Last month, Deep Rock Galactic announced that its second season would launch on April 28 for PC gamers and on May 5 for Xbox and PlayStation players. Now that everyone is getting the chance to experience the new content, Ghost Ship Games have posted a brief but action-packed launch trailer to YouTube. (We’re always happy to dance with some dwarfs.)
Season 2, titled Rival Escalation, introduces a new season event, Rival Signal. Players can find plenty of new enemies to take down, a new Performance Pass, a currency called Phazyonite to use on cosmetic items, and additional secondary weapons. The dev team has also included weapon balancing along with lots of bug fixes and improvements.
For the uninitiated, the game began as a multiplayer mining game seeing players dropped into a map with an objective to complete by exploring alien caves, defeating enemies, and extracting rare materials. Season 2 introduces a rival force patrolling the caves in an attempt to stop players from extracting what they need. It also introduces some mysterious robotic forces into the enemy mix.
Four new secondary weapons have been introduced. The Scout will be able to use a new crossbow firing electrified bolts, while the Engineer will be able to use a laser blaster able to clear any obstacle in the way of the miners. The Gunner can equip an electromagnetic coil gun that can make a hole in solid rock. The Driller gets the most savage upgrade of all, now able to equip an item that cooks the enemy’s insides. Ouch.
By November 2021, Deep Rock Galactic sold 3 million copies. The publisher, Ghost Ship Games, won the Indie Game of the Year and Excellence in Multiplayer awards at South by Southwest.
Deep Rock Galactic was fully released on May 13, 2020 for PC and Xbox One after spending a lengthy two years in early access. The game made its way to the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 consoles in January 2022, picking up plenty of fans after being offered as a free PS Plus title.
