It’s a little bit unfortunate, on that note, that I didn’t find the multiplayer experience to be entirely seamless. But Deep Rock Galactic definitely shines brightest in a four-player group. It is possible to play solo, and the corporate overlords will even let you borrow a small combat drone to make it less of a chore. These create interesting tactical puzzles, since the dwarves focusing on the objectives usually can’t focus on defending themselves and have to rely on their friends. Each delve has a non-combat objective from mining a certain amount of a rare ore to stealing alien eggs. Racking up a body count by itself isn’t enough to come out ahead, either.

Your squad needs to cleverly combine these abilities to access hard-to-reach objectives and avoid getting outmaneuvered in tough fights, and it’s really satisfying to find new ways to do so in the heat of the moment.

The nimble scout has the most personal mobility thanks to a grappling gun, but can’t help his teammates as much as the others. The Engineer, in addition to being able to place powerful turrets, can spawn climbable platforms to help with getting around the huge, vertical arenas. The heavily-armed Gunner has a zipline launcher that can make a reusable cable bridge between two distant points. Racking up a body count by itself isn’t enough to come out ahead.My favorite way Deep Rock Galactic differentiates itself from other horde shooters is the movement abilities each of the four dwarf classes can deploy. It just works, in the same way that the best parts of Ridley Scott’s Alien franchise do. They come at you in waves with just the right amount of breathing room after each one, striking a great tempo between moments of tense, spooky solitude and adrenaline-pumping action. Mowing down these creepy crawly hordes is a riot, with special bug types like armored praetorians and sneaky grabbers forcing you to change up your tactics and make use of the environment to your advantage. And darkness isn’t the only hazard: Hoxxas is brimming with freaky insectoid foes both large and small that don’t appreciate all the racket you’re kicking up. Your headlamp doesn’t do you a lot of good unless something is right in front of your face, so you have to manage a limited supply of flares to even be able to see what you’re doing. In these deep, dark holes, lighting is an obstacle that creates both a deliciously oppressive mood and interesting resource management. It’s not all laughs once you exit the drop pod deep below the surface of Hoxxas, though.

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