar:
Also, I like that the developers recognized that porting over the tabletop mechanics wouldn’t work that well, so they straight up stole what worked from the XCOM series:
Complete with the inevitable XCOM frustration of a 99% chance to hit displaying that inevitable “missed” text…Another game I played this past week involved me having to set up some port forwarding on my local router so a friend in Chicago could join lost_wifey and I in playing Artemis Starship Bridge Simulator. I hadn’t played it before, but it’s basically a co-operative Star-Trek-with-the-serial-numbers-filed off game. lost_wifey played as the Captain, our Chicago guy was the helm officer, and I got to be the weapons officer. We only played mostly to test that we had the setup and connection correct. Even with that, we were able to successfully dock with two different Deep Space stations, explore an asteroid field, and a wreck. We also took down five Kralien ships in combat around that wreck before being destroyed. It’s a blast and we hope to run t with a full 7 player crew soon. Although I’m being told that they might not let me stay on weapons because I’m far too nuke happy.
The final game I played was finishing out the free trial of World of Warcraft. This is really my first experience with WoW, and the free mode is level capped at 20 and allows access to content through Battle for Azeroth. One thing that surprised me as someone not real familiar with Warcraft lore was that I’m actually enjoying the current storyline I’m in: Which appears to be about the overthrow of King Rastakhan of the Zandalari Empire by the Dark Prophet Zul. Though as the screenshot shows that’s only four out of seven chapters in the current storyline. I’m curious what else my Tauren Druid would be able to do if I do break down and actually by a subscription, since I’m definitely in the “first hit is free” stage of this particular MMORPG. It helps that I’ve occasionally grouped up with three or four local friends to do some of the quests. Although my potato laptop had trouble displaying stuff like this without stuttering:
So the upgraded PC by MLK day (assuming I can get a GPU – I just wanted a 2060 Super, but the 3070 is the same MSRP, so I’m on the EVGA mail alert list…) can’t get here soon enough.
The EVGA 3070 is a really nice card It’s what I have in my new rig and it runs Cyberpunk really wellArtemis is cool too it’s been a few years since I set it up in my living room for the “kids”. Should give it a go this year May be fun for New Year’s Eve
I’ve heard that it’s a really nice card. I’m just not entirely convinced that it exists out in the real world at this point though…
Yeah I ended up having to do the unthinkable for myself. First time ever in my 25+ years gaming. I bought a prebuilt(not counting the stupid time in the early aughts when I bought a Alienware gaming “laptop”. Man that was a waste of money). I at least didn’t go with a big name one. Microcenter builds machines in house and tends to use quality parts and doesn’t try to sneak shit into a system to save cash. Assuming I could even get an RTX card, the build I bought prebuilt was only about $200 more then if I built it myself and I felt with my much more limited time these days, it was worth the saved time and getting the GPU I wanted. I am actually super happy with it. Performance tests are all well, its put together really nice. Good cable management and intelligent part selection. The memory is some no name company(but all my stress and performance testing shows its running at spec) and the power supply is their inhouse brand but everything else is name brand, good reviewed parts.
See, this is the first time in a long time that I’m actually building a system and I already have some pieces and parts, so a prebuilt is off the table. Hence the GPU hunt.
Yes ! These Shadowrun games are really lovely. I’ve played Returns and Dragonfall with equal delight. The odd and annoying thing is : I don’t know if I’ve played Hong Kong. They’re cool games but they tend to blend together.
I know that I have all three from some bundle of another. I’m enjoying Returns thus far, but I know that I have to do a full run against a megacorp soon and I worry that’s going to be a big difficulty spike…
As a huge Shadowrun fan, I was a Kickstarter backer of Shadowrun Returns and enjoy it for what it is, but honestly, the Dead Man’s Switch game is really more of a demo. Dragonfall and Hong Kong are MUCH MUCH better than the vanilla Returns. The writing is better, the characters are actually fleshed out instead of random hires, the quests are more fun, and the overall experience is superior.
That’s really good to know, because I’ve been having a lot of fun with Dead Man’s Switch. If the sequels are better, I’ll definitely have to experience them.
I’d all but forgotten Shadowrun Returns was a… was it a Steam freebie? A Humble freebie?… but I have it in my Steam library after getting it for free, and it’s been relegated to my hidden folder until I get more caught up on games I own on purpose.I still haven’t even played the Genesis or SNES games. My only Shadowrun experience barely counts – the cross-platform game from a bit over a decade ago that was basically a Capture the Flag FPS with sci-fi and fantasy-influenced character classes. That hardly gave me tabletop RPG vibes.When I do eventually choose to get a proper introduction to the universe, do you have a recommendation? Should I go back to the 16-bit games? Is Returns a good starting point?
This weekend I’ll be diving back into Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout and Genshin Impact after a few weeks away from each. The former just dropped their third season of content, and it’s winter-themed, which I appreciate greatly. The latter is releasing new content next week, opening up a whole new continent to explore, so that should be dope.
I’ve been exploring Night City and getting lost in side quests of Cyberpunk 2077. One thing I’ve noticed with the game is that progression is not frustrating. You often find goals that are out of reach, such as a skill that requires more levels or and expensive piece of tech you can’t afford, but the game gives you a lot of places to earn money or XP. My biggest personal complaint with CP2077 is that I wish they licenses Shadowrun instead because I know that world a lot better, especially the stupid made up slang.
Aye, chummer, why does the obviously inferior tabletop game get the bright shiny while us runners catch the 16 bit X-Com knockoff? Frakkin’ drek if you ask me.
The best part about this game, it’s in game pass! Man MS is killing it with their game service
I’m trying to finish the clunky Arkham Origins, which is rendered particularly tedious by some horrible structure decisions (a tech branch depending on achievements that have to be accomplished in a specific order and only in specific places of the main story missions, none of which is being made clear in-game). Which means a few more QTE boss fights to go.And for mandalorian reasons, I’d try to give Elite Dangerous a try. I was a huge Elite fan on the Amiga (up to Frontier), and I really wish to feel a spaceship’s hull and some spatial emptiness around me these days. But gone are the days of little 8-direction joysticks, amd here I am trying to pilot a ship with a mouse and a keyboard, through a half-informative tutorial that refers to commands without telling me which buttons correspond to them, and possibly bugs out (hangs in-between instructions with all other commands disabled) if I touch the wrong key or the correct key at the wrong time. So, tough ride ahead, and no idea if it’ll be worth it. That is, if it will provide the specific ‘feel’ I’m after.I know the suspense is killing you, I’ll try to update my tragic story soon.
I got Elite Dangerous when it was free on Epic a few weeks back. I could see potential, but I was definitely struggling using a mouse and keyboard to pilot in a lot of situations. I felt I was so lost even trying to do something simple to the point I was spending more time watching YouTube videos of the game than I was actually playing it. It got uninstalled after a week. I’d try again if I got a flight stick.
I can’t get a handle on the combat at all. I might keep playing and just trade and transport but I’d like to be able to defend myself!
(Oh. Yeah. That. Uh. The update is that I’ve started Skyrim and forgotten again about Elite. Will try again after Skyrim. Where I do handle the combat quite well. Mace head click boom.I’d like to be able to defend my horse though.)
Still playing Persona 5 Royal… It’s sooo loooong. I’m still enjoying the hell out of it, but 50 hours in and I’m just now starting to figure out the main story arc and where everything fits together. It’s just such a long experience. It really does feel like I’m following these characters for an entire year. I just got back from the trip to Hawaii which was a fun little detour and kind of a neat idea, even if it didn’t really seem necessary to the main plot.I bought Star Wars Squadrons, PGA Tour 2k21 and Marvel Ultimate alliance 3 during black friday sales but I haven’t gotten to touch them yet because I want to finish P5 first.
I started playing Sonic Chronicles on DS. It’s the only Bioware game I’ve never played and my first ever handhold console game. It’s been pretty fun so far, though the repetitive turn based battles against respawning bugs are not my favorite. I’m enjoying the idea of a story based RPG set in the super weird Sonic-verse.I keep bouncing off Horizon Zero Dawn. It’s perfectly good, but the story is too many questions and not enough answers. There’s so many mysteries (disappeared Dad, mysterious mom, where did the robots come from, who made the tech, etc) and it feels like the story has no anchor. I should keep playing it, but I feel like it’s honestly very much like Mass Effect: Andromeda (even in design of the two ancient civs) and it seems weird to me one is (unfairly) maligned and one is hailed as a masterpiece.
I’ve been playing Deep Rock Galactic since March of this year (when it was about to exit Early Access) and it’s been a real gem. Just like Left 4 Dead there’s that quiet calm before a huge swarm and mad panic to stay alive. Props to the Dev Team for adding in new content on a regular basis!
I have dug back into Rimworld as it checks the important boxes for me. First and foremost being there is a pause button. Second you can pretty much run it on anything. Third, organ harvesting.And then of course there is the angry swarm of manhunting Alpacas…
Rimworld in 100% awesome.
I’ve been thinking about trying Rimworld, but it’s aesthetic reminds me too much of Prison Architect which was I game I didn’t really enjoy. I bought Space Haven instead and put about 20 hours into it, before feeling I had seen about all that game had to offer.I’d appreciate any thoughts you’d be willing to share about Rimworld.
It’s hard to say what makes Rimworld so good without using terms that tend to turn people off about certain games like micromanagement and dangerously unpredictable but the balance comes from your understanding what qualifies as a “win” in Rimworld.
If you’re one of those hyper attentive micromanagers (a la Civ or Off World Trading) this game has it in spades but it punishes you for biting off more than you can chew in some of the best and weirdest ways imaginable. However, if you’re a bit of a perfectionist and only want to “win” you might find that micromanagement grindy towards the end. On all except the hardest difficulties you can beat the game with little to no effort. The game itself tells you, though, that it is a story generator. And that’s where its genius lies.
If you read the Steam reviews or talk to anyone who’s put a fair amount of time into it, you’ll find people will tell you some of the most ridiculous stories about how they “lost”. My favorite example was a 15 person colony mauled to death by 35 manhunting Alpacas leaving one survivor who can’t cook, hunt, or grow plants and refuses to do Doctor work yet survives 3 months (in-game) by subsisting off the carcasses of his fellow colonists because he was a cannibal. You have to want to experience chaos. If you were one of those kids who liked building Lego sets only to watch them get obliterated by dropping a softball on the set to reenact a meteor strike, this game is your dojo.
Sure, you can play it as a straight up race to the finish or set it to sorta middle of the road scenarios and difficulties (there are technically 18 difficulty modes and an option to permadeath or save scum) and beat the game with very little effort if you’re a seasoned 4x player but this game is begging you to try to “beat” it while your in the midst of a toxic fallout while a crashed ship is melting your colonist’s brains with a psychic droning, you’re running out of food, and then a pack of bloodthirsty beavers going room to room and mauling your sleeping colonists in their beds. And that’s just Tuesday. You still have Wednesday to deal with.
If you have a sick sense of humor (“What prisoner? Oh, wait, you mean that organ donor I have handcuffed to the hospital bed?”) and an urge and willingness to let someone chuck a softball at your Lego set? Rimworld.
If you play builder games to make things perfect and score flawless victories, having all your people survive to the end, and will consider any other result as you somehow failing, this game is not for you. Can you do that? Sure, but you’d be missing the point.
That all sounds enjoyable and I appreciate your response. CKII was the first game I felt really forced me to come to terms with the fact that the game doesn’t want you to worry so much about winning or losing, but instead creating a one-of-a-kind experience that would almost be impossible for yourself or anyone else to ever recreate exactly. Recently, those are very much the kind of games I’m interested in playing. A nice tightly constructed plot can be lovely at times, but this past year I’ve been gravitating more towards games where I can create my own narrative for better or worse, because I’ve found a lot of times, the “worse” can lead to some of the most unexpected and fun moments I’ve had in all my gaming experience.
If you’re feeling self-generated narratives, Rimworld will have you laughing your ass off while the alpacas feast on your corpse in the soft glow of your colony burning to the ground.