Deep Rock Galactic Is one of my favorite games of the last several years. In the middle of the dreaded pandemic, I rekindled my relationship with my closest friends in the world over games like this and Left 4 Dead. Cooperative first-person shooters in which you face endless onslaughts of enemies are just a wondrous recipe for the most fun imaginable in games, and Deep Rock Galactic taps that vein for all its worth. You are dwarves who are sent on hellish expeditions to mine resources for a blatantly awful corporation and I love how much Deep Rock Galactic feels built to facilitate a workplace sitcom. You have a nightmare day in the mines, but when you come back to your base, there’s a bar that you can all drink and dance at, and there are small secrets and games hidden around for you to engage with you as you engage in idle late-night banter with your pals.
Besides that, Deep Rock Galactic is one of the most accessible live-service games, with a deeply welcoming and dorky community that yell “Rock and stone” at each other in passing. It has a seasonal model but every season is completely free, and the developers have even made it possible to go back and unlock every battle pass that has come and gone. The game’s also wildly deep, offering four distinct classes of character with their own weapons, tools, skill trees, and customization options. And if you want to be especially hardcore, you can always amp up the difficulty of your missions, or jump into endgame dives. Deep Rock has something for everyone, and it’s a steal for just about $10, though it’s also available on Game Pass.