The upcoming season 5 is a game changer

In the years since the runaway success of Left 4 Dead in 2008, we've seen a lot of solid co-op horde shooters. Few of these games have garnered such a loyal community as Deep Rock Galactic, a midget twist on the familiar four-player formula that came out a decade after L4D. Not only is Deep Rock Galactic still in a strong place, with Season 5 set to debut in June, but the franchise has also expanded into successful spin-off titles. Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor is an autoshooter in the vein of Vampire Survivors, and Ghost Ship Games has announced a roguelike called Deep Rock Galactic: Rogue Core. It's a good time – maybe even the best time – to get into all things Deep Rock Galactic.

The original game is about a space company called Deep Rock Galactic with lax safety regulations and a voracious thirst for profit. The company sends teams of dwarves to alien planets, and these teams must excavate valuable resources while being attacked by endless hordes of insects and monsters. There are four classes: Scout, Engineer, Driller and Gunner. Each class has its own abilities – for example, the Engineer can create new platforms, the Scout can use a grappling hook to reach high places, the Driller tears through terrain and creates new tunnels, and the Marksman is particularly adept at killing insects.

Season 5 comes with some fun new additions, which I tested during a play session with Ghost Ship Games. The new mission type is called Deep Scan, and it sends dwarves searching for Morkite Geodes deep within Hoxxe's mines. Once the team has triangulated a position, they can call in a huge Drillevator, a portmanteau that explains the tool's function wonderfully. It's fun to have horde shooting mechanics applied to vertical spaces, and it's exciting to plummet through the planet's core, occasionally stopping and letting waves of raging bugs catch up. Once the dwarves reach their destination and collect valuable Morkite seeds, the company is generous enough to give them some Jet Boots, allowing them to fly into the air with minimal risk of injury or death.