Video Gamers Podcast - [Hijack a Host] Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor - Video Games Podcast

Episode Date: March 18, 2024

Video games hosts Paul, Josh and Ryan have once again been hijacked, this time by Legendary supporter Phelps and the video game of choice is Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor. This auto-shooter in the vein of Vampire Survivors is set in the Deep Rock Galactic universe, but can this video game stand on its own or will it only be carried by the name? Check out this awesome gaming episode to find out who was forced to play it, and what their thoughts are on this video game.  Thanks to our LEGENDARY Supporters: YayaArizona, Disratory, Cykasniber and Alex Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/videogamerspod Join our Gaming Discord: https://discord.gg/Dsx2rgEEbz Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/  Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod  Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU12YOMnAQwqFZEdfXv9c3Q   Visit us on the web: https://videogamerspod.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Rise to rewards with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card. Terms and conditions apply. Hello, fellow dwarf miners. Rock and stone. We are the Video Gamers Podcast, and today we have been hijacked and we'll be deep diving Deep Rock Galactic Survivor on this episode. Come check us out on socials at VideoGamersPod. Rate us five stars. And come join our wonderful Discord community. It's free and open to the public.

Just use the link in the episode description. I am your host, Paul. And joining me today, he's got a pebble in his boot. It's Josh. Rock and stone, brothers. There it is. Raise your glass. And joining Josh and me, he is smashing loot bugs left and right. Maybe feeling a little bit guilty about it. It's Ryan.

I feel no shame. You smash those bugs, Ryan. Don't give it a second's thought. Oh, yeah. All right. you smash those bugs ryan don't give it a second thought oh yeah all right well to start out this episode here before we jump into deep rock galactic survivor josh i think you've got a listener reviewer tutor read we've got a few it's one of the things that we absolutely love to see our new reviews for the show it i mean honestly the reason we do this is because we love chatting video games we love putting that out there to everybody that's listening. But it's like,

there's something just so satisfying about seeing somebody leave a review and just like letting us know what they think about the show or like telling us, hey, I listened to you guys on my way to work. It just brightens my day. So we genuinely love it. And, you know, we'd like to share that love with the world. So if you leave us a review, there's a good chance that we are going to read it on the air. And I've got a couple doozies for you guys. We'll start with this one that comes in from LB Perry 88. It's a five star review and it says this podcast be chilling. And it says been listening to this podcast for over

a month now and out of all the gaming podcasts these three dudes are the most relatable and have great takes on relevant games within gaming culture even if it's a game i haven't heard of or never intend to play cough pacific drive it's fun listening to the deep dive into the anatomy of what makes a game great if you're just trying to listen to three normal guys who aren't paid to tell you what to think and give their honest opinions start listening thanks ryan josh and paul for being a high priority podcast on my list oh yeah oh thank you so much lb what a great review how do you not feel good after like hearing that you know so i it. All right. And this

next one comes in from It's Willie Me. And it's titled Wow. And I mean, wow. And it says, this is by far my number one podcast to listen to. I'm not a big podcast listener, but I have found this gem very funny and really great content as a gamer dad myself, I feel like I'm a part of the crew and fit right in. I love the content and environment. I can't wait to support ASAP. Thanks for the endless entertainment and laughter. Gamer dads unite. There are dozens of us.

Oh, what a great review. We love getting these reviews. If anyone out there hasn't left one, Apple Podcasts, just put it in there. Whatever it is, pretty good chance we'll read it on the show. Really appreciate it. And that's a great transition. Our listeners keep doing this for us. They keep bringing up support.

Ryan, you are, first of all, we should say you are remote. You are currently out in the middle of nowhere on vacation with your family with a little bit of spotty Wi-Fi. We're a little curious to see how this goes, but why don't you tell the people a little bit about why we're doing this Hijack a Host episode today? Yes. So I am out in beautiful Show Low, Arizona, but nothing will stop me from recording for the dozens out there, the little dozens of gamer dads and everybody else. But yeah, we have this thing called Hijack a Host. Paul, you'll get your Force of Friend one day, I promise.

One day. It'll circle back around. But we have this Hijack a Host where our great listeners out there, you guys can go to MultiplayerSquad.com and you can sign up for any of the tiers. But if you sign up for legendary tier, you get to do hijack a host. You get to pick a game and we have to play it.

We're going to do a deep dive cover on the game that you select. And, uh, we got to play it for, you know, as long as it takes to get a real good grasp of the game. And the person that did that for this episode is Phelps. Oldie and a Goldie, Phelps has been around a lot longer than me even here.

So great, great support of the show. We appreciate it. Again, you guys can do this at MultiplayerSquad.com. And it's been overwhelming how much you know this support's uh been consistent and how much it means to us so we love it thank you everybody and phelps has definitely been around a long time josh i think you and i played overwatch one with phelps i'm pretty sure yeah it's yes i think we did phelps has been just uh he's one of the ogs honestly so we know you're listening phelps we appreciate you thanks for uh just being a part of the OGs, honestly. So we know you're listening, Phelps. We appreciate you. Thanks for just being a part of the show, for supporting us for so long.

And I guess we're going to find out if it's thanks for picking this game or not. Yeah. And also, we want to give, not to steal the highlight away from Phelps, but we did have another person go legendary on Patreon. So we want to give a huge shout out to Psyka Sniper as well. So we're going to have another hijack a host episode coming down the road from them. We also have another one in the wings from Ace of Shame.

So we definitely have, you know, a couple of these hijacks, you know, lined up and ready to go. Now, normally when we are hijacked from a listener like Phelps, we do the pre-dive where we do the initial announcement, and we reveal what

the game is and what host has to play it, and then we come back after a couple of weeks and talk about it. This time, we're actually just combining it all into one episode. There's a couple of reasons for why we're doing that. First of all, Deep Rock Galactic Survivor is a relatively simple game. Doesn't require quite as much to break down as maybe some of our longer games like Red Dead Redemption 2 or Cyberpunk or something like that. And also, the cat was kind of already out of the bag on this one. Josh, when I told you that Phelps had DM'd me and told me his pick, I think the first words out of your mouth were,

it's still me with Deep Rock Galactic Survivor, right? And then I was like, well, hypothetically, if that's what it was, would we just do a straight deep dive? And we kind of decided that was probably best. But you kind of already knew this one was going to be you, right? Yeah, I mean, we always keep it a secret when somebody hijacks a host and then they reach out

to the other guy and says, hey, this is the host I'm picking. This is the game I want them to play. Because we like that excitement. We want to get those reactions live, get the honest reactions, that sort of thing. But a long time ago phelps reached out to me because we do chat from time to time and we have played overwatch together and things like that and he said uh have you guys played deep rock galactic survivor and i went no is that like a dlc or a sequel or what because i didn't know anything about it he was like 100 that's what i'm picking for you guys to play like 100 when it comes out, I'm so excited about this game. So when it releases and it's available to play,

that is absolutely going to be my pick. So Paul, when you said, hey, Phelps reached out to me, I just instantly remembered this conversation and I was like, okay, well, I know the game and I'm pretty darn sure it's me at this point because Phelps kind of spilled the beans a long time ago. Yeah. Doesn't really make any sense to do a reveal episode. Right.

Yeah, exactly. So in this event, Phelps chose Josh to play the game. However, Ryan, you ended up picking it up and you put a couple hours into Survivor as well. Definitely. Yeah. I've got four or five hours, I think, but i definitely got some time to understand the game yeah so josh will be our resident expert and ryan at least has some experience here now we already have a lot of

experience in the deep rock galactic community at large i mean we did a not just one deep dive we actually did two deep dives on Deep Rock Galactic. We've only done that with three games, the other two being Rust and Cyberpunk. So we are all very well versed in all things Deep Rock Galactic. In this case here, why do you guys think that Deep Rock has been so successful and such a staple in the gaming community these days? It's that rare combination of a very fun co-op game with a good community and a lot of heart and just humor that it wears on its sleeve, to be honest with you. I mean, it's like the Rock and Stone thing, right? I mean, if you shout that rock and stone, rock and stone, you're going to get people

that answer it, right? I mean, it's just one of those things where people have a lot of fun with it. The game has a lot of charm and it really, the community is honestly top notch for a video game. So I think when you put these three things together, it just leaves a good impression on people. And people like to go back to it. They're constantly updating the game. People feel very comfortable in it. It's a lot of fun to play. I mean, we had a lot of positive things to say about it, you know, both times that we covered it. So I think it's just one of those rare instances where people are really cool, it's a fun game,

and the developers are still actively in love with developing this game for people as well. Why do you think Deep Rock resonates with people, Ryan? I think that it's one of those games that is just silly fun. And then like Josh said, the community is just so fantastic. I never had any experience with playing with anybody that was not good. And just the comedic relief that's also in the game. I had a blast. Like when we were back at the base playing the game, kicking the barrels, drinking, drinking glasses of beer, like all of it was just so great.

And it carried on really well into this game also yeah and they're definitely special developers over there at ghost ship games i mean people seem to love them they seem to have like a 100 approval rating i think they've been very communicative with the gaming community at large and they just don't take themselves too seriously there's there's just so much fun to be have. I don't think it's terribly unlike Helldivers 2 in that regard. It's just good, good co-op fun. They don't take the gaming too seriously. Just give people the tools to goof around and have a good time and let the community figure out how to do that. And I think they bring that in spades. Yeah. I think a lot of times like

games are meant to be fun. Like we play these to have fun. And I'm not saying that you can't have an amazing story experience, but I mean, if you break playing video games down, we play them to have a good time. And I think a lot of developers forget about just like, we can have fun, man. Like, let this be silly. I think this is like you said, why hell divers is resonating with so many people because they're just embracing that nature and just having a good time with people. They're not taking themselves so seriously. Like this is not the Oscars where it's like, oh, we have to be all stuffy and formal and all this stuff. It's like, dude, we're playing video

games, man. Like have a good time with us. And I think that resonates with gamers when we see that, because I think we instantly relate to them at that point. Like you don't see this from EA, you know, where it's like, well, that's why everybody hates EA, man. Like you're not gamers. But I think we do appreciate it when we do see it from developers that are having fun and having a good time and aren't afraid to have a good time with us. Absolutely. Totally agree with all that. And Deep Rock Galactic obviously just resonated with so many people that they had such enormous success. They have released so much DLC for the base game, but at the same time, they were also looking to kind of broaden things. And that's when they announced, hey, we're going to be coming out with this other game called Survivor. Takes place in the same universe, but it's not the same game.

It's not even the same perspective. It's a vastly different game, but it's also very cheap. It's only a $10 game to pick up. Very accessible. So if you're a Deep Rock fan, you probably already know. You've probably already picked up this game. But here is the description of the new standalone game, Survivor. Deep Rock Galactic Survivor is a single-player survivor-like auto-shooter.

Wield the full arsenal of Deep Rock Galactic, take on hordes of lethal aliens, mine riches, and unlock powerful upgrades. It's one dwarf against all of Planet Hoxus. All right. Now, even there in the description there, it does mention that this game is an auto shooter. Now, a lot of our listeners are already going to know what that is. They've probably even played auto shooters, but there's probably a lot of gamers out there that also have never heard of them. Josh, tell us what is an auto shooter? Well, I did not know what an auto shooter was prior to playing this game uh because it's the

first one i've ever played guys and you don't do mobile gaming and they're far more popular and mobile i joke a little bit i know what an auto shooter is um and i even made the comparison instantly like uh what you know when i realized what this game was and I went oh this is like vampire survivors which I never played but I understand the like what the genre is I just had zero first-hand experience with an auto shooter at all so there was a part of me that was kind of excited that was like oh this will be something new for me but then I kind of went oh like aren't those like really simple and kind of dumb and like not fun? And I never got the whole fad with Vampire Survivors, and it's overwhelmingly positive on Steam. And I just went like,

what the heck is this? This just looks like a thousand things going on, and I don't understand any of it. So basically what an auto shooter is, is a game where you need to control your character and you will get upgrades throughout your play. They're usually like a roguelike type game, but you don't aim necessarily. The game takes care of the shooting aspects for you. It will shoot out weapons at various time intervals. Sometimes that's really fast.

Sometimes it's a few seconds, but you generally will accrue more and more abilities or more and more weapons. And then over time you kind of get into this OP type build, hopefully that kind of scales with the difficulty of the game. So I feel like these games are usually on a timer and it's like trying to outpace that timer, so to speak, to see if you can get like one of those really good random rolls of good luck to where you get this OP build and you make it a lot further. The closest game to me that I'm familiar with this would be Risk of Rain 2, in a sense that it's that roguelike nature.

You're hoping for that really cool OP build to happen. I that there there's a lot of differences there but like my my inclination or closest thing that i've played to that would probably be risk of rain in that regard that makes a lot of sense yeah your focus is more on movement and maybe you can activate like an ultimate or or other abilities but as your guy runs around they auto shoot people that are within proximity to where you are. And so it puts a little bit of that twist where like a roguelike, every time you're going to end up with a different build, because through a little bit of randomization and through your choices,

you're going to have vastly different builds. All right. So Josh, this was your first auto shooter. What about you, Ryan? Had you ever played any other auto shooters prior to this? So I am in the same camp as Josh.

I know you're a resident mobile guy. And I got the same feeling when I looked at it as, oh, this kind of looks like a mobile game. Like, I don't know. I don't know what to do. And I remember the first time I dropped in, I'm like, how does this work? What do I have to do?

And then I got that same feeling, Josh, once I started to play more. I'm like, this is like I'm getting that risk of rain feel like when i get a certain item or certain thing drops for me it's it's like yes okay okay that's good for my building you just keep starting to stack them stack them and then as you go and you just get to that op level you're oh oh here we go baby i can't believe you guys don't have more experience here. I've played a ton of auto shooters. I think they work incredibly well on mobile, which is maybe just why I've run across more of them than you guys.

Archero. I spent probably way too much time in. I remember on one family vacation, just kind of like sitting in a cabin, just playing a ton of Archero. Survivor IO is also super popular mighty doom mr auto fire i mean these are all auto shooters that i've played before so i'm pretty familiar with the genre now i wanted to kind of ask you guys does this game preserve the deep rock dna

because with me not having played it i did watch a couple videos here and there just to kind of get a sense. Does the vibe of Deep Rock carry over into Survivor? I would say it does. It is weird going from obviously, you know, Deep Rock Galactic in the first person perspective and that kind of thing to the top-down isometric view that this game has but it's like it's instantly familiar as well the voice lines are there i mean you kind of said it in the beginning paul you know i the first time i'm running around as this dwarf and he's grumpy and he's grouchy and even the same the the i don't know it's your manager from deep rock galactic like the supervisor guy that's always coming over the radio it's the exact same voice actor for that guy. You know,

your dwarf's running around. He's like, Oh, I hate this planet. You know, I've got a pebble in my boot. And it's like all the voice lines are there. The, you know, the supervisor guy is there. There's the drop pod. There's your little drone that kind of flies around with you. The only thing that's missing is molly uh you know at that point but i think there's plans to maybe bring her in a little bit but i you know it's you see the bugs of course it's kind of a different perspective so you know they do look familiar but at the same time they look a little different but i would say it does a good job of making me feel like i'm in the Deep Rock Galactic universe.

I thought the same thing. I forget what it's from, but I had this from a skit or something where it goes, different but same, different but same. That's what it felt like to me. It was same but different. So it's obviously a completely different setup, and it's the auto shooter as opposed to the original. But I definitely got that same feel. And like you said, all the, the lines throughout it, you know, you just start chuckling and

you start saying to yourself as you're playing. And then, you know, you're trying to, uh, work some guys into this area and to, to, you know, just mow them down and you start, Oh, you know, I'm going to get you on just a bunch of stuff like that. So I, I definitely, um, I got the vibe from the, from deep rock in this as well. Yeah.

And I noticed in the few videos that I watched that some of the music is also straight from deep rock galactic. So between, I think the graphics, the characters, the classes, which we'll get to in a little bit, the fact that you're still mining a lot of the same stuff, you know, you're mining nitro, you know, all those things do carry over.

It definitely seemed to me like it had a very familial feel from the first one. The weapons too. That's the same weapons that you get in Deep Rock. I remember the first time because I was playing Engineer, which is what I played in Deep Rock Galactic. And I got the little stubby voltaic SMG. And I was like, oh, I remember unlocking this! Like, yeah! So yes, a lot of the game carries over. And I think Ryan really hit it on the head.

It is the same, but it's very different in the perspective and the gameplay. So it's a neat little mix in a weird sort of way. Oh, okay. Well, let's go ahead and take our first break, and then we'll come back and start breaking down some of the gameplay loop.

Get groceries delivered across the GTA from Real Canadian Superstore with PC Express. Shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC Optimum Points. Visit superstore.ca to get started. All right, so Josh, you were kind of you know already mentioning this before i knew as soon as you got chosen for this being an auto shooter that you would be immediately opposed to this kind of gameplay so when you fire up survivor and you're playing your first auto shooter i can picture in my head the first two minutes that you're just running around.

And I feel like I can hear you going, this is it. I don't even get to aim. I don't fire. Like I can, I can picture you thinking that in your head. Very well, Paul. So, so like initial impression, is that exactly where you were? It was a hundred percent. I just, I literally, I'm into this game.

It's 20 minutes and I'm going like, I'm not doing anything. I'm just running around. Like, let me, do I not need to aim? Like, what's going on? I'm familiar with the Deep Rock Galactic Universe, but like, what the heck, man? Where's my targeting reticle? I'm clicking the button like and nothing

is happening and then i was just like what is this and then we don't share our opinions very often i you know like on the games that we're covering i mean we kind of like sometimes we know each other well enough to pick things up but i just straight up i remember i think i did like one match and i posted this might be the stupidest game I've ever played in my life to you guys because I just I didn't know what was going on I'd never played a game like this you guys know I like chaos and I like action and things like that and so this was like a very weird slap in the face for me yeah like departure from from what i'm normally am used to playing because i was like this game's just playing itself for me like all i'm doing is just running in four directions kind of thing um so yes my my very initial impressions i was like i don't understand

this man did you feel the same way ryan first time you fired it up i was i was running around trying to click right away, too. And I remember I took a screenshot because I love the chaos and craziness in games, too. And I took a screenshot and sent it to you guys just like, oh, my word. And there was just hundreds of bugs. And I'm like, I don't know what the heck I'm supposed to do. I never played this type of game before. But you quickly learn what to do and how to adapt once you start getting into it.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. And when you play games like this, inevitably in the beginning, it is very simplistic. But the further in you get on runs, that's when it gets a little bit more strategic and as you're making your build and whatnot. So, Josh, walk me through this a little bit. I got a sense in just checking this game out from the outside. It looks very similar to other auto shooters. You're running around. As you kill enemies, they leave little bubbles. If you walk near it, you soak them all up. It gives you experience and you get three random abilities where you can kind of like pick your upgrade. And you're going to be doing that like over and over until you either, I guess, beat it or die. Is that pretty accurate?

Yeah, that is pretty accurate. I mean, it's a very simple gameplay loop that they do build off of. But it took me a few games to kind of start to realize like, okay, there's more to this game than just this very simplistic gameplay loop. But yeah, you have a goal. Any map that you go into, your goal is to go down, I think it's like five levels, to go kill the Dreadnought. This game is in early access, so that's what the content is, basically. But as you kill monsters, you get XP. You do have to collect it. It doesn't just automatically give it to you. So that kind of lends itself to some precarious situations to actually collect your XP. And then there, because it is Deep Rock Galactic, you are mining. I mean, you can, your dwarf will pickaxe rock and you can kind of dig tunnels through these levels, which comes into play on

how you kind of avoid some of the hordes because they path after you. But if you dig yourself a tunnel through a wall, you might be able to route them around a long pass so you don't get overwhelmed. And then as you level up, every time you level, you get three random options as to something that you can level up. Usually it's your guns or your XP gain, or maybe your health or maybe your defense or something like that. But then, you know, every, I think it's every 15 levels, maybe I don't remember the exact number of levels, but you unlock another weapon at that point as well. So you kind of just start off with one weapon and then you kind of upgrade that through leveling up. And then ultimately you unlock a second weapon and then you unlock you level that up and so on and so forth until you have

like four weapons at once going on um and then hopefully you survive long enough to make it to the lowest level you kill the boss or fight the boss and if you beat them that's the end of your run if you die that's the end of your run so i mean they kind of end the same way really i did i did a lot of uh fighting the boss not a lot of beating the boss i got down there quite a bit um but yeah that this this is the feature in this game that i had a blast with i i may be a bit of a gambler so i I loved the re up my mining, like a ridiculous level and it was comical. I would just rip through these areas and I could build almost like a funnel

for these, for these enemies to come in and I would just sit at the choke point and mow them down. So I loved that feature in the game. Oh yeah. I think that's like the most fun to have. I was kind of curious if you guys had certain upgrades that you thought were like the most powerful

or your favorite. Like I know for me, almost all these games on mobile, they all have the same power-ups. And when you play on mobile, your levels are just so small. In Deep Rock Galactic Survivor, it's more like running around a level of Diablo or something. It's a little bit more wide open. But I know for me in mobile, I always loved

abilities that would bounce off of walls, have additional projectiles, and have them work like chain lightning where they would ricochet between enemies. And then the next thing I know, my guy's firing out like 20 shurikens that are just bouncing and then going between enemies. And then the next thing I know, my guy's firing out like 20 shurikens that are just bouncing and then going between enemies and going everywhere. Like, were there any kind of builds that you were always kind of shooting for in this one? So we'll break down the, like the different classes and some of the weapons and some of the progression stuff, but to give people just a little bit of understanding before we dive a little bit deeper into that, every time you level up, you get those options. But a lot of the options are your reload speed, the damage that your weapon does, or how fast your weapon fires,

right? So those are kind of your three primary weapon stats, I guess. And because it's an auto shooter, your weapon will just automatically fire until it runs out of ammo. And then there's a nice long pause until it reloads and it can start firing again. Well, if you're got a horde chasing you, this can be a really bad time to run out of ammo because now you're running around for like three or four seconds, not able to kill anything. And so, you know, there is the tactical mindset, I guess, of, or the strategy of like, do I go for faster reload speed? So I'm always shooting. Do I go for damage so that when I do shoot things die?

Do I go for how fast this gun fires? Because that ticks damage on the enemies as well. And then obviously you can see where you start to kind of stack those things. The faster that it reloads and the more damage it does, the output you're gonna you're gonna do and you know be able to survive and things like that i will say for me the most fun i had in this game was not with the standard guns that maybe one shoots forward or one shoots in four directions or something like that but you eventually start to get and this plays into the classes, you get like turrets and you get

flamethrowers and you get like acid spewers and stuff like that. And I, my favorite build was a build that didn't have a single gun in it, but I was just this like ball of destruction, but it was all very short range. I'm just puking out fire. I'm puking out acid. I'm puking out microwaves and anything that got close to me would just get obliterated instantly. Now, that's weak to other things because there's flying bugs and there's armored bugs and stuff like that, but I remember getting that build,

and that's when the game kind of clicked for me, and I went, that was actually pretty cool, man. I had one where I just had the the flame grenade and i upgraded the the reload and the flame uh effect and it was just funk funk funk like you know good old hell divers mortars i was just launching those bad boys and you would just see it just everybody was on fire it once you get that crazy setup like that it's so much fun oh yeah that's really funny i remember in some of the auto shooters i played you just get so powerful that you can just literally walk

through giant groups of enemies and they all just immediately die and you kind of feel invulnerable at least for a while yeah um yeah that that can obviously be a ton of fun okay so you're kind of like mentioning the classes this i was kind of curious to know how this all comes into play. Cause I did see that there's the same four classes as in deep rock. You've got your scout, your driller, your engineer and gunner. What am I leaving out?

The gunner. Oh, and the gunner. Yeah. So how, how do those work in survivor? Are they like vastly different? Now,

Ryan, I think you said that you unlocked three out of the four, right? Yeah. Yeah, I got the... Go ahead. I was going to say, you start with the Scout, and then I think you unlock the Gunner,

and then I think you unlock the Engineer, and then maybe the Driller. That may not be the exact right order. But how did they feel to you, Ryan? I'm actually curious on this one, because it's like a lot of times they can play very similar, but they do have enough different flavor, or at least in my opinion, that I could actually say like I want to play this class. But like, what did you think? Did you feel like they added a lot to the game?

Could you tell a massive difference in them? At first, you know, you start with your the engineer, right? So I'm rolling with that. I unlock the Gunner. I play that because the Gunner, you actually only fire if you're facing towards the enemy or you're running that way. And it's got a dispersal range of 45 degrees or something like that. But I didn't like it at first. I'm like, oh, man, I got to directionally kind of walk my guy to hit these certain enemies.

And when you're facing the elites or things like that, it makes it a little tough. After a couple hours on Gunner, I'm 100% a Gunner all the way, because every build I do, I just, eventually I get to where I ramp up that speed on

that machine gun, I ramp up the reload, and then I get the fire effect, and I just, I will sit and get in a choke point, and just let my get the fire effect and i just i will i will sit and get in a choke point and just let my guy sit there and it just mows guys down and then i run through and pick up all the xp and it's just like level up level up level up so i i i that's the one i gravitated to once i kind of played them and and got a feel for all three i once i got a feeling on how to do that then um i was definitely gunner. Yeah. So the starting, when you pick a class, you get a different starting weapon and the upgrades that you get

as you play, like the weapon upgrades that you can unlock are different for the class, it seems like. So like Ryan was talking about, the gunner gets a Gatling gun, right? Like you've just got a minigun and so, but you can, it only fires in the direction that you're actually moving. Well, in this game, a lot of times you're needing to run away from the horde. So to turn around and face the horde so that your minigun can just, everything is kind of counterintuitive. But like Ryan said, you upgraded a few times, maybe you get fire damage on it, or you get lightning damage. Like Paul, like you said, kind of chains amongst enemies. And all of a sudden you're like, you're running towards the horde instead of away from the horde. And that feels really good.

And so I did feel like personally, I felt like there was a difference in the classes. I actually wound up defaulting to the engineer and the driller because the engineer gets turrets and the only deploy the turrets. If you sit still for a few seconds, which again is counterintuitive to being chased by a massive horde of bugs. So there was this neat risk reward type gameplay when I'm playing the engineer to say, Hey, let me just pause and sit still. And then I'll plop out like four turrets. Well, once those turrets are down, now I've got this kind of, you know, defensive fortification around me. And so that kind of changed the gameplay versus the gunner

where I'm now I'm charging into the horde versus the scout who's pretty quick and is kind of moving all around the map versus the driller who, you know, kind of gets a mix of guns and turrets, but the driller mines so quickly that you're digging tunnels everywhere and you're trying to funnel the hordes and kind of almost like a tower defense game in a weird sort of way in that regard. So I actually liked the class system. I thought it was neat. It really added some longevity to this game for me because I remember playing like three to four matches and I was like, this is it. I'm done guys. I've seen everything this game has to offer, you know? And then I was like, oh, okay. Yeah. Oh yeah. Right. I unlocked a class. Let me try

this class. And I was like, okay, maybe there's a little bit more here than I thought initially. So Ryan, if I'm not mistaken, wasn't your favorite class in Deep Rock Galactic also the gunner? Yes, it was. So, yeah, no, actually, now that I think about it. I loved the turrets in Deep Rock Galactic. So, you guys kind of stuck with your same class. It's funny, isn't it? I know, but I didn't even

think about that. But, yeah, I did. The engineer is, I think, my most played class out of them, too. So, safe to say I would probably like the driller. The only thing that bugs me, okay, if we're getting into this, I think, my most played class out of them, too. So safe to say I would probably like the Driller. The only thing that bugs me. Okay, if we're getting into this, the engineer, the foam platforms in Deep Rock Galactic is like the main thing that the engineer does, right? Like, hey, we need to get up to that spot. I plop out a big foam platform.

There's no foam platforms in this. Like, how nice would it have been for me to be able to plop it out and like make a wall so that the bugs have to like go around the wall or something so devs i know you're listening slower through yeah you know so give me my foam gun so let's see here i i was kind of curious to know how do you unlock those other classes is it like a certain achievement or do you have to get to a certain level how do they unlock yep just play if you play the game you get you you up you level up your class that you're playing and so the game has a lot of these kind of like milestone type things so to unlock the engineer or the gunner you have to make it to level eight on the scout first you know and then and then you unlock the

engineer and then to unlock another one maybe you got to make it to level six on the engineer or something like that maybe it's beat the dreadnought at the end of the mission and then you unlock the engineer and then to unlock another one, maybe you got to make it to level six on the engineer or something like that. Maybe it's beat the dreadnought at the end of the mission. And then you'll unlock something. If you level up a gun, because as, like I said, as you know, as you level up,

you're, you're getting these upgrades for your weapons. And some of the tasks are upgrade this weapon to level 12, which then unlocks the overclocks abilities on all the weapons. And every weapon has an overclock ability to gotcha is there any more to break down weapon wise i mean there's a lot of weapons in this game um and honestly i'll touch on that because i mentioned it but there's a lot of different weapons i don't like a lot of them i really like a lot of them um but the overclock system to me

i thought was a really neat idea because you have to just get this weapon. Number one, number two, you have to level it up to level 12, which isn't easy. It means you really kind of have to put a lot of your experience and level up points into this weapon to max it out. But once you max it out at the end of your run, it'll say you've unlocked the overclock for this weapon. Now, the next time you do a run that weapon will get um these certain like uh like pivotal moments in leveling where it allows you to pick an overclock and that drastically changes the weapon um this might be something like weapon does a hundred percent damage but reloads 50 slower um if i if i get a flamethrower sometimes if you got really lucky because there's

different levels of upgrades like some are common there's rare and there's legendary like epic and legendary upgrades and like one of the legendary ones is add another beam to it so now instead of just spitting out one flamethrower i'm spitting out two flamethrowers you know and so that's where you start to really get into these OP builds because I'm running a caustic weapon that's spewing out acid everywhere. I'm running this flamethrower turrets that are spitting out one beam and I get this upgrade or this overclock that's like add a beam to your weapons. And it's like now my flamethrower turrets are spewing out two flamethrowers, my caustic things pumping out two caustic puddles or whatever you call them

and things like that so um it's it's a very risk reward in that sense for the overclocks on the weapons because it's like i can really boost the damage of this one but maybe the downside is it says all other weapons do 30 less damage you know So that's where you get the drastic swings in your build with these overclocks on these weapons. And like I said, every weapon you can earn an overclock for. And when you're running around, you're running around with four weapons at max level. And so you can see where that kind of build diversity

and the really OP swing that you kind of hope for can happen because of that part of the game. Gotcha. Well, let's go ahead and take our last break and then we'll come back and finish things up. All right. So I know in the other auto shooters I've played, usually you are collecting some kind of mat or you're collecting gear and you can break gear down into parts or things like that with deep rock i'm sure it all comes down to your your minerals and whatnot but in between rounds are there like upgrades for overall progression where you get to like upgrade all of your characters or something like that um there's there's definitely some stuff, uh, as far as upgrades go.

Um, it's, it's pretty neat to be able to, as you, as you finish, you can back out and then there's two rows and you have, depending on the mats, you know, your gold and, and, uh, all of the different materials you mine throughout, uh, your levels and the missions you go on. Um, you can pick things like plus 2% speed, plus 4% armor, plus mining ability, all these types of things to upgrade so you have a better base to start out with. Your guy's got a little bit of a boost,

and then you can start playing those levels and get those upgrades that you need that you get actually in the level itself. So it just kind of gives you that leg up. But yeah, I enjoyed that after too. Because you see how much you have. And what you can use it on. And then if you don't.

Which I thought was neat too. If you don't have enough of one material. There's a little kind of sale thing. Where you can sell certain materials. And get more money. So that if you got to make it work. To get something else. An upgrade you really really want.

You don't have the credits for it, then you can do it that way too. So I definitely liked the upgrade system. It was pretty neat. Yeah, that's kind of the roguelike nature of this game is Ryan pretty much touched on it all. In between runs, you do get to spend the gold that you've acquired and the minerals that you've acquired.

Now you only acquire those minerals by playing and by drilling or mining into the rock or mining these minerals. So it's again, it's kind of like, am I trying to survive this horde of bugs and everything trying to kill me? But at the same time, you know, there's some some magnite over there. And I really want to farm that because if I do at the end of this run, maybe that'll give me enough to get like 2% more reload speed, right? Or the actual permanent progression at that point. So I will say for me, the upgrades in a run were much more visceral and enjoyable than the upgrades that you would get at the end of a run at that point. Like getting 2% more XP gain, you know, when I'm not playing the game is kind of like,

eh, like, okay. Or maybe it's 1% critical hit chance. And it's like, I mean, I know I kind of got this stuff, but that's just not super rewarding for me. Can you do that like 10 times where it keeps stacking? Like, is that like the draw to put more than five hours into the game they're like hoping you'll put in 20 it does and i mean they do because i've got i've got a decent number of hours in this game so i mean you do start to feel the the benefits of

that i mean when i've got eight percent armor now and you know i i think i got 12 extra damage and i've got five percent extra reload speed and higher critical hit chance and more critical damage and all that stuff just from playing, I start to just naturally feel stronger. Like the runs start to get a little bit easier at the same time. But I mean, a lot of that is actually predicated on I've unlocked new guns and I've got the overclocks unlocked for these guns. So I would like to see something different in the permanent upgrade path instead of just like, you now have a 1% higher critical hit chance. Good on you,

buddy. And I'm like, that's boring. I don't, I don't like give me something else, man. Oh dude, it drove me crazy in Archero because you would pay for one of those upgrades,

but it would randomly give you one so there were like 10 different upgrades and maybe my starting health would be i don't know like 500 and you would pay a certain number of coins and it would go around like a roulette wheel and then it would stop on you get plus five hp and i'd be dang it. That's not what I can't you put it into like extra damage or, you know, or just extra armor, like anything that's more helpful than that. So I guess it sounds to me like they're kind of following the model of what everyone's already doing, where you get those small upgrades. I think it's maybe the easiest way to try to keep people playing long term especially

if it takes a long time to unlock the overclock ability maybe they feel like that's enough of a carrot you know in between runs so is it that the your your in run upgrades are far more important than those upgrades outside of oh yeah far more they're far more enjoyable so from my i'm having fun standpoint, the weapon choices that I get in the game and the overclock choices that pop up in the game are way more impactful on my fun factor than the in-between runs where I might be able to unlock 1% higher XP gain

or 1% higher critical hit chance. And I get that those are permanent upgrades but dude give me something besides boring stats you know like let me pick the gun i start with you know or like there's a million options hades was a perfect example of a game that had an awesome in between runs upgrade path where you could spend your hard-earned points to really feel like you were getting something significant that you were now going to take on you for your next runs. This game just kind of whiffs on that part for me.

Again, it's still in early access, but giving people a 1% chance for something is boring. I'm with you. I definitely, I would go, I'd click whatever. I'm like, okay, I got money for this, this, and this. Do that real quick. And then just hop back into another game because it's the instant gratification of,

oh, cool, I leveled up. I unlocked 35% faster fire rate. Boom, I got another one. Okay, and you can see it and you just say, okay, now I got fire effect. And you just see it instantly. You're just mowing guys down now. And it's so gratifying just on the spot

when you get those upgrades where it's those small increments of your permanent ones. Well, they are permanent. You just don't notice it as much. Yeah, they help, but you're not going to notice that 1%. Yeah. But once you've done five or six of them,

then it's a little more noticeable. All right. Well, talk to me about like, like level design or level types. Are there different kinds of biomes? Do these levels look or play vastly different or are they all kind of just like open caves with pathways that you have to drill through? So they are graphically different. They use vastly different color palettes. Um, you know, you, you have your, your main level, um, that you start off the game with. I don't actually remember the name of that level now

because it's the very first one. Oh, the Crystalline Caverns, that's it. So you start off there. It's what you expect. And then you unlock the Magma Core level. So now you're dealing with lava and fire rocks. So if you try to mine through some of these rocks, you take fire damage.

So it adds a little twist and then you get the hollow bow level which is the third level where the the kind of shtick for that level is there's unpassable like thorny vines so you they kind of create like just barriers that you can't line through but then you have these vines these like little flimsy vines that you can mine through but they will regrow after a few seconds so you can kind of like run through them and then they close behind you and trap off the bugs because the bugs can't get through them um and so otherwise the levels don't really add a whole lot other than just like oh this level's red instead of green so you don't have like lava spewing randomly

all over the place or anything like that? No, the gameplay is almost identical with just the tiniest little tweak that it's like, okay, well, these mines are easy to mine through and then they close behind me. Or, oh, I can't go this direction because those are unbreakable. Or, oh, I'm on the magma

core level. Don't run through that lava puddle and don't mind right there in that one specific spot because I'm going to get burned if I do. Yeah, exactly. So I mean, they kind of have blanks for a lot of levels, but again, early access, these are the three levels. I would like to see a little bit more variety in the levels themselves and kind of how they affect the gameplay. For now, they don't very much, except for that 1%. Guys, don't you love that 1% change that it gives you? And so just to pick on the game a little bit, that's the difference. It's like they just give you that teeny little twist of like flair, I guess. I don't know.

So Ryan, it sounds like you're the expert, maybe not so much at beating bosses, but fighting them. I'm very curious to hear about this because I feel like in these games, a lot of it is around the bosses, like the level themselves. If you have an OP build, you're going to be able to mow them over or maybe you have a really good AOE build, but now all of a sudden you have to fight that dreadnought or whatever. Like, how long are these boss fights lasting? Are they fun? Do you have to, like, get out of the way of telegraphed abilities?

How does all that work? Yeah, so as far as, like, you mentioned the Dreadnought, you know, there, I'm not the most attentive to displays or things that make you read on the games because I just want to go and shoot stuff. So the third or fourth time, it's like, oh, you shoot the eggs, and then you kill the elites, and then it releases the dreadnought. Because first time, I'm going, and they come up,

and I'm just shooting everything. And I'm like, where's this boss? What's this giant egg here? And all of a sudden, he comes out, and it's this monster. And he's five times the size of everything else and just smokes me you know and then and then i did it again and again but i i like the progression because as you transfer down you know you get all built your op build you think you're a superstar and then you got to face this boss now and like i said with the dreadnought you kill these eggs you get these elites and you got to work on them so you

got to try to keep some health on you because then you still got to fight the big boy well there's still a bunch of other bugs coming around so like you mentioned the telegraphed abilities too so with this one I had a little bit of trouble with this guy Josh schooled me up a little bit on what to do but he's gonna sit there and he prances down or crouches down and then just this big leap and he just kept landing on top of me. But what you got to do is once you see that, you got to go like a 90 degree angle, just straight off to the side,

let him make his jump, get safe, and then start shooting him again. So this is one issue with like my build though, with the gunner, I can't really fire at him running away as well as I can running back at him, but it only takes him a couple of swipes and he's going to take me out. So it's definitely has some, uh,

strategy to it and how to lead the guys and then how to still survive, you know, so to speak, cause it's the name of the game, uh, just with, with all the other characters as well. So it was definitely,

I, I, I enjoyed the boss fights. Um, and I enjoyed getting to them as well. You agree, Josh? Yeah, it was weird because the Dreadnought was a source of frustration for me

because until you figure out that there's only one way to dodge this attack, it's just different. If you're mining a tunnel where the other bugs have to go around and you've created this neat little path for them, the, the dreadnought just jumps no matter what, like he does, he doesn't follow the same rules as the other bugs. And so I dined to him like four or five, maybe six times before I finally figured out that like,

oh, if you can just learn to dodge his jump attack, it becomes somewhat trivial at that point. The other, I mean, they, they're still throwing this insane wave of bugs at you the whole time too. So, you know, you're dealing with that. You're dealing with the, you can't mine fast enough to get away from everything. So you really need the kind of like this arena to have room to move around. But while you're moving around, there's this horde of bugs that's closing in on you and kind of trapping you in. And then this dreadnoughts trying to jump on you.

It almost felt a little unfair at times because your dwarf only runs so fast, you know? And it's like, you can only clear out bugs so quickly and then you still have to do damage to the dreadnought at the same time. So it was not my favorite boss fight, to be honest with you. But when I killed them, it felt really good. Cause I was not my favorite boss fight, to be honest with you. But when I killed him,

it felt really good at the same time because I was like, oh, I finally did it, man. Yeah, exactly. So I mean, like my kind of like competitive, like overcome a challenge nature kicked in. And then I was like, okay, well, you know, I killed him. Can I do it again? And then it's funny because it's like, once you figure out the one step to avoid his bounce attack, he kind of becomes a lot easier at that point. So it felt very frustrating at first, and then it almost became a little bit too easy after that. So are there different bosses, or you're just always fighting the same Dreadnought at the end?

Always fighting the same Dreadnought, yep. Really? Yeah. That seems like an early access thing. You got to have more than one. Oh, it is. And it's on their roadmap to say, hey, we're going to add these different types of levels and more bosses and kind of mission types and stuff like that. For now, it is early access. So yeah, I mean, it is definitely one of those things that I would like to see them improve on. The game also has hazard levels. So if you really want to up the difficulty,

the bugs get harder to kill. You get waves more often and earlier in the levels and things like that. I'll be honest, I'm not a huge fan of that because again, it's just kind of one of those, like these aren't the best mechanics. Like making all of the bugs bullet sponges doesn't make the game more fun.

Like yes, it makes it more challenging, but that doesn't make it more fun at the same time in that case. So I have a little bit of concern that they're on the wrong path with a lot of this stuff. But maybe it's too early to be that judgmental yet because, you know, again, it is still pretty early in this game's development. I hate when they start doing that bullet sponge thing or things to make it harder. You mentioned earlier, Paul, uh like lava spewing out how cool would it be if they added some sort of area effects where it could take out monsters or take you out with

like you said lava or acid or something just to throw uh you know part of the cliff falls down or just something to add a little bit of a spice to it to make things different on every run and and just to make it harder but in a different way than just making the enemies harder. Yeah, it's always cool when the dev teams get a little bit more creative than just lowering your health and increasing enemy health or damage done. Yeah, it's a little bit of like the lazy approach. Yeah, it does feel that way. I mean, that doesn't make games fun, man.

I'd like to think that we've come far enough, you know, that bullet sponge bosses don't mean that they're more fun. Like, yes, it makes it harder, but harder for the sake of being boring isn't fun at that point. You know, like be creative, man. It has to be harder in a way that's creative. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, add some new abilities or increase enemy speed something like an acid spit attack on a higher difficulty level instead of just the pounce you know or i mean yeah you can add a lot of things instead of just making it well this bug has three times as much health now make it make it two dreadnoughts instead of one yeah there you go that would be all right well those are some of your guys's thoughts j Josh, I think you've got a couple community reviews to read. Yep. I, we always like to pull some reviews for people just to kind of give other perspectives on the game because Hey, maybe you don't always agree with our takes on something. And so we always like to, to give you as much information as possible so you can kind

of make your own choice. Um, so I did pull a few reviews off of Steam. This first one is not recommended. They've got five hours on record. So right at about where Ryan's at. And it says, I'm a big fan of roguelikes and survivor type games. I've got plenty of those in my library. I also enjoy Deep Rock Galactic. I also often take the chance on early access games. How to best describe this game? Underwhelming. You never feel powerful in this game. Even with upgrades, you are barely surviving. The game throws constant swarms at you, enemies everywhere. You basically spend most of the time kiting big swarms around.

The weapons are not intuitive for this task. You cannot aim. The game has auto aim for you, and there are weapons that only shoot forward in the direction you are moving, combined with weapons that shoot in certain set directions. Hopefully this game will improve a lot over time, but right now the only thing it has going for it is the Deep Rock Galactic aesthetic. Personal recommendation, wait and see.

I think also built into this is that there are so many auto shooters that are free and you can choose whether or not to participate in like microtransactions. A lot of times you can just pick up any of these for free, play it until it starts to get grindy and then quit. So when you're asking someone to put money into it, even if it's only 10 bucks, if the only thing that's drawing you is the aesthetic, that might not be enough. So I can kind of understand that person's perspective.

Yeah. And that kind of goes back to what I was talking about with some of the weapons feeling very unintuitive, like why I'm running from the swarm, but now I have to turn around and shoot it. And there's like one weapon that's only forward firing that is not a Gatling gun that is not going to take out everybody. So it's almost like you're doing this weird run, turn around, shoot, run, turn around, shoot, run, turn around, shoot kind of thing. And it's like, this doesn't make any sense uh in that case

i remember some cuphead levels being like that too where you had the ring that you would throw five feet in front of you and then it would like boomerang behind and there were times that you were running to the right but you would have to stop aim to the left chuck the ring and keep going so i could see that maybe actually being a little bit fun i'm not opposed to that it just felt a little weird but you have to be getting chased by a gigantic swarm of bugs to understand. So, all right, this next one is recommended. They've got nine and a half hours on record

and it says early access, but polished to a shine. Bullet heaven with a unique feature of mining that lets you alter the world and thus enemy pathfinding. This makes the map much better than most other games that tend to have boring open areas. As of now, it has little in terms of synergistic game breaking fun that we expect from the genre. Developers have promised that they will add more of that in the upcoming updates. Their words from the roadmap is we need to dial everything up to 9001. Regardless, great addition to the Deep rock universe and a and the bullet heaven

genre rock and stone i will say this this game is polished i had zero bugs zero crashes zero anything i mean in that regard i have to give them kudos because there is zero issues with the actual game player stability of the game itself. That's good. Yeah. So, all right, two more. Um, this one is not recommended two hours on record and it says I have several

hundred hours in vanilla deep rock and it's one of my favorite games. I also have plenty of experience with both the survivor genre, rogue lights, twin stick shooters, et cetera, but I just cannot get myself to like deep rock galactic survivor in its current form. I think that they're maybe sticking a little too close to the Vampire Survivor's formula,

and I don't think that it works well with Deep Rock. The reason I enjoy Deep Rock is that I get to run around and shoot stuff and mine stuff, but Deep Rock Galactic Survivor very aggressively rushes you through each level, so you don't get enough time to do the fun stuff that makes Deep Rock Galactic fun. Drop, run in circles to to avoid getting touched maybe grab some bolo caps if you're lucky and then leave all in like 90 seconds i know that this is what some people want out of this survivor game based in the deep rock galactic universe that's fine but it's just not the game i wish it was and i have to agree with this review in the sense that like, you don't get time to try to like farm and build and those sorts of things because everything's on a timer. Like as you kill bugs,

it progresses a bar at the top of the screen that triggers the swarms. And then after you kill enough bugs, which you have to do in the swarms to survive, it spawns the boss for the level. And then quite possibly the worst part of the entire game is after you kill the boss for the level and then quite possibly the worst part of the entire game is after you kill the boss for the level your your drop pod drops down and you get 30 seconds to make it into the drop pod or your run is over so if you're running around trying to collect all the experience that dropped on the ground from you actually killing one of these hordes or maybe you needed to mine that extra bit of moreorkite to get the bonus for the level. You don't get to do any of that.

Get to the drop pod. And you don't get a say on when this stuff happens because it's all just kind of happening automatically. Yeah, and so I get that they're trying to create that sense of tension, but in this case, it didn't work for me because it's like all that XP just laying on the ground. I earned that, man. Like, why can't I have a little bit of extra time

to go collect it? Like, throw more bugs at me make the level more dangerous, but don't just put an arbitrary 30 second time. Oh, yeah like you can't stop and smell the crop along. Yeah, exactly 90% of my matches. I was in at one second left

to get into the drop pod. I feel like even just losing multiplayer as a whole is going to drastically change the experience. So yeah, for deep rock, that's what makes deep rock.

Yeah. So this is like a totally different game, even though it looks the same. Yeah. All right. Last one. This one's short. This is recommended 26 hours on record.

It's very grindy. It's very incremental, but it has a very satisfying chill, even though it gets frenetic a gameplay loop it looks feels and sounds like deep rock galactic to almost feel like a comfort bowl or comfort food a warm bowl of mac and cheese i dig it with a fork or a spoon yeah it was a fork if you're smart spoon forever i i will say because i you know i do want to give some of my thoughts on this game, but it did wind up being chill. This is a kickback with a controller in your hand kind of game.

Play a few runs. There's nothing complex about it. I'd never played a game like this before, but ultimately, that's where I started to find the enjoyment. It was like, there's nothing complicated, man. I just run around with my little dwarf guy. I kill some bugs. I collect my XP. I level up my guns. Maybe I get strong. Maybe I die, but I'm just kicked back, you know? And it did seem ultimately pretty chill to me, even though, like I said, you're running for your life or you're running for the drop pod with three seconds left or something like that. Right. You're on a clock, but it's still weirdly like a chill experience.

Yeah. There's a, there's like a comfort to the repetitive nature of the game and it being simple, I think. And I don't generally play like simple games, but I think now I can understand why people like auto shooters because sometimes it's nice to not have to do a whole lot in a game and you know you're gonna die anyway or at least i mean most of the auto shooters i play have like like 50 levels that you're working through not just a couple and then you fight a boss but sometimes you just get those bad initial choices for your upgrade and you're like okay i'm probably not gonna beat it i'm just gonna have some fun on this run and you don't really care

the next run's gonna go better so you. The next run is going to go better. So you always have like the next one to look forward to. Right. All right. Well, to close out our show, the last thing we always do after a deep dive is we take to our leaderboard. Our listeners out there, if you aren't aware,

you can go to videogamerspod.com. We have a tab for leaderboards. You can click on our deep dive leaderboard. This is where we individually place the game on our leaderboard. If we have played it and have put in enough time to want to put it on there. I did finally update our leaderboard. I don't know if you guys noticed they're all on here. I had to go all the way back to Ghostbusters.

Oh, yeah. So we had a few to catch up on. Those are in here now, along with Pacific Drive, a couple other games that we did deep dives on. So Josh, you're now up to 110 games. Congratulations. Oh boy. You're a little bit longer than mine. Mine goes to 107.

And Ryan, of course, since you're the newest host here, you've got 37 on your list. So when comparing, Josh, obviously, I know you're putting it on your leaderboard. As you look at your 110 games, where do you think it stacks up? Are we looking near the top, the middle, the bottom? It's so for me, this game is fun. I, I, I joked with you guys and I said, this might be the worst game I've ever played, um, in the very beginning because I'd never played a game like this. As I played more and more, I started to get that

this is just a chill, very low lift game to play. And I actually found myself enjoying my play time with it. I wanted to do more runs because I didn't want to play something too frenetic or too competitive or too deep in thought or story or any of that stuff. And so it's weird because it kind of clicked for me after a little while. And I'm kind of digging the simplicity, man. It's nice to just not have to rack my brain or feel like I'm on the edge of my seat or at the top of my game all the time. And so that game really filled that kind of niche for me, which I don't think I've played many games like that. I don't want to say I'm going to all of a sudden get into like Animal Crossing, because let's be honest, that's never going to happen.

But I think I understand why people like these auto battlers and these auto shooters and things like that, because there is fun to be had there in a very simplistic fashion. Now that said, this is a very simplistic game. This should be a mobile game. Like in all honesty, there's just not much to it at this point. Maybe the developers are going to turn it into something crazy and well, well, you know, much more fleshed out, but I also have to rate this game for what it is. And that's very simplistic and basic at the same time. So I am going to put it at 68 on my leaderboard, um, which is right where rim world is. Sorry, Paul, I know that breaks your

heart, but just not my kind of game. I know, man. I feel bad, but it's kind of like The Sims. I don't like The Sims either, man. But for me, that's a good spot because there is just pure enjoyment to be had. At the same time, it's hard to rate a game like this super high because there's just not that much game there either. It's not perfect by any means. There's definitely some things that aggravated me, but it did enough right that I went kind of having fun with this man. So oddly enough, it's, it's, I'm not going to uninstall this game like instantly. 68's really honestly not that low out of 110. It's, that's not bad. It sounds bad. And I know, cause our listeners are like, they're always curious where we're

going to rate a game. And there's this like neat thing where it's like, if you pick a game, you want us to rate it really high, you know, kind of thing. And it's like, but 68 out of 110 games is that's not,

I'm not slamming this game. So, you know, do not take the rating as me saying this game is, is not a good game. No, like I think you like high on Life and Killing Floor 2, and you're placing it above those.

You quote High on Life to us all the time. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So I do think there's a lot of enjoyment to be had here. You just got to know what you're getting into, and that's a simplistic game. But it's also $10, man. Yeah.

What about you, Ryan? Did you feel like you played it enough to put it on your leaderboard, or are you going to leave this one off? I definitely feel like I got enough of the game, and I am going to play it even more. I had an absolute blast playing this game. I think I'm even higher on it than Josh is. I had so much fun. That's the such cool thing about this podcast, is I've played so many games and so many types of games that I never would have touched otherwise. And I brought my computer in here to record, but I also brought a controller and I'm going to kick back at some point and just play some more.

I even popped on for a little bit today. So I thoroughly enjoyed this. Again, I agree with you guys. It is simple, but I like like that i like that it was simple if i want to play deep rock i'll just play deep rock and play the actual full game if i want to mess around with this for a little bit i'll i can play that and just relax and the missions aren't that long i can go 10 20 minutes and if i die then i can hop off and it's not a big deal um so for me i think i'm it at, uh, 26 and boot down arc.

Ooh. Okay. So you'll have it right below subnautica and halo infinite, but above arc and final fantasy 16. It's a fun game. It's a fun, basic game, man. That's it's hard to deny the role that a game like this fits in your library. Um, and I'm with Ryan.

I mean, neither one of us had ever played a game like this before. So number one, thank you, Phelps. Because like Ryan said, I love getting exposed to new games. And as gamers, we don't tend to branch out a whole lot. I say, I don't like sim games. But I'm sure there's a sim game out there that I'd really enjoy. It just has to check the right boxes kind of thing. And so in this case, getting to play a genre that I've never played before and realizing why people like it was worth everything. And then

the fact that I actually had fun playing it made it all the better. But it's like, thanks to Phelps and the listeners out there, it's like we have gotten the exposure to these, but it's like, thanks to Phelps and the listeners out there, you know, it's like we have gotten the exposure to these games and it's such a cool feeling and a cool thing to be able to do. I really enjoy it. It's not always going to pan out, but if nothing else, it kind of just broadens our gaming horizons, which I really love. And in this case, a whole new genre for both of you. Yeah, exactly. Very nice. Well, yeah, I think that kind of wraps everything up you know i want to just throw in my thank you as well to felps

you know long-term listener thank you for all the support and all the activity and discord over the years we really appreciate it you're the man also everyone can check out patreon support options over at multiplayer squad.com you'll get a shout out on the show, bonus episodes every month, all kinds of stuff. Go check it out. And we would appreciate it if you would follow us on socials at Video Gamers Pod and leave us a five star rating. Thanks so much to everyone for listening. Until next time, happy gaming. Rock and stone.

Rock and stone. Rock and stone. Ryan was winding up that rock and stone and then Paul jumped in and Ryan was like, I don't know what to do. I know I've been trying to time it with the delay. Oh, that's funny. All right.

See everybody. See ya.