This game is great! The developers at Ghost Ship Games have masterfully crafted one of the most compelling dystopian worlds out there that is so immersive you might just forget what's real! In Deep Rock Galactic YOU get to experience how it's like to live in one corner of this vast galaxy where you work as an underpaid and overworked dwarven miner for an intergalactic corporation that has total control over your life. Deep Rock Galactic (also known as DRG) will task you with delving deep into “Hoxxes IV”, a mineral-rich bug infested alien planet. You are not welcome here and the bugs will make sure you know that. DRG is not shy about tackling heavy subjects like the careless destruction of natural habitats caused by the corporation’s search for further profits and the despair that our brave miners must deal with when confronted with their negligent and faceless corporation. The game is a one-of-a-kind dystopian experience.

One of DRG's strong suits is that the game’s mechanics not only complement but strengthen the game’s message. For example, during “Escort Duty” missions the dwarves are tasked with defending the “drilldozer”, also known as “Doretta” by the miners. Doretta will haphazardously drill and destroy anything in its path. During said missions the drilldozer will periodically run out of fuel and must be refuelled by extracting oil from the oil shale that can be found in the area. To this, one might ask, why doesn’t the drilldozer arrive with enough fuel to make it to its destination in one go? The answer might be that by making the dwarves extract the oil on-site, the company can save a bit of money by spending less on purchasing oil, which we do not know the in-universe price of, but it might be really expensive. It also lets the company get away with a smaller fuel tank and overall design for the drilldozer, saving even more money when they’ll have to eventually replace the machine. This shows just how indifferent this corporation feels towards its workers, as the lack of fuel causes dwarves to have to spend significantly more time in the hostile bug-filled caverns and, as many a player can attest, the moments where Doretta is stationary, are the most dangerous ones. If Doretta goes down, the dwarves lose the mission and since a stationary drilldozer is far more susceptible to attacks from the local wildlife, it is not uncommon to see dwarves in desperate situations throwing themselves in front of the oncoming attacks to protect Doretta. Deep Rock Galactic conditions players to put the mission above everything else, including their dwarf’s own health, because as long they’re not dead, they can finish the mission. When and if the dwarves arrive back home, or less succinctly put, the company owned spacerig, the dwarves can relax by exasperating their alcoholism and spending their hard-earned credits on cosmetics, upgrades for their weapons and even on buying access to new weapons, all of which are provided to them by their benevolent company. Here the game clearly exemplifies the narrative, where the dwarves are nothing but mere worker ants to the company and where none of their profits will ever be spent on actually developing their wellbeing but rather to simply line the company’s pockets. There are many more examples of this ingenious blending of narrative and gameplay, but this review must be kept within acceptable parameters as stipulated by my publisher. Furthermore, as a video game it is far more effective to play it oneself, to truly understand the experience, we will thus move on.

However, despite everything that is praiseworthy about DRG, it is not without faults. One minor yet very annoying detail as a woman is that there are no female dwarves, playable nor non-playable. It makes it hard for women like myself to feel a connection to my dwarven avatars, as they’re often referred to by male pronouns and expressions. Then again, this might also be just another facet of the game’s dystopian setting. The absence of playable female dwarves in this funny dwarven mining game might be the result of this world’s feminist movement having either failed or never even having taken place and, as such, rigid gender roles have been able to be kept unchallenged far into the distant future that DRG takes place in. It might also be the case that this detail is yet another way to show capitalism’s incredible hold over its people in this world, as the oppression of the feminine is a great tool to, among other things, lower women’s wages in whatever gender coded labour they might be tasked with in this future. It also functions as a great way to repress the male workers’ introspection of their inner psyche, which serves their corporate overlords well, since a worker that behaves as he is expected by others, will be easier to indoctrinate into not questioning his company’s policies, among other subconscious effects that are beneficial to the company.

Deep Rock Galactic is an excellent and fresh new addition that brings in new blood to a genre that has long been dominated by the likes of 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 and as a video game it is perhaps the most immersive dystopian experience yet! Moreover, with its fantastic combination of narrative and gameplay, DRG is able to masterfully explore the many facets of its otherworldly yet strangely familiar setting, all the while being careful to make us wary of where our own future might be headed. As such, I would highly recommend DRG to anyone willing to explore this carefully crafted intricate world and delicate class-conscious narrative that the game presents. Rock and Stone, Siblings!

*Disclaimer: the video game, Deep Rock Galactic, has no parallels whatsoever to the current state of affairs in our own world and is purely fictional. It is not a commentary on real world issues and cannot be interpreted as such. Please continue consuming product. Do not question this directive.