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0 Drill Core is a mix of strategy, simulator and roguelite. It is in development by Hungry Couch Games (Black Skylands) with publishing by tinyBuild (Hello Neighbor, among many others). It is now available in early access on Steam.
Dig Deep with this Pixel Roguelite Mashup
Drill Core first caught my eye when I had a chance to play the demo earlier this year. I didn’t have quite as much time with it as I would have liked so I was eager to get another chance to check it out. Not to mention I’ve been a fan of most of the games out there with the help of tinyBuild. What about you, reader? Is there a publisher you tend to follow as tried and true? Let me know in the comment section.
Gameplay
In Drill Core, you work for the corporate company… DrillCore… as a Platform Manager. Your primary duty in this role is to orchestrate the mining and acquisition of materials while also coordinating the defence and advancement of your platform. The overall goal for each mission is to reach the objective depth so that an explosive core can be launched toward the core of the planet. Once reaching the objective depth, the player is free to leave immediately or continue gathering resources for use as upgrades. Resources are used to buy/build defensive technology and armaments. The game follows a day/night cycle that focuses on resource gathering during the day and defence of the platform at night.
Drill Core is properly tagged as a roguelite, much to my relief. Each run seems to be independent of one another and some resources that are gathered during each run can then be used toward upgrades. Upgrades provide additional reinforcement and fortification of tech and abilities.
There are three different games that Drill Core brings to mind specifically. The first two are definitely Invaders and Missile Command from the way in which the enemies come down from the sky. Some tech also act as an active ability that fires a weapon at them like a rocket or laser. The third game I suppose is more of a mix between Terraria, Starbound, and Oxygen Not Included. This is mostly from the combination of the mining and resource gathering as well as the simulator management aspect of the game.
For an early access build, I didn’t notice anything really completely broken right now in Drill Core. I did notice something worth mentioning when using the radar dish to see where resources are buried. I found that pausing the map would allow you to take a closer and longer look beyond what the ability normally shows. Aside that, I’d like the ability to rebind keys or at least swap thumbsticks when playing on the Steam Deck.
Graphics & Audio
Though the store page for Drill Core doesn’t have any information about the compatibility of the game with the Steam Deck, I will tell you that it works great. I didn’t have to adjust any settings and had a smooth gameplay experience. Hopefully in the future there will be controller support for PC as well as the ability to change key bindings. The pixel style probably contributes a lot to how smoothly it translates between Steam Deck and PC.
The soundtrack in Drill Core is pretty chill. It gives off that lo-fi beats vibe that helps keep you on point. The difference between day and night are obvious of course with the incoming threat of enemies. But overall it makes a nice ambience when you want to unwind at the end of the day. That is until the bugs are bearing down on you again.
Longevity
At the time of writing this, I am still working on completing my first level 3 mission in Drill Core. I’m not sure how many levels of difficulty there are total but there’s at least one if not two more beyond where I’m at. There’s also the choice between two different planets right now, which I’m sure will expand during further development. Add on top of that the qualifications you can progress for additional technology for each run, and you’ve got yourself a good old fashioned time sink. At the rate things are going I could see spending an easy 60 or more hours at the bare minimum more on it. The 52 Steam Achievements tell me there’s more to be had too.
Final Thoughts
Drill Core is already shaping up to be an enjoyable experience. I have had a lot of fun with it already and expect to for a while to come. The estimate is for the game to be in early access until the second half of 2025. If you don’t want to hop in and play what is already an enjoyable game as is, be sure to keep an eye out for full release later next year.
If you enjoy this review, be sure to check out my other reviews here.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this preview.
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