The Surge 2 - XB1 Review

The Surge 2 is a generous love letter to action RPG/Hack-and-slash titles like its prequel, The Surge, Dark Souls, Bloodbourne, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Though flawed, The Surge 2 is a celebration of animation in a setting that feels far more alive, more interesting, than its predecessor. It is not all as glorious as it sounds though, as there are numerous shortcomings, from performance issues to abysmal lighting and contrast. To its credit, the animations, functions of the rigs, and the absolutely superb level design, The Surge 2 will most certainly fill you with hours upon hours of exploratory excitement in an industrial-grade grey landscape full of drug addicts and overly militant religious sects.

To start, The Surge 2’s opening level/tutorial space is about as bland as they come, though I did get a very hefty Resident Evil feel. Unfortunately though, that tense and foreboding feeling died the moment I exited the starting area and hit the open air of Jericho City. I have to admit that the open-air feeling was a refreshing spin on the more densely atmospheric action-RPG/Hack-and-Slash “Soulsbourne” genre, and as you discover more areas in Jericho City, you will come to realize the brilliance in level design.

Exploration seems to be a key second next to the limb-ripping goodness that carried over from The Surge and both of those elements are superb. I can only imagine that if you were to zoom completely out over the entirety of Jericho City, then overlay it with the actual paths available to you, you would likely find that the entire map looks not all that dissimilar from that old 3D Pipes screensaver. It is WONDERFUL.

What is not wonderful? Performance. Oh lawd its bad at times. On the Xbox One X, under the Quality mode, you will rarely maintain, or even get close to the 30 FPS lock on consoles (I cannot yet speak to PC performance, but it too is reportedly poor). On top of that? This is a regular occurrence on the Xbox One X :

I would most certainly call that “quality” … if we were talking original Xbox-era. Later areas tend to stutter and drop frames far more often as clutter is more common, enemies are more numerous, and various effects, like the very cool animations in the background vistas, however the framer drops and graphical pop-in is frustrating and immersion-breaking.

On the flipside of that though, this is launch and there will likely be an optimization patch so the hope is that there is one that focuses on performance. In truth, I eagerly await that because the game is quite pretty; some of the scenes are breathtaking, especially mid-game when there is a significant color shift away from steel and varying shades of grey. Tie that into some wonderful audio design (minus some of the … questionable voice acting) and there are some excellent moments that, after taking out a horde of bad guys by ripping up their limbs, are simply serene. A shame that the relatively bland story did not capture me with its bland twists and unenthusiastic story arcs…

What really sets The Surge 2 apart? Combat. Where Demons Souls and the first two Dark Souls games were about patience, parrying, and timing, Dark Souls III and Bloodbourne were about speed, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is a blend between timing and stealth, Surge 2 is all about getting in and just beating the hell out of the enemies while taking a beating yourself. “But T1ckles, those games are all about NOT getting hit” you say? Well … They are and Surge 2 sets itself apart not only with the utterly awesome limb-removal combat style, but in its use of rigs that have armor ratings. The better the armor, the longer you can stay in the fight, smashing and bashing and de-limbing all to your heart’s content. Not a fan of the tank-style combat? No worries; you can go full-on dexterity/agility with the different rigs and any of the huge pile of wickedly homemade weapons (Spears are my absolute jam).

The Surge 2 graphics are good at times, though they run into issues with performance; audio design is superb, and level-design is stellar; combat is awesome and what keeps one coming back. Is it a title worth its weight based on its price point? That is an absolute and resounding “yes.” Is the story as deep and intricate as the Dark Souls trilogy? No. Is it as passionate as Sekiro? No. Is it as dark and twisted as Bloodbourne? No. Is it different, interesting, and full of extreme potential? Abso-freaking-lutely.

With Surge 2 the franchise is finally hitting the upward swing that a non-From Software title deserves in the hardcore action-RPG/Hack-and-Slash genre. Here’s to more titles in the Surge universe …

Game Information

Platform:
Microsoft Xbox One
Developer(s):
Deck 13
Publisher(s):
Focus Home Interactive
Genre(s):
Action, Adventure, RPG, Soulsborne
Mode(s):
Single Player, Coop
Other Platform(s):
Sony PlayStation 4, PC

Source:
Provided by Publisher

Article by Robert

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The Surge: A Walk in the Park - XB1 Review

A Walk in the Park is 2017's underrated sci-fi action RPG hit The Surge's DLC, adding an entire new amusement park area called CREO World. Unfortunately what is supposed to be a fun-filled amusement park, CREO World has fallen into a bit of disrepair. Not spared from the disaster, rescue teams were sent to recover any who were capable of being saved, but those very rescue teams have fallen to the dark side, have gone insane and now patrol the area looking to batter anything they find into dust. Enter CREO World at your own peril, and though it is juvenile in looks and spirit, it is brutally frustrating at times. At times welcome if immature challenge, at others an exercise in patience.

I cannot help but feel, in some ways, that Deck 13 might not have taken the premise for CREO World right out of my biggest video game regret of 2015; purchasing Fallout 4. Seriously, that game under-delivered for me and left me bitter, given the poor storyline, wax graphics, and annoying gimmicks (base building?) and no matter how hard I try to like it, it plain sucks ass. That said, Fallout 4's Nuka World was wonderfully creepy and I cannot help but feel that Deck 13 felt that the idea of an amusement park / theme park within the stark, beaten world of The Surge would fit. While CREO World aesthetically melds with the core game, if a bit greener at times (I love seeing green foliage that is full of vitality in these post-apocalyptic worlds). I do have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the level design for A Walk in the Park (and in fact, the whole game).

Perhaps it is all the shrubbery, but I certainly felt that A Walk in the Park was far more ALIVE than the core game. Where in the base game I had the feeling of walking through industrial corridors not all that dissimilar to what Ripley had to crawl through in 1986's "Aliens," which is not a bad thing. Just claustrophobic at times. A common level design element that I found between both the core game and the DLC is that the open areas SEEM open, but they are actually not. A nice skybox or huge room will be absolutely packed with doodads / junk, severely restricting the room to move. This is a problem since nearly every enemy the DLC seems to have an incredibly destructive and extremely fast leaping attack. Fortunately there are enough new implants to help mitigate the massive amounts of damage. My personal favorite that I came across was an implant that healed you if you manage to land 5 consecutive rapid weapon strikes. Excellent for those like me that are used to traditional Agility builds; I love me some bo staff action.

I would like to mention that your most enjoyable experience playing A Walk in the Park would be via a New Game, not a New Game+. I found that with New Game+ the existing gear that you will have will far outshine, out-damage, and out-perform anything you will find in the DLC, and that is an incredible shame given the cool weapons you can find. The armor fares little better, though it is pretty neat looking and, well, if anyone here knows me then that is the best part of any game. I can, and do spend countless hours making my character look just right, only to get a new piece of gear that looks different or I am in a different mood or the wind changes.

The Surge: A Walk in the Park is a great addition to the core game, if strangely paced. Since it came out well after the game was released most people will get to it in New Game+ and the enemies and gear are simply not up to standard with end-game content is a huge detriment. This means that to get the most out of A Walk in the Park is to restart the game, meaning all of that great gear you spent hours getting will be lost. Adding better weapons. armor and stronger opponents then making it comparable to end-game content would give players the most out of the DLC. However, when you do start from scratch, the pacing, level design, and aesthetic are extremely on point and a worthwhile addition to The Surge.

Game Information

Platform:
Microsoft Xbox One
Developer(s):
Deck 13
Publisher(s):
Focus Home Interactive
Genre(s):
Hack & Slash
Mode(s):
Single Player
Other Platform(s):
Sony PlayStation 4
PC

Source:
Provided by Publisher

Article by Robert

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The Surge - Xbox One Review

When I first caught wind of The Surge a year or so ago I was immediately intrigued; after all Deck13 are the minds behind the success Souls-like pseudo-clone, Lords of the Fallen. Returning to the difficult twisted-dungeon crawling action-RPG genre, Deck13 brings us The Surge, a title steeped in high science fiction and it works. While I am a huge sucker for GrimDark fantasy of the Dark Souls games, the High Fantasy of Lords of the Fallen , the Cthulhu-esque setting of Bloodborne, or the Edo Period-esque world of Nioh, taking that same type of gameplay and placing it in a hard science fiction setting had my eyes alight with a ravening desire to play. After what seems to be an eternity, The Surge has released and goes to show that From Software and Team Ninja are not the only two that can do a punishingly good action-RPG.

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