Deep Rock Galactic Season 3 is just around the corner, scheduled to kick off this November. The new season adds biome-altering special effects to Hoxxes IV, as well as brand-new grenades and a new activity waiting to be discovered down within the monster-filled mines. Ahead of the start of Season 3, I played through an instance of the new activity, which incorporates two stages.

The first stage sees you clearing Rockpox nests, while the second has you mining the Rockpox-infested asteroids that are bringing the contagion to the planet. Between the two, I most enjoyed the former, where you need to work with your team to track down and then clear out nests of Glyphid Grunts and Glyphid Praetorian that have been infected with the Rockpox contagion. The disease creates bulbous growths on the creatures--these are the only weak points on their otherwise impenetrable outer shells.

Deep Rock Galactic has always been a swarm-based cooperative shooter, akin to something like Left 4 Dead or Back 4 Blood, but with more defined classes and roles per player within the team. Compared to past seasons, the new enemy types don't really add anything substantially different to the gameplay experience. You're still shooting a bunch of enemies, only now you have to be careful to only shoot certain spots on the enemy instead of wilfully spraying everywhere. I did enjoy the creepy new designs for the infected, though.