into chasing after the gold you find
throughout levels. Early on in our
escapades, I ask my comrade “If I see
gold in the ceiling, can I mine my
way through the walls up to it?” I
can, he says, so I do, learning how to
dig upwards. It is knowledge that
almost dooms me.
Still, this is the reason why I’m
always thinking about Deep Rock
Galactic. Few shooters encourage you
to make bad decisions, dangling
possibilities in front of you that feel
achievable. Deceptively simple quests
make getting to grips with the game
accessible – but every level allows its
own nuances. I get a greater sense of
achievement out of attempting to get
off the beaten path than playing the
same, similar objectives I’ve mastered
in most other shooters.
All is not lost in the end.
Eventually, my pickaxe creates an
opening to where the ship is. Out
pops my head to take in the
surroundings and a wave of guilt hits
me. The swarm I mentioned didn’t
disperse – it’s been besieging our ship
this whole time, with my mate
holding them back alone. I blunder
my way over, relieved he’s still alive
to escape with me. Don’t tell him, but
when it’s this fun, I plan on making
these kinds of mistakes again...
They’re coming
out of the
goddamn walls!THE GAMES WE LOVE RIGHT NOW
NOW PL AYING
This is what the galaxy
looked like after I’d
been eaten by shrimp.T
he thing I love about
Stellaris, Paradox’s
grand space 4X, isn’t
the strategy – it’s the
stories that
organically emerge from its galaxies
of warring aliens. But I started
finding those stories would run out
of steam earlier than I wanted.The problem was the empires I was
encountering. Being randomly
generated, they often don’t have clear,
memorable features – you see one
interstellar megacorporation, holy
crusade, or scientist enclave, and
you’ve seen ‘em all. In the early game,
when you’re only interacting with a
few at a time, it’s easy to read
personality into them, but as you
meet more and more they blur
together, and by the mid game I’ve
given up trying to keep them straight.DO IT YOURSELF
The solution? I started making my
own galaxies – or, at least, their
populations. I create full sets of
custom empires and lock them for
spawning, leaving no room for
randomly-generated ones. Each is
designed with a personality and
elevator pitch concept that’sdistinctive enough for even my
sputtering brain to hold on to – from
the irritable and irradiated vulture-
people of the Shrieking Despoilerate,
to the abandoned clone army
Regiment O-12, to the blood-sucking
slavers of the Upyr Supremacy.
I’m self-aware enough to realise
that I’ve fallen way down the rabbit
hole at this point, but this bit of geeky
world-building has completely
rejuvenated a game I’d already sunk
200 hours into. In a galaxy filled with
my own heroes and villains, the sci-fi
drama is delicious. When I first
encounter an empire, they’re not a
blank slate, they’re a defined culture,
and I already have some idea
whether I want them to be my
friends or to take them down a peg.
And when they surprise me with
some unexpected move, it’s all the
more delightful – like my creations
have taken on a life of their own.
Well, it was delightful, until The
One, a hive-mind of psychic shrimp,
got too into their designated role as
the galaxy’s baddies. As salty
mandibles devoured every last crumb
of my hard-won Empire of Earth, the
irony was a little difficult to take.
Perhaps I’ll have to make myself
more allies for next time.Making STELLARIS my own
“The sci-fi drama
is delicious”
ROBIN VALENTINE
THIS MONTH
Got along surprisingly well with
the space vampires.
ALSO PL AYED
Deep Rock Galactic, Assassin’s
Creed Valhalla