

Progression is slower than other survivor games, but they have increased the pace and added a mechanic with gear drops, which smooths out the curve and actually makes builds possible. All in all it’s one of the top survivor games i’ve played. I would place Vampire Survivors (because of the huge amount of content) and Halls of Torment (because i absolutely love the style) above it, but for me DRG:S is a solid 3rd place (and i’ve played quite a lot of bullet heavens)
Yes, there are meta upgrades; the gear is a parallel system to those upgrades.
And yes, things are more straightforward; you always get a few unlocks that you are close to shown at the start of a run.
I have Soulstone Survivors here, but didn’t have time to try it out yet, so i can’t say anything to compare the two.