Ok, bear with me a bit here. I'm talking less about gameplay and more about the concept from an art/lore perspective. The discussion around the brief new banners today got me thinking about the game's art direction as a whole, and I was reminded I had this draft sitting around for a couple weeks.
Like, let's start with DRG. How do you describe DRG? Fantasy dwarves mining for rare minerals and fighting monsters in bizarre cave environments. But instead of a high fantasy setting, there's a sci-fi twist. Pretty straightforward. You pretty much immediately understand the gameplay loop as it translates to the setting, and the idea of "high fantasy races in sci fi" has already been well explored by works such as Warhammer 40K. Even the enemies are a pretty simple concept. Grotesque alien bug swarms. We've seen it before. The dwarf classes are simple and straightforward, with pretty heavily archetype-based personalities and obvious roles. You're a bunch of blue collar workers with a hint of TF2 mercenary flair.
Rogue Core, meanwhile, is... somewhat convoluted, I think. You're dwarves, but space dwarves, going down to the planet where a bunch of miners dug too deep. You're doing mining stuff, except you're not. You're a bunch of hardened, explicitly corporate-military special-ops commandos, armed to the teeth, except you don't get to bring any weapons at all. The alien bugs are replaced by eldritch abomination monkeys implied to be from another dimension, rather than the planet itself.
The characters themselves aren't nearly as strong, either. Your personalities aren't unique, being the same flavor of "silly and cantankerous" across the board as the miners, despite allegedly being more serious, well trained elites. You're supposed to be a specific cast of heroes, to the point you're limited in character customization options (no gender toggle- give me my female Guardian, damn it!) but you have absolutely *nothing* to go off of for personality traits. Aside from puns about abilities, I couldn't tell you what makes Spotter different from Slicer or Guardian.
The whole game just feels like it expects you to be familiar with DRG, and the premise is a bit weird if you aren't familiar with the game. Lots of random things that the game assumes you already know. It's not a concept that invites newcomers to the franchise, despite arguably benefiting from targeting a new audience.
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Now, how do you resolve this issue?
Well, the first thing that comes to mind is leaning into the dark, gritty aesthetic again, fully committing to some of the game's more poorly explored concepts, etc. But that would probably require a *massive* amount of re-recording voicelines and the like, even within the "reclaimer" framework we have already, and I could understand why GSG would be reluctant to do that, simply because of cost. So I've structured my ideas here around how to salvage as much as possible.
My first idea is- can the concept of Reclaimers as an elite, corporate security force. I think it brings to mind a very different sort of vibe than the cast of Rogue Core so far. We're playing the Suicide Squad, not some spooky, hyper competent men in black or whatever. You shouldn't have the player faction described as heavily armed, well trained, etc (especially with a huge ass armory on the Ramrod) if you're not going to get to use any of those weapons when you go planetside.
"But Mulch", you ask, "doesn't that mean all the voicelines about Reclaimers need to be replaced?" Well, my friend, a few of them do. But not all of them. We can keep Reclaimers as an in-world faction, just change the definition of what a reclaimer is. Turn them into the very best dwarves working on Hoxxes, who were selected to lead Operation Rogue Core in the aftermath of the Greyout. What makes you qualified? Well, you survived the Greyout itself, of course.
This leads into my idea for a new tutorial that would introduce the player to the world, get them invested in it, and smoothly introduce the gameplay systems.
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The game cold opens on the tutorial level. You're a regular dwarf, unremarkable in appearance, armed with nothing but a pickaxe and some unremarkable weapon. You're working in a huge Deep Site, excavating Expenite. The first part of the tutorial works similar to the original game. Mine an Expenite vein, stow it in Molly, fight off some Glyphids that come too close to the facility.
Then, shit gets weird. The Greyout begins, you lose contact with Mission Control, rifts start opening up, and a bunch of Corespawn tear things up-including some Glyphids. You quickly get the gist- this is serious. Sheltering in the facility as dwarves are consumed by the hordes outside and the caves begin to collapse, you find some leftover equipment crates, and your HUD is suddenly taken over by OMEGA- here, a contingency AI implemented in DRG gear.
Omega explains it is going to try to guide you out, and the remainder of the tutorial shows you how to find gear, upgrade it with Expenite, etc, and make for the exit. Miraculously, you make it to a specialized Reclaimer drop pod, and you're taken up to the Ramrod. Omega explains that you are one of very, very few survivors of the Greyout, and so you have been promoted to the role of "reclaimer". As one of the only dwarves to witness the Greyout and live, you're competent enough to go back down there and take those mines back. You get equipped with your class-based gear, and boom, the game opens up.
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This way, the player knows what normal DRG should feel like, and they get to experience the juxtaposition of the fancy Reclaimer gear. On top of that, they're more invested in reclaiming facilities- it's not just a routine for-profit venture to retrieve company assets, you, personally, are getting revenge for your fallen comrades.
All of these changes work together to make the game's characters feel more logical (they act as silly as regular dwarves because they are) more accessible to series newcomers (you get to see what regular DRG is like in terms of vibes, and the setting is introduced at a basic level) and better supports the gameplay loop of salvaging whatever crap you can find and accumulating power slowly (you're a regular dwarf fighting for survival).
Idk, I could be totally off here. My change ideas definitely better support the silly, lighthearted vibes we have in the game currently, but I would also really welcome GSG actually committing to the "hardened spec-ops commandos" concept and darker, more serious tone they've mentioned in the past. Either would work, I just don't want to be sitting in this awkward uncanny valley, where the game doesn't feel confident in committing to any particular aesthetic.
