Deep Rock Galactic roguelike spin-off launches to "Mostly Positive" Steam reviews that can't decide if they love or hate its timer and shared progression tool

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Deep Rock Galactic: Rogue Core puts a roguelite spin on the beloved, bug-squashing, interplanetary dwarf series - not to be confused with the other DRG roguelike - and its Steam Early Access release is already making quite the impression. As is often the case on the internet, however, no once can quite agree on two of the game's big new ideas.

Since digging into Steam yesterday, Deep Rock Galactic: Rogue Core amassed almost 2,000 user reviews of which 70% were positive. That gives the game an average 'Mostly Positive' rating - not bad considering developer Ghost Ship Games predicts the game will need another 18 to 24 months in the oven before its ready to hit 1.0.

For anyone who's been living under a rock (and stone), Rogue Core once again sends a group of dwarves into the subterranean depths of an alien planet, but there's some key differences this time around. A timer's in place to make sure there's no dilly dallying on company hours, it's far harder than the base game, it's more focused on combat than exploration, and you're getting random upgrades and gear in each run.

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"DRG Rogue Core is NOT Deep Rock Galactic," one of the game's positive reviews says in response to complaints Rogue Core strays too far from the base game. "It's a roguelite. The best comparison would be Elden Ring to Elden Ring Nightreign. If you like Elden Ring but hated Elden Ring Nightreign, this game isn't for you."

"Would I say the game is good? Absolutely, I'm enjoying it, it just needs a little polish from the devs, which I believe we'll get," another player writes.

With a departure this big, not all responses have been so kind. One fan with thousands of hours logged into the base game says this spin-off "aspires to be a co-op roguelite shooter set in the Deep Rock Galactic universe, but the game can’t even get its four core fundamentals right."

A major sticking point in multiple reviews is the shared upgrade system that pauses time for all players mid-run, randomly assigns a pick order, and lets each player choose an upgrade in turns. But each time a player picks a new weapon or upgrade, it becomes unavailable to the rest of the party - and, as you can imagine, the system becomes unwieldy in the hands of a random, potentially uncooperative team.

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"It's inevitable that multiple players will want the same thing," the review above continues. "Seeing someone yoink what you wanted elicits a greater magnitude of negative emotion than the joy felt from getting the item itself - it's the textbook definition of loss aversion. These negotiations are worse than zero-sum; they're net negative in player sentiment, and it happens more than you'd think since many reward pools feature one or two clear best options."

The ticking timer that rushes each expedition is another big topic of debate. One player reckons it "either needs to go or be increased," while others find "necessary to actually make runs playable in a decent amount of time, specially with randoms."

Mixed responses don't especially surprise me since Rogue Core is actively trying something new and that's expected to rub veteran miners, some with thousands of hours in DRG, the wrong way. But digging to find areas of improvement is what Early Access is for, right?

For now, check out the best co-op games to play with friends.

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Kaan SerinFreelance contributor

Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that's vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he'll soon forget.

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