Dunno how many other DRG lovers there are here, but their latest season is now live! I'm looking forward to playing it over the weekend and probably fail completely at Jetty Boots.
I have a few questions I'm hoping you fine folks can help me with. How complex is Deep Rock Galactic for a newbie? Is it stressful or anxiety inducing? Do you need voice communication? Is it okay to play with strangers? Is it any good for someone who enjoys Overwatch as a shooter?
If you're coming from overwatch it should be fine, very similar controls standard for most shooters. I would compare it to the PvE overwatch missions but much better in design and gameplay loop. It can be a bit 'anxiety inducing' just because of the multiple factors to balance - light in the caves, ammo, mining, objectives, killing bugs. Having said that, it is one of the best games in the last few years. I play on Xbox without a mic and there's never been a problem as of yet. You have a laser pointer you can use to point and ping items/bugs/places. You can also play solo and you get a little robot buddy! I personally never play solo because I like finding randos and everyone I've played with has been focused on just playing the game and hitting the voice line button (do this very frequently and you'll fit in perfectly). Definitely give it a chance if you have gamepass or if not I'd say it's completely with the $30. There's no terrible (read: Blizzard-like) monetization, dlcs are purely cosmetic and you can earn everything in game just by playing. Rock and stone brother!
At higher levels of difficulty with difficult mission modifiers, or in elite deep dives (the weekly, difficult, set of special missions) I've definitely felt stressed - but the good type of stressed?
It's never been a salt or rage inducing game for me - certainly if you've handled Overwatch at it's most frustrating you'll be absolutely fine.
I tend to mostly play with friends and in voice chat, but the game has a context sensitive ping and good visibility on where teammates are. It's definitely doable without. Just spam the V key and you'll be fine.
I'd compare it more to other horde shooters like left 4 dead, payday and killing floor in gameplay - but I think going from Overwatch to this wouldn't be too much of a system shock. Character classes excell in particular areas in a similar way to Overwatch.
The single player is very playable too - if you're looking to try it out before jumping in with people. You get a little robot friend to assist with the general teamwork things you'd normally get in a squad!
Lots good input from the rest of these guys, so I'll just add a few small things. The 5 difficulties are balanced such that you won't need to worry about the game being too daunting, imo. If you just wanna focus on learning mission mechanics without being overwhelmed by bugs, you can simply play at a lower difficulty. There's nothing lost by doing so, just that experience and gold gain scale based on it. No content lost.
Like many games, there are tricks you can learn (a lot of animation cancels). The game isn't balanced around them, though, but they're also mechanically simple to execute if you do choose to seek them out later on.
I will preface this by saying that I have about 450 hours played in DRG :)
Complexity: I'd say "mid to low". Once you get used to the missions (knowing what to do), the complexity drops. This also applies to the biomes. Each biome has a "structure style". Even though each level is always randomly generated, you will start to get a feel for how the level will "flow" (best word I have in my head at the moment).
Stressful or anxiety inducing: There may be some frustration because you JUST. NEED. TO. GET/FIND. THAT. ONE. LITTLE. THING. but such instances are very very very rare. For 99.9% of the time, it's typical "do this, do that, complete these objectives, do that side thing, call for evac, GET TO DA CHOPPA". Celebrate with beers, repeat :)
That said, I play on Haz 3 (there are five difficulty levels) just to chill after work. If I want to play something more challenging with my friends, then we'll pop it on Haz 4 or 5 :)
Voice comms: Nope; not needed. You can press CTRL to ping stuff so most comms is done that way. Ping to mine something, "we should probably focus fire on this thing", or go to somewherer. Press V to "ROCK AND STONE" (most important button in the game imo). Anyway, no, voice comms is not needed. There is text chat so it's good practice to press "r" to tell others when you're ready for the mission to progress (or call for evac).
Playing with strangers: About 80% of my games are with strangers. It is really easy to host, and hop into games and the game is made in a way where voice comms (see point above) is not needed. We all know what we have to do, so it's nicely straightforward like that.
I've been playing a bit of Diablo 4 and to be honest I'm starting to regret giving them 75 dollars for the standard edition. If I haven't started having fun yet in the first 4 hours or so, can I expect it to get better later? Or am I wasting my time?
I've been on an ARPG kick so it's been super tempting. I'm holding out to see how the game and monetization is handled as seasons start, though, and even then I'll probably be stubborn enough to wait for a sale.
The monetization is wacky as hell ($10 for a skin! Come and get em!) but as far as I can tell strictly cosmetic. I'll likely never buy a thing out of that overpriced shop even if I do stick with the game, but it seems I won't be missing out much. You can transmog your gear as usual with just gold.
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