‘Deep Rock Galactic’ Hitting Steam And Xbox One Game Preview Early Access End Of February

Microsoft’s 2017 E3 presentation included a look at a somewhat odd-looking co-op shooter featuring dwarves in space called Deep Rock Galactic. Developer Ghost Ship Games and Goat Simulator publisher Coffee Stain announced the game’s release date Wednesday into Early Access for PC on Steam and the Game Preview program on Xbox One. It’s a mere two weeks away.

Deep Rock Galactic features four dwarven miners venturing to the hostile planet of Hoxxes IV to mine precious gems and minerals. The four players will need to work together to mine as much as possible from the procedurally generated caves to complete their bounties while also surviving hordes or vicious aliens.

The game is class-based with a Driller, Engineer, Scout, and Gunner. Each comes with their own special abilities along with high-tech gadgets and weapons, from flamethrowers to sentry guns to portable platforms.

Ghost Ship Games has been testing Deep Rock Galactic via a closed alpha release available to a select number of players on Steam since December 2016. This has resulted in a load of new features and tweaks coming with the Steam Early Access and Xbox Game Preview release.

Seven new Biomes are being added to Deep Rock Galactic along with a new mission selection map with procedurally generated missions. This includes new kill and egg hunt mission types that come with various secondary objectives.

A tutorial is being added to help get new dwarves started with their mining duties while the user interface is getting complete overhaul based on player feedback. Players will also be able to buy new armor, hats, and beards from a vanity shop. There’s also a new drone named Bosco to help those who prefer adventuring solo.

“Moving into Early Access and Game Preview, we’re really excited to keep developing the game with the help of our awesome community. At launch, 7 unique regions of Planet Hoxxes will be ready to explore, mine and get lost in, but really this is just the beginning and Hoxxes has only just begun giving up her secrets. We have SO many more ideas and can’t wait to start implementing them all,” said Soren Lundgaard, CEO/Co-Founder of Ghost Ship Games in a press release.

For Xbox One players, the game is confirmed to run at 1080p and 60 frames per second (fps), per an article from Windows Central. It will not support 4K resolution initially on the Xbox One X, opting for a 1800p resolution instead to maintain 60 fps. It will also support Microsoft’s Play Anywhere initiative at launch to allow for cross-buy and cross-play between the Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs.

Deep Rock Galactic has a bit of an interesting history behind it, as the developers of Ghost Ship Games come from Press Play, a former Microsoft first-party studio. The concept of this game was one Press Play pitched to fans and allowed them to vote on. A multiplayer survival title was chosen instead, and the studio was eventually shuttered by the Xbox maker.

It will be interesting to see how Deep Rock Galactic shapes up and how the developers at Ghost Ship Games make out with their second chance.