I've got this on the console, me and my bro had a go on it over the weekend, and it is quite an experience, fraught with danger and impending doom.
You are dropped into a world, tunnelled underground, and left with a quota of minerals to mine to complete the mission.
Locating said mineral seams and mining the materials, depositing them in your M.U.L.E. (or Molly) is the basic premise. Exploring, navigating and searching are all made difficult by
1) darkness
2) environment (vertical drops, sweeping caverns, obstructive rock etc.)
3) wildlife (bugs, creepies and spitting things).
Plus there is an impending scourge of vicious fauna about to lock onto your dwarfly pheromones and want to rip your beard from your chin!
There's a cyclic countdown, with no visible timer. The waves of nasties will come, that you can be certain of, so speed is of great import. You only have a finite amount of ammo for your weapons. In order to replenish you'll need to mine seams of "Nitra", dump them in Molly, and then she can call in a supply drop to replenish your precious defensives.
So a leisurely stroll, whistling whilst you work, isn't on the cards.
Desperate searching for mission ores and the ever precious Nitra is the background drumbeat of your tiny feet.
Often getting to ore seams requires engineering skills and tools to erect platforms, zip lines, carve through the rock to make tunnelled staircases, or just blowing the place up with grenades.
There are four classes, a scout, a digger, a gunner and an engineer.
The
Scout has a shotty and assault rifle, a grappling hook and can fire longer lasting flares to keep an area illuminated for longer.
The
Digger has a pair of spinning drillheads on his arms and he can chew through rock like a hot tongue through a tub of ben and jerrys. He has a giant flamethrower, a pistol and some satchel charges.
The
Gunner has a mini-gun, a pistol and a zip line for traversing underground canyons. Plus some satchel charges for when things really get going.
The
Engineer has a shotty, a platform gun (shooting pliable ooze that forms an eliptical platform that can be attached to the sides of cliff faces) and a pair of deployable gun turrets for perimeter defense - they need to be laid down, built, and stocked with ammo. They hold 75 rounds and shoot at anything hostile.
Mixing and matching skillsets to give the team the ability to get through what the environment throws at them, and then deal with the tooth and claw gnashing at their beards is the key to the fun here.
It's a hell of a romp. Desperation sets in as soon as you land, because your first priority will always be secure more ammo. Find your way through the labyrinthine cave system (it's procedurally generated), harvesting what you can, fighting off those that nip at your heels, and do it fast enough to be prepared for the next swarm of co-ordinated attack. Even on lowest difficulty it's almost nightmarish to survive (especially with only two dorfs)! If you manage to harvest all the objective minerals and fill Molly up, you trigger the evac dropship, now the pace is stepped up, the beasts are upon you, and you have to get out of this place, you've spent that last 30-40 minutes chewing up with your picks and drills.. the last run being a frantic sprint holding hands with each other to all get out within the 5 minute time limit. Luckily Molly is the one who takes point on the escape, planting poles of green light to show you the way. But she walks on cave ceilings.
Top stuff. Real adrenalin. The environments are suitably different in theme, and the monsters change a little, with some different flora and fauna observed.
Well worth the £19 admission fee for the early access (as the game stands it's very playable - some of the cosmetic unlockables are out of range, but upgrades to tools seem to work ok).
Would be an absolute quarry sized blast with 4 space dwarves!
