The Surge is a Sci-Fi Action RPG title for PS4, XBONE, and PC, which was developed by Deck13 Interactive and published by Focus Home Interactive. It is a spiritual successor to their earlier 2014's title Lords of the Fallen, which heavily borrows the gameplay features similar to Dark Souls series.
Yeah Yeah we all know that the "Just Like Dark Souls" dumb jokes on the internet had gone way too far over the years, but this game is more acceptable towards the Souls-like genres.
Unlike the Lords of the Fallen which is a dark fantasy theme game, The Surge is more like of the Dystopian Sci-Fi approach heavily inspired by crappy 1994's game such as Rise of the Robots, but slightly better looking game.
I believe the developer team wanted to improve upon the game by reducing the faults that was found previously on their predecessor as they attempting to focus on more emphasis of combat style gameplay and larger environment levels to explore with over 30 hours long of campaign.
The Surge is one of the Action RPG game that I was hoping to enjoy a full 30 hours action, so yeah I think the game is taking in a right direction for its dystopian concept of presentation that really fits nicely to whole environments and it has solid overall combat mechanics filled with fluid controls and has option to upgrade your own weapons and abilities is the great addition to quality gameplay, while the game has some drawbacks for its weak story and some annoying parts which I'm going to discuss further more on this review.
So without go further do, lets start the review.
Presentation
The game takes place in Dystopian future where humans have exhausted the world's resources which leading to strained social service and environmental diseases.
The story starts off with a new employee named Warren on his way to his first day of job in CREO Headquarter which is one of the largest tech conglomerates now controlling the world.
After having a painful operation which led him being equipped with robotic rig until he passes out during neurosurgery, he finally woke up and finds the facility in ruins to meet with the executive named Sally as she ordered him to traverse the entire complex in order to find out what exactly happened during CREO's incident.
I got to say the story is not the strongest point of the game which I felt it's kinda sounds flat for lacking an effort on the main plot that involves the CREO's disasterous experiment. During the audiologs and conversation call on terminals gains information about how the members of CREO going through hell with their experiment before the disaster had happen, but I still think its sounded quite generic that didn't add too well to its story development.
I finding the main protagonist Warren seems to be quite forgettable which he lacking his personally while having conversation to supportive characters in the game which really hurting his character's development, so it would have been better off being a silent protagonist over having his fully voice in entire game.
I wish they should have done better job if they able to keep the story and character development intact, but it didn't work out at the end unless the game needs to have a better writing and has more story driven could make the game more interesting.
Speaking of making the game interesting, I really liked the looks of the Dystopian Sci-Fi settings that they did a great job of adding in-depth environments which is kinda like mixed between Deus Ex and Rise of the Robots which made the levels design look more futuristic feel. The enemies including robots, droids, security experts, and heavy armored guy are kinda look more cooler than the rest of the characters in the games if I'm being honest. The weapon concepts in the game is looking quite decent for overall look because it feels like you're holding a badass looking combat weapons to make you look more like an edgy middle-aged man.
I'm very glad that they put up more efforts on level environments, weapons, and enemies are the highlights of the game except the boring ass story and characters did not give a game enough justice.
Overall, it has interesting settings, decent weapon concepts, and cool looking enemies, except the story and character.
Gameplay
The single player has over 30 hours long campaign as you take control of Warren played in Souls-like RPGs perspective, while it has Metroidvania style exploration which has large open-world levels to explore. Your goal is to head at the main destination while it progressed though the story as you are being required to upgrading your abilities and weapons in order to survive the battles against the enemies.
I want to talk about on combats and movements in the game which starting out pretty good as you can able to walk, sprint, and jump through the areas, while the camera controls seems to be doing a good job while locking on the enemies during the fight which I think its easier to direct focused on the enemies keeping the camera intact nicely. You can also switch target between the enemies nearby are also really helps me to lock on another types of enemy that I wanted to fight on.
You have two types of attacks such as horizontal and vertical attacks which are used for damaging enemy depending what types of weapon you used in the game and you can also avoid enemy's attack by pressing dodge button and using block button to prevent getting damaged by their projectiles. Each of weapons are balanced with threes types such as light weapon which are weak and fast, medium weapon are more of well-balanced, and heavy duty weapon are slow and powerful. It will takes sometime to get used with these kinds of combat weapons once you're able to master these weapon well during the combat fight against bad guys. You can also perform an finishing moves by holding the button while the enemy runs on low health, so the coolest thing in the game is that you can able to dismantle enemy's armour parts by targeting on their body parts such as arms, legs, body, and head which causing to lose their armour parts as you can keep them for workshop which I will discuss it later on this review.
You have an bar screen at the top-left corner which indicates player's health, stamina, and energy, so the health is actually your player's condition which keeps you alive, the stamina actually effects on sprinting, dodging and attacking which tells you that you may ran out breath for overdoing your actions, and finally the energy are used for implants items and drone attack which can only increased by attacking enemies further.
On the workshop room which acts as a auto-save checkpoints, this will allow you to craft and upgrade your weapons and armours which requires both components and tech points. You will need wrecked armour parts to convert into the certain components and you can also gained tech points by defeating enemy or destroying consumables which you can store them safe fully on workshop's tech bank.
The tech points are also used for increasing player's core power which allowing you to perform overcharge on certain objects such as activating elevator, doors, and collecting nano core's from the storage. The core power are also effect on equipping armours and implants items which requires enough core power to use these depending what your core power level you're on.
The implants items are quite useful which can be located on different rooms of the areas, so you will have health capacity, stamina reducer, energy saver, and etc. which really improves your player's overall performance making more stronger and tougher, while using injectables items can also increases your health and energy points are also come in handy if you need it for the boss battles.
I find the exploration in the game is kinda interesting where I can able to find a undiscovered areas and secrets that filled with lost items, new rigs and drones, and being able to unlock security door which I think it did a great job of putting enough emphasis on the open-world levels, but the most annoying thing in the game was lack of the map screen on the player's menu which I was struggling to find a new path in the game because it is harder for me to find a undiscovery area that I wanted to visit, so if it is a Metroidvania style game then it should have been easier to include the map screen so I can able to find where I wanted to go.
So far, I find the combat gameplay did quite a solid job especially with the customisation controls option which really adds the better playability and the combat in the game is quite a impressive how they balanced out these weapons and armours nicely in the game because of some of the weapons are actually not so complicated to use as it makes the practice even better once you know how to perform the moves accurately like I can able to swing the huge ass sword and spinning around the heavy duty blade which really makes the combat style feels realistic. I liked the idea of upgrading and adding stuff to your rig systems which really helps improving the player's performances as it is beneficial to your health, stamina, and energy which makes it even stronger to fight against those tougher enemies in the game.
I find the enemy's A.I during the battle is responsively impressive for its their fighting style is the reason why it makes the game even harder but fun at the same time because it's feels more tactical and defensive kind of combat battle where you need to finish them off without taking so much damage which I really liked how the combat in the game actually works and I was satisfied with the boss battle which is a positive part of the game because of the overall difficulty makes it feels very challenging which took me about 7 or 8 attempts to finish it off really adds my overall experience.
There are one negatives parts in the game such as trying not to lose all your tech points because after being killed by the enemies which leaves your amount of tech points on same location you have died, you will need to retain these tech points at the same location, but if you die again without retaining the item then you will lose all your tech points which is really annoying that you will need these to store them safefully on the tech bank account.
The positive thing in the game that I liked are the side-missions where you need to complete their task outside of the main mission which keeps me very busy to help the crew what they need and I think the length of the campaign is fantastic which plays over 30 hours long really satisfied me to know how long it takes to complete, and it does have new game plus where you can able to play the game again at the beginning while retaining same items did really adds up replay values.
Overall, it has interesting exploration, soild combat, satisfying boss battles, replay values, and of course 30 hours campaign.
Graphics
The graphics in the game is actually looking decent for its environmental design because I liked how they designed the level nicely for its Dystopian settings of the factory warehouse, experimental room, workshop, and the office are looking quite detailed to look at and I also liked the overall animation on characters and enemy which they are looking pretty good for the eight generation era as long they got the body and facial animation just about right for the lip sycing and the movements in the game.
I got to love the gory effects on the game where the player chops off the enemy's body parts in slow motion which is kinda cool to watch them torn apart while running on slow speed.
It does have cool lighting effects and some quality textures in the game which fits nicely to the areas.
Overall, it has decent environments, great animation, and cool gory effects.
Music and Sounds
It does have a great original soundtrack in the game which feels more darker sci-fi styled music in every levels as it really fits the game's personally and hell even we have chilled out song called Prisoner played in the warehouse was the song made by Stumfol which I think its sounds pretty calming during the break.
The sound effects is pretty good for its background noises and some environmental sounds inside the building is quite an atmospheric in the game, while I also liked the battle screaming from the human enemies is quite insane during the battle.
I finding the voice cast in the game is pretty did a mediocre job is not just because of their weak personalities that I've mention on the presentation part, but their voices seems to be very cheap that didn't add well to the character's development, so I wish they could have been done something better to make them more interesting than being downright boring.
Overall, it has great music and sounds, except cheap voice cast.
Special Features
This game has new game plus, 2 DLCs levels such as The Good, The Bad and the Augumented, and Walk in the Park, and 2 DLCs add-ons such as Fire & Ice Weapon pack and Cutting Edge pack.
Overall, it's an acceptable features are worth picking these up.
Advantages
Dystopian style themes
Interesting exploration
Solid combat
Satisfying boss battles
30 hours long campaign
Descent graphics
Great soundtrack
Disadvantages
Weak story and characters
Lack of map screen
Losing tech scrap instantly after two deaths
Cheap voice acting
Final Verdict
Presentation 5/10 - interesting settings, decent weapon concepts, and cool looking enemies, except the story and characters.
Gameplay 7.5/10 - interesting exploration, soild combat, satisfying boss battles, replay values, and of course 30 hours campaign.
Graphics 8/10 - decent environments, great animation, and cool gory effects.
Music and Sounds 6/10 - great music and sounds, except cheap voice cast.
Special Features 8/10 - has new game plus, 2 DLCs levels such as The Good, The Bad and the Augumented, and Walk in the Park, and 2 DLCs add-ons such as Fire & Ice Weapon pack and Cutting Edge pack.
Overall 7/10 - The Surge might not be the best Souls-like titles, but it's definitely a fine Action RPGs game that is rather not disappointing to those who previously enjoyed Dark Souls series may going to like this game for its combat gameplay, exploration, bosses, and having over 30 hours long campaign are the main positives of the game.
I hopefully Deck13 Interactive will able to do something even better for the sequel if they managed to get the story and characters just right at the end and I expecting them to do a same old good job with bosses, levels, and combats as well.
I definitely hoping to play The Surge 2 if I only had a chance to play it, so going back to this review The Surge is might not be the everyone's cup of tea, but if you looking for a decent Action RPGs with bigger challenge, epic combat, and getting more ass kicking then it's for you to play.
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