Estimated reading time: 10 minutes
From developer Hungry Couch Games and acclaimed publisher tinyBuild comes a fun strategy colony sim that blends mining for precious stones a la Deep Rock Galactic or SteamWorld Dig, and a combat system that is reminiscent of Space Invaders. Drill Core is an addicting game that blends strategy and roguelite elements in one package that is entertaining and fun - if not nerve wracking at times. Several hours went into playing the game and now let’s discuss the many cool aspects of Drill Core.
First, there are several buildings that become available depending on how far a player progresses, but to start there is the Barracks, the Laboratory, and the Factory. Simply put, the barracks is the building where new miners, gatherers, and guards are trained; the laboratory allows players to upgrade their workers with more health or mining speed; and the factory simply generates passive ore which can be used to upgrade workers, train more workers, or purchase more buildings. Being strategic about the buildings placed and the upgrades chosen will play an important role in worker and core survival.
An integral element of Drill Core is to train a couple of different workers for the task at hand. It is essential to upgrade the workers’ abilities to ensure their survival and that means making them move faster, have more health, or mine at a greater speed. The more laboratories placed, the higher the upgrade level that can be purchased. Similarly, players can erect multiple barracks to increase their total worker count.
Gameplay
Drill Core is a game that just works. At first, the player is met with a platform and a few brave miners to dig for precious resources. Each day cycle, players need to plunge the miners into the depths to collect precious minerals that are used to build various upgrades and defenses. Each time a new day cycle begins, the game will prompt the player to purchase different buildings and different weapons.First, there are several buildings that become available depending on how far a player progresses, but to start there is the Barracks, the Laboratory, and the Factory. Simply put, the barracks is the building where new miners, gatherers, and guards are trained; the laboratory allows players to upgrade their workers with more health or mining speed; and the factory simply generates passive ore which can be used to upgrade workers, train more workers, or purchase more buildings. Being strategic about the buildings placed and the upgrades chosen will play an important role in worker and core survival.
An integral element of Drill Core is to train a couple of different workers for the task at hand. It is essential to upgrade the workers’ abilities to ensure their survival and that means making them move faster, have more health, or mine at a greater speed. The more laboratories placed, the higher the upgrade level that can be purchased. Similarly, players can erect multiple barracks to increase their total worker count.
The day cycle is all about the collection of resources from the mines. Upon assigning digging tasks to the miners, they will drill through stone bricks to find coal and gems. The coal is used to fuel the core which allows the drill platform to dig deeper into the mines. As mentioned previously, the gems are used to buy new buildings, weapons, workers, and more.
As miners dig deeper, there are various different hazard types which will impede progress. Hazards include blocks that move in a particular direction, little aggressive aliens, explosive blocks, and more! Some of these blocks should be avoided by workers, while other hazards must be taken out quickly. After collecting the coal needed to descend further into the mines, players will be thrust into one of the many night cycles in the game.
Combat
The night cycle will occur several times during gameplay as it is impossible to complete your objectives in one day. When the night cycle begins, the platform will be assaulted by a variety of different aliens. In order to combat the creatures, it is necessary to place defenses. The core of the platform is mostly unguarded until turrets are placed on the side walls. As an aside, the further down the platform, the more slots open up for defenses! Anyways, on the first night cycle of the any contract, two turrets can be placed free of charge. Any additional defensive structures will cost precious stones, so be sure to choose them wisely.
Additionally, while playing through a mission, the game will prompt players to choose between a couple of new technologies. Sometimes this will help make miners more efficient or heal them over time, and other times players will be given access to cool perks that allow them to lengthen the daytime hours or to see through the fog of war. It is also possible to unlock other buildings that can be placed to augment turrets or buildings that help the miners complete their contract. One such building is the bar which will periodically give workers a boon of speed or healing upon the next day cycle. Another building is a machine that boosts the effectiveness of nearby turrets. As an example of one instance during my playthrough, I placed a couple of wind turrets down which slowed incoming aliens for a short time.
After a Contract is Complete
After players eject the core on a contract, they will be brought back to the main menu where they can purchase other upgrades. For one thing, there is another currency that is collected at the end of every mission. The better a player does, the more currency they receive to spend on other upgrades.The upgrade menu has many goodies that can be purchased like new platforms to send your miners on. Other upgrades include research expansion, guard patrol protocol, factory fusion modules, factory storage, and more! The depths are the limit when it comes to creating efficient workers, and it adds to the games’ replayability. Essentially, there are a couple of layers of strategy and roguelite elements in Drill Core because there is a need to manage the amount of miners hired, the buildings placed, and the defenses used to protect the core.
Once you reach a certain point in the game, you will be able to specialize in a specific department that you choose. There are several different types of departments that will give you access to specialized buildings. Departments range from Unethical Innovation to Aggressive Negotiation to Chaotic Optimization. For my playthrough, I went with the Department of Accidental Safety which grants four different buildings: the suppressor, mining watchtower, thunderstrike turret, and the terrabor repeller. But, no department has the same set of buildings. For example, the Department of Overly Dramatic Solutions includes buildings that involves explosions and laser beams. Essentially, Drill Core allows you to play in a way that suits your style, which I’m all for!
Visuals and UI
First let’s talk about the graphics in Drill Core. The visuals are detailed enough to get the point across as the workers are pixelated and differentiated from each other. It is easy to see the difference between a miner, gatherer, and guards in the party. The enemies themselves are quite different as well. When mining during the daytime, the workers will face creatures that come out of the dirt. These flying monsters don’t take much to kill, but visually they look like flying insects.During the nighttime, there are several types of creatures that attack the core depending on the biome. In the first set of contracts, there are creatures who have a red aesthetic. Some of these creatures are smaller and quicker making them quite threatening in large quantities, some of the creatures will hone in on the core of the platform and explode, while others are larger and slower varients which take a significant amount of firepower to destroy. The further down into the mines traversed, the tougher the enemies.
As for the UI, Drill Core is quite simple to understand. WSAD can be used to move around the map or players can choose to use the mouse scrolling function. Most every other action requires pointing and clicking. For example, players simply need to click on the flashing ore icon to collect the resources from the factory.
In order to upgrade a unit, click on the first building of that type to queue up new units or research technologies to ensure player survival. The cost of each upgrade and unit will be displayed clearly in the popup menu. While being able to click on the first building placed is handy, it is possible to change which one is the go to building - as opposed to upgrading the building itself to accomplish the same result. (This is a minor gripe I have about the game.)
That said, there are many aspects of Drill Core that I enjoy. I love the layered strategy of moving the miners through the depths in search of shinnies and I love that at nighttime you have to defend your platform’s core with guards and with various types of turrets. Each playthrough becomes more challenging and more interesting depending on your choices in technology and defenses.
In order to upgrade a unit, click on the first building of that type to queue up new units or research technologies to ensure player survival. The cost of each upgrade and unit will be displayed clearly in the popup menu. While being able to click on the first building placed is handy, it is possible to change which one is the go to building - as opposed to upgrading the building itself to accomplish the same result. (This is a minor gripe I have about the game.)
Pros and Cons
If there is anything that bothered me about Drill Core, it would be the requirement to use only one building for upgrades or production. The only other gripe I have is the inability to micromanage the units properly. What I mean is, if you click on a row of blocks to the left on the map, and then you click on a separate row on the right, the units will divide themselves to the closest block to them. Sometimes it seems like they would go to the first blocks clicked. In early contracts, this is less of an issue, but as you progress further into the mines, there will be moving blocks or explosives that you may want to save your workers from accidentally triggering. I can’t tell you how many times I had to hire more workers because they all died due to unfortunate circumstances.That said, there are many aspects of Drill Core that I enjoy. I love the layered strategy of moving the miners through the depths in search of shinnies and I love that at nighttime you have to defend your platform’s core with guards and with various types of turrets. Each playthrough becomes more challenging and more interesting depending on your choices in technology and defenses.
Conclusion
The only question to ask yourself when playing Drill Core is how low will you go? Each contract picked up will present different challenges to overcome like falling dirt or explosives during the daytime and hostile creatures that try to attack the core at nighttime. The only way to progress is to be strategic about how many units hired and the placement of your defenses.Drill Core is quite charming between the wit of the game developers and the layers of strategy used to progress through the game. Some contracts don’t take long as you can choose to eject the core once you’ve collected enough coal, but if you really want a good bang for your buck, you’re going to drill down to 600 meters or more and face the dangers head on.
I played Drill Core for several hours in just one contract that I became too nervous to continue further, and as a result I was able to buy a whole bunch of upgrades. Since the game pleasantly sucked me into the depths in the hunt of shinnies, I am giving it a 9 out of 10! Seriously, the devs knocked this one out of the shaft, so be sure to grab a copy!
Score: 9 out of 10
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