Meet the Five Dog Characters in Gravhounds

One of the most distinctive features of Gravhounds is its selection of five playable dog characters. Each has different attributes, abilities, and combat roles.

The available characters include:

• Dozer: An English Bulldog designed for the tank role, making him suitable for players who prefer durability.
• Selene: A Weimaraner who serves as an all-rounder without major strengths or weaknesses.
• Luna: A Samoyed whose special ability, Zoomies, helps her move quickly and allows teammates to keep pace.
• Zane: A Dobermann with a tougher appearance and a more intimidating personality.
• Finn: A Shiba Inu who offers strong mobility and an ability that helps compensate for his lower starting health.

These characters are more than different appearances. Their abilities and attributes can influence how players approach missions and support their teammates.

How Gravhounds Gameplay Works

Gravhounds is a third-person shooter that combines resource gathering, extraction missions, and base defense.

Each mission sends players to an alien world where they must collect natural resources before escaping. During the operation, enemies attack the team's mining facility, making defensive preparation an important part of survival.

Players can build defenses such as turrets to protect their base while exploring the surrounding area for resources.

The gameplay takes place in relatively contained environments rather than the enormous maps associated with some other cooperative shooters. This creates a different rhythm, with players balancing exploration and resource collection against the need to protect their facility.

Gravhounds Has Elements of Helldivers 2 and Deep Rock Galactic

Players familiar with Helldivers 2 may recognize the cooperative shooting and alien-combat elements. Deep Rock Galactic fans may also notice similarities in the resource-gathering and mission structure.

However, Gravhounds has its own approach to these ideas.

Instead of focusing on long-distance exploration or underground mining, it keeps the action around a mining facility and its surrounding environment. Players must gather materials, return to safety, and defend their operations against enemy waves.

The combination of shooting and tower defense gives the game a distinctive gameplay loop, particularly when several players coordinate their responsibilities.

Solo Play Is One of Its Biggest Weaknesses

Although Gravhounds has potential, its early access version is not equally enjoyable in every situation.

The game's current design works much better with a group of friends than with a single player. Solo players must gather resources, monitor the facility, manage defensive structures, and deal with attacking enemies at the same time.

This can quickly become overwhelming, especially when enemies damage turrets while the player is exploring farther away from the base.

The world can also feel somewhat empty, and the mission structure needs more depth. These issues make cooperative play the stronger way to experience the game right now.

Early Access Leaves Room for Improvement

Gravhounds is still developing, so some of its systems may change as the studio receives feedback and works on future updates.

One encouraging aspect is its shooting mechanics, which already feel enjoyable. The game also features large skill trees and upgradeable weapons, providing progression systems for players to work toward.

Octopus Panic is a new indie development team that includes veterans who have worked on major shooter franchises such as Halo and Battlefield.

That experience gives the project an interesting foundation, although its long-term success will depend on how well the developers improve mission variety, balancing, and overall gameplay depth.

Where Can You Play Gravhounds?

Gravhounds is currently available in early access on PC and Xbox Series X|S. It is also included with Xbox Game Pass, giving eligible subscribers a way to try the game without purchasing it separately.

Players planning to jump into the game should ideally bring friends along. Its cooperative mechanics make it easier to divide responsibilities between gathering resources, protecting the mining facility, and fighting incoming enemies.

For now, Gravhounds looks like an interesting project with appealing characters and promising shooting mechanics, but it still needs further development to reach its full potential.