{"id":1584324,"date":"2026-05-20T16:01:44","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T16:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/9e2RcEMBXiEEZUwf9Yas9j"},"modified":"2026-05-20T16:01:44","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T16:01:44","slug":"deep-rock-galactic-rogue-core-is-a-good-roguelite-shooter-but-a-little-less-special-than-the-game-that-spawned-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/deep-rock-galactic-rogue-core-is-a-good-roguelite-shooter-but-a-little-less-special-than-the-game-that-spawned-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Deep Rock Galactic: Rogue Core is a good roguelite shooter, but a little less special than the game that spawned it"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In the dwarven caste system of Deep Rock Galactic, the Reclaimers are the elite of the elite, too skilled to waste their talents and training on mining. Except, well, they’re still dwarves, which means any trip into the depths of new Deep Rock spin-off Rogue Core will still see you breaking out the pickaxe to chip away at minerals here and there between shooting waves of monsters.<\/p>\n

Being the mining company’s equivalent of a Navy SEALs actually seems like kind of a bad deal. Shooting monsters is fun and all, but humans, Protoss, every<\/em> species has a squad of gun-toting toughs who’ve raced against the clock to take down a boss before time runs out. It’s the miner dwarves doing an honest day’s work who really have it made. Who else gets to pop into the mines for a 10-minute egg hunt one day, then on the next establish a mining facility with a network of pipes snaking through tunnels dug by their own hand? When that gets stale, there’s always a drilldozer to escort or mining robots to find and repair.<\/p>\n

That’s my roundabout way of saying that the real treat of Deep Rock Galactic, still going strong after eight years, is that it looks<\/em> like a conventional co-op shooter but doesn’t really play like one. Exploration and collaborative problem-solving using each dwarven class’s unique utilities (a zipline, a platform gun, a big ol’ set of drills) take priority over killing enemies, and its many updates over the years cemented it as the<\/em> co-op FPS to play if you always fancied capture the flag over team deathmatch.<\/p>\n

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\"Deep<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>

(Image credit: Ghost Ship Games)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With Rogue Core, Deep Rock’s developers have reverse-engineered their one-of-a-kind co-op game<\/a> into a far more conventional shooter. Rogue Core is polished, competent, and a good time with a couple buddies in a Discord chat, but samey runs and a drip feed of modest upgrades don’t give it the dramatic peaks of my favorite roguelikes.<\/p>\n

Here’s the gist of Rogue Core’s structure:<\/p>\n