Earlier this year Ghost Ship Games' mining-themed shooter, Deep Rock Galactic, made its highly-anticipated debut on Xbox One and Windows 10 via Xbox Game Preview, alongside Steam's Early Access program. Dropping a team of dwarven warriors into complex cave networks, players are tasked with collecting coveted minerals while fighting hostile monsters.
Although Deep Rock Galactic's early access offerings are a strong foundation, its developer has pledged to deliver further content updates and tweaks in the coming months. Provided exclusively to Windows Central, the studio has now begun to outline what to expect from future excavations.
The future of Deep Rock Galactic
Kicking off the content roadmap, some major new additions are being made to the existing Deep Rock Galactic experience. Among the highlights is an "epic Boss monster," a fifth playable dwarf class and updates to other existing systems. All features are set to be added in forthcoming patches, throughout the game's pre-release period.
- An epic Boss monster that will challenge your cooperative skills.
- A 5th Dwarf class.
- An updated Vanity system for much more detailed customization of your dwarf (more beards!)
- Random Mission mutators to further challenge players.
- Stats for each player - the company will track your performance as an employee and award you (or punish you!) accordingly.
- An advanced damage system to add more depth to the combat.
- A new/updated Class Upgrade system.
- More enemies, more cave content, more biomes, more fun on the Spacerig, more barrels, more, more, MORE!
An official roadmap for Deep Rock Galactic is set to drop at a later date and set to provide a deep dive into these content plans. Alongside these upcoming content drops, also expect further fixes and balancing tweaks.
What's changed since launch
Although we're yet to receive an estimate on when these new features may surface, the game has already seen regular updates since release. The studio has published five post-launch updates in two months, adding new cave content, enemies, and animations, alongside system tweaks. Below is a breakdown of what's changed across all three platforms since launch, provided by the development team.
New cave content
- New rooms and corridors to the procedural cave system and started making them unique to different biomes.
- To add to further differentiation in how the biomes look, feel and play, more biome specific flaura, fauna and hazards have been introduced. These include sticky goo in the Fungus Bogs, electro crystals in the Crystal Caverns, non-hostile flying jellies in the >- Dense Biozone, and swarmer tunnels where Glyphid Swarmer live.
New enemy - The Mactera Spawn
- The first all-new enemy has been added to the game. The Mactera Spawn is a flying enemy that will attack you from a distance and will pose a threat even if you're travelling on a zipline.
Single Player Buffs
- Bosco has received a lot of love. He's better at fighting, at rescuing you from cave leeches, will be less in your way and will now join you when you start hosting a game. This way you can start mining with Bosco assisting you, while you wait for your friends or strangers to join your game.
New animations
- The reload and idle animations for the weapons in the game have been updated.
- The Glyphids have also gotten destructible armor that will fall off if you do enough damage.
New death cam and improved Spacerig
- When you die, you can now spectate one of your friends who is still alive while you wait to be revived.
- Additions to the Spacerig - a trading terminal where you can buy or sell minerals, a button that temporarily removes gravity, tons of new customization options and at least one new dwarf dance.
Balance, bugs and tweaks
- The driller's flamethrower is now much more effective, and the gunner's gatling gun no longer needs to reload.
- The experience of getting kicked from a mission or otherwise failing has also been significantly improved.
- A ton of annoying bugs have also been fixed, including the invincible scout bug!
The future of Deep Rock Galactic looks promising, with a proven track record of regular updates since launch. Keep an eye on Windows Central in the coming months for further coverage on the game's early access release.
Deep Rock Galactic is available now in a pre-release state on Xbox One, Windows 10 and Steam, priced at $24.99. Microsoft Store purchases also grant the benefits of Xbox Play Anywhere, with support for cross-platform purchases, progression and multiplayer. The game also sports Xbox One X enhancements, with support for High Dynamic Range (HDR) on supported consoles.
