Far Far West vs Deep Rock Galactic: Co-op Compared

Players arriving from Deep Rock Galactic tend to ask one question first: is this the same game with a cowboy skin? It is not, and the difference is not cosmetic. It is structural, and it decides whether your group bounces off it in an hour or keeps it installed for months.

Side by side

Structure: a cave you have never seen versus a fight you can rehearse

Deep Rock Galactic generates its caves. Every mission is a fresh layout, and the traversal puzzle — where the drop pod will land, how you get back — is part of the content. That randomness is the reason the game stays interesting for hundreds of hours.

Far Far West uses authored maps. A contract gives you a place, an objective, and a boss, and the community's talk is about learning routes rather than surviving a layout nobody has seen. The trade is deliberate: you lose surprise and gain rehearsal. Routes get optimized, boss patterns get learned, and a squad that has run a contract four times is visibly better at it than a squad on attempt one.

If your group's pleasure comes from improvisation, DRG wins that category outright. If it comes from execution — the run where nobody makes the mistake they made last time — Far Far West is built for exactly that, and its boss encounters are the reason. Tactics are in /bounties/boss-fights.

Classes versus cards

This is the biggest mechanical gap, and it changes how your group talks to each other.

In DRG, the class is the contribution. A Driller opens the map; an Engineer builds the path; a Gunner holds the line; a Scout lights and reaches. Roles are legible from the character select screen, and a squad missing a class feels it immediately.

Far Far West has no classes. Steam describes specializations — damage, healing, or headshot focus — and the real build identity lives in Joker cards and weapon upgrades, which attach to a weapon or to the hunter rather than to a role. Roles still exist in practice, but they are negotiated rather than assigned: nobody is the healer because of their pick, someone becomes the healer because of what they brought.

For DRG veterans: revives here require proximity, which turns spacing into a defensive stat. See /guide/coop-guide.

Combat: tools versus reactions

DRG's combat is spatial. Half your power is in where you put a platform, a tunnel, or a shield, and the destructible terrain means the arena is a resource.

Far Far West's combat is elemental. Guns and spells run in parallel, and the damage spike comes from ordering spells so that one element detonates another — the chains are catalogued in /spells/best-spell-combos. What replaces DRG's terrain play is target setup: puddles, marks, and summoned turrets that turn a scattered wave into one addressable problem.

Neither is deeper. They reward different habits: DRG rewards reading a cave, Far Far West rewards reading a fight's timing.

Progression and maturity

DRG has years of balance passes, free seasonal content, and a class system polished to the point where every weapon has a place. Far Far West is months into Early Access with a small team, a level-100 prestige loop, and a stated plan to add weapons, enemies, and modes before 1.0. Its upgrade economy is real but visibly younger — see /weapons/weapon-upgrades-guide for how the tracks fit together.

Solo play is the sharper contrast. DRG gives a lone player a companion drone that mines and revives. Far Far West reportedly gives you nothing but the contract, which makes solo a deliberate challenge mode rather than a supported second way to play.

Which one for your squad

Pick Far Far West for a $19.99 entry price, a western-magic tone, and boss fights you can learn. It is the better fit if your group plays in short scheduled sessions and likes a clear objective-to-boss run.

Pick Deep Rock Galactic for procedural variety, class mastery, and a content pipeline that has already proven it lasts. It is the better fit if your group plays spontaneously and wants every drop to be different.

Play both if you have the appetite. They occupy the same evening slot but not the same mood: one is a weekly puzzle with a new cave, the other a weekly heist with a boss you are getting better at.

One last practical difference: DRG ships on PC and consoles, Far Far West is Windows-only and Steam-only for now, which matters if your group is split. Details in /platforms/console-availability and /guide/crossplay-guide.

The short version

DRG asks where you are. Far Far West asks when you cast. Both are four-player co-op with a hub and an extraction, and neither substitutes for the other once you have played a few hours of each.