Deep Rock Galactic celebrated its 5-year anniversary in May 2025. Below, we look at how it has maintained its identity as one of the best co-op shooters around.
Before any round of Deep Rock Galactic, my friends and I have a little ritual. We’ll pile into the bar at HQ and order a drink. Sometimes, it’ll be Deep Rock’s equivalent of a seasonal draft–complete with buffs that’ll carry over into the next few expeditions–but other times it’s just a brew with a silly effect, like a drink that’ll freeze the player or shrink them. We’ll hoist our mugs into the air, shout, „Rock and stone,“ and then chug our virtual ale of choice. Shortly thereafter, one of us moseys over to the jukebox and drops a coin in. Before I know it, one of us is twirling like a ballerina while the other twerks adjacent to them. Someone else is doing the robot or some move reminiscent of Gangnam Style. Everything’s alright.
For this reason, and countless others, I feel it’s about time we talk about Deep Rock Galactic in the same vein as the greats. Since it’s 1.0 launch five years ago, the cooperative shooter has proven time and time again that it is more than just another novel (yet niche) take on the formula once perfected by titles like Left 4 Dead. It has instead carved out a unique and approachable vision of what this kind of game can be, filling titanic shoes and all the while paving a brighter and more inclusive road forward. That’s especially difficult given the obnoxiously dark tunnels under Hoxxes IV in which Deep Rock Galactic takes place. But by sticking to its guns and never kowtowing to the pressure of chasing trends like countless other live-service titles around it, Deep Rock Galactic has succeeded where many have failed, and stands to continue longer than many of its contemporaries.