Trepang2 PS5 Review

 

Trepang2 is a indie action-FPS game was released in 2023 for PS5, XSX/S, and PC. It was developed by Trepang Studios and published by Team17.

The 1st-person shooter had became a huge thing from the early 90s to mid-2000s, so we have games like Doom, Quake, Unreal, Goldeneye 007, Halo, Battlefield, and Call of Duty are the prime examples of revolutionised the genre for its innovative gameplay design, new 3D graphics engine, over-the-top campaign action, and of course has the best multiplayer battles for both the local and online modes that changed the gaming industry forever.

The others also shared the great campaign with the heavy emphasis on storyline and narrative such as Half-Life, Bioshock, Deus Ex, The Chronicle of Riddick, Far Cry, and Metroid Prime are just as quite recognisable to get gamers to enjoy the full single-player story.

There's one of the FPS series that caught my attention such as F.E.A.R which is a action-horror shooter, a genre that combines with the twos fitting elements together of the action-shooter and psychological horror.

Not only the game had experimented two of these genres together, but there are some earlier FPS titles had did it way ahead its time like the System Shock 2 and Doom 3 are more of the horror-focused approach than the traditional action-shooter which brings the new style of FPS genre, which is why it influenced F.E.A.R series to create a good mix of shooting action and several of disturbing ghost-horror elements which has an quite unsettling moments especially with the mysterious looking girl is kinda creepy in the game's sequences which is why it made the series quite scary, but also quite memorable back in the mid-2000s.

I was hoping for the F.E.A.R series to make a comeback, but unfortunately it's not gonna happen since the third title in 2011 which unlikely they ever gonna make the forth game of the series sadly, so what are the alternatives to this particular series? well there's one of the indie title that took the inspiration of the FPS era of mid-2000s, so that is Trepang2.

I've just discovered this game off from mostly on gaming sites, as well as some Youtube trailers of game's footage from publisher's or developer's channel and I was really impressed with the style of the game kinda gives me the vibes of the F.E.A.R and Doom series in terms of gameplay design and presentation settings.

I've just picked up a PS5 copy of this game to see if this is anything good to play with, so I'll be covering several of the parts in the game that are just doing right and some others are not so good about it.

So without go further do, let's start the review.

Presentation

The game starts off with the person called subject 106, yeah that's the name of the character you're playing as, but anyway you just got out of the prison and being recruited with the team under the Taskforce 27 has given your mission task is to destroy the company under the Horizon Corporation.

There's not much of a story in the game beside being tasked to destroy the corrupted companies that wields a large amount of military personnel while hiding inhumane experiments behind their doors, so it's kinda sounds like it's from a sci-fi b-movies that to do with the human cloning and experimenting creatures, but as a indie video games it's pretty sounds okay throughout the game's campaign, but not clearly the best ones in my opinion.

The subject 106 is just a simplified silent protagonist which I really liked his black combat suit and wears orange goggles seems to be really awesome in some concept art, as well as most of the crew units of Taskforce 27 and Horizon Corp has really cool looking military suits and these head-lights helmet...looking really good in the single-player game, and oh what about these weird cult-members wears creepy-looking faceless mask...yeah enough said.

The game also shares with insane-looking boss characters such as the Mothman is look like a skeleton with pairs of larged demon-wings, the enforcer has ability to teleport and summon a wave of cultists to fight you, the Patriarch the cult-leader dressed in royal suit wearing a golden-triplets faceless mask, the flesh golem is basically a deformed creatures with multiple heads and has heavy hands, the Cycle 107 kinda look like a Capcom's R.E's Tyrant wield with samurai sword, and of course you have the Horizon Corp's leader Anton Lazar is basically looks like DC Comic's Lex Luthor running with the company HQ as CEO are responsible for creating the sadistic experiments that harming the human environments. 

     

The presentation in this game is pretty remarkable in many single-player levels. I really liked the crude design of environmental settings that delivers a aggressive tone of the game itself. Stuff like you have Site 14 which is a prison cell facilities where you need to escape from the pitch-blacked prison, the Pandora Institute is one of academy building organisation with many top-tiers rooms and rooftops, the Iron Dragon Data Center is a place that has computer server facilities, the Jorvik Castle is a palace where the cult-members had lived inside the dark medieval themes, the Oil Rig is a warehouse with bunch of cargo stuffs, the Unidentified Structure has broken looking factory that are completely abandoned, and there are the Crash Site filed with scrappy planes and particles scattered around.

Despite being an action-FPS game, there are some of the haunting encounters in some missions such as the whisper which suddenly surprise you with jumpscares and teleport you back to the bathroom if it catches you, the pair of phantom will chase you at the very end of the first backrooms section, and finally these floaty ghost monster will chase and hurt you when you're get close to them, so it may be not quite as scary compared to F.E.A.R series which has really creepy stuff in the single-player game, but anyway they still did a good job with these segments which are completely fine as it should.   

Overall, it has an okay storyplot, but has awesome enemies and bosses, and remarkable presentation settings. 

Gameplay

In single-player campaign, it has 5 main missions as well as the 6 side-missions where you take control of Subject 106 in 1st-person perspective, as your main goal is to beat the entre level throughout the game as well as defeating several of bosses.  

Pushing the left stick control to move the player, where as pushing the right stick control uses as the camera aiming movement to freely look around.

Pressing the cross button to jump over the gaps, and the circle button uses as the crouch to duck down the player for taking cover behind the objects or double tapping the circle button uses as slide through the small gaps from below.

Pressing the left thumbstick button allowing the player to sprint through which are also temporarily depletes your stamina bar till it get automatically recovered in 5 seconds.

You fire the weapon by pressing the right trigger button which attacks and damages your enemies, and you can attack them in close-combat by pressing the right thumbstick button for melee attack them.

You can reload your weapon or swap it with the different weapons from the ground by simply pressing the square button, and you can cycle to the next weapon by pressing the triangle button.

You can toggle or hold to zoom in by pressing the right d-pad button to toggle in which I've preferred having the zoom in toggle or hold with the left trigger instead, so this uses for mostly the weapons has ability to zoom in and shoot in longer range distance.

You can wield two of the weapons by pressing the down d-pad button allowing you to use dual-weapons which deals with double damaging attack.   

You can also throw grenades by pressing the left trigger button in which I've changed it to right shoulder button instead, so these grenades can be used as throwing weapon which makes the heavy explosive damage against the enemies.

You can use cloak system to temporary make you invisible for 3 seconds by pressing the right shoulder button in which I've replaced it with the right d-pad button instead, so these cloak device will prevent you from getting caught in action during the stealth mode.

You also have ability to use focus by pressing the left shoulder button which allowing you to temporarily slow down the enemies for 20 seconds, so this will allow you to quickly defeating them much faster during the shoot-outs.

   

So far, I heard some of the console players had an issue with replacing the button mapping controls in the option menu which unfortunately its been stricted to the default button that's already been mapped, so the best solution is to re-map one of the action button with the down d-pad button then replace others with un-mapped button, but I know it's sounds complicated because I'm the only lucky person who got the button mapping control working fine which took me about 5 mins to deal with these default button control settings.

I am hoping the developers should able to address the button mapping configuration issue without putting any restriction to default, so that they can enjoy the game with their different button control settings.

Aside with the controls, the combat gameplay is excellent in the single-player game because you have plenty choice of weapons that are actually pretty good such as you have pistol which is perfect for well-balanced only does a decent damage, the sub-machine guns and assault rifle has the good range of mid-distance with fair amount of shooting damage just shreds your skin off, the shotguns has short-range but also deals wicked damage just makes the enemy's limbs and armors blowned off in pieces, the sniper-rifle uses the zoom-in target are perfect for headshots in one kill, the grenade launcher does give a heavy impact damage to enemies with huge explosives, the bolt-gun makes really impactful explosive damage with 3-shots that can explode, and the best of all is the mini-gun which makes a severe damaging shots which is effective against the heavy-duty armored enemies.

The best part is that you can add the attachments to these weapons on the green crate if you found the attachment case items in some levels, so what it does is to add the variations such as turning shotgun into inflammable stuff that can set enemies on fire, using the silencer on pistols just makes the firing sounds less louder to prevent alerting enemies nearby, the assault rifle will have 3.5 scope which you can toggle the scope aiming for perfect targeting accuracy, and there's plenty more of cool attachable stuffs can be found in some areas. 

I got to say that I really liked the choices of throwing weapons like grenades which makes a exploding impact on heavy-duty armored enemies, the inflammable bottles will set the enemies on fire, the knives and tomahawk are effective with small armored enemies, and these flashbangs will temporally make these enemies blind in 10 seconds.

Each of the enemies are very good in the single-player action, so you have one of the enemies will wield with swat shield as their defense weapon, the others wore heavy-duty armors to reduce their damage, the squad enemies will have their snipers to shoot you at long-range distance, the specialist has ability to counter-hack your hacking objectives, the bunch of cult-guys will throw their inflammable bottle at you, and there are zombies will attack you with their melee as well as puking you with the acids.    

I got to say the whole single-player campaign mission are very good indeed because you have 5 really great main missions and 6 awesome side-missions to play which keeps me very busy with the the game, so you have really great segments in some missions like fighting with the Mothman in underground of Pandora Institute, surviving the waves of hordes while hacking the system in Gunnarson Complex and Iron Dragon Data Center, having a over-the-top shootouts against cult-members in Jorvik Castle, stopping the unidentified flying objects with the firing turrets in Oil Rig, and there are some spooky stuffs like in Unidentified Structure where you're in the pitch black bottom room haunted by floating ghost, and there's a two part in Site 83 where you don't want to get caught out by the creature called the Whisper will surprise you with unexpecting jumpscares, and you will also entered into the weird psychological stuff in creepy yellow rooms followed by multiples of dark shadows which they got the stuff pretty right in the single-player campaign, but sadly it suffered with ridiculously short-length of playthrough which takes about 5 to 6 hours to beat the entire game, so it's quite a shame for those who likes playing a longer single-player campaign will not likely to be satisfied with the short-playthrough.

I wish they could have added 5 more main missions to expand the play-length would have made it bit better, so stay tuned for the future additional story DLC are still in the development, but overall I did manage to enjoy the single-player action with plenty of good stuff to play.          

There are one of the game mode called combat simulator where you have two tasks such as the horde mode where you had to take out the waves of enemy hordes till you've reached at very end of last wave, where as the endless mode are basically survival mode which you need to survive the waves of enemy hordes till you're been defeated.

I find these combat simulator quite fun to play which are reliant on scoring system and time record, so just love spending time blasting the f**k out of these guys to get a highest score as possible is what made the combat simulator quite entertaining. 

The one downside is that it's quite a bummer for not including a multiplayer mode because this FPS game should have deserve a local split-screen and online multiplayer battle could have made the game better, so that people can enjoy blasting each other in deathmatch or go on full co-op together in horde mode would have been sounds really great idea, but no this game have missed out the multiplayer mode which seems to be quite unfair.

I was hoping for devs to consider adding the multiplayer for the future update when the time is right for them to create it.         

 

Overall, it has excellent combat gameplay, very good campaign missions, and has fun combat simulator mode.

Graphics

The graphics in this game is pretty solid especially on 9th gen console. It had a amazing environmental design in some areas such as the places in Pandora Institute and Gunnarson Complex where you see a reflecting floors, glossy doors, sharper texture details on surfaces, and shares with decent lighting levels is just looking spectacular.

I also liked the large areas of Jorvik Castle filled with man-made structures, fountains, and huge pillars sharing with the shadow effects around the room are just looking quite amazing.

I wanted to praise the game for its particle effects when destroying the objects like books, glass, and woods just flown around, and I really liked how these weapons made multiples of bullet-holes on walls turned everything cracked and these weapons are also really good with the destructible stuffs when destroying some of the surfaces in some areas are incredibly impressive for game's design.

The best part in this game is the level of gore system similar to earlier FPS titles like Solder of Fortune, Cold Winter, and of course F.E.A.R in terms of bloody violence content where you can blow the enemy's limbs and heads off with heavy shotgun, grenades, and mini-guns just made their particles of bodies splattered everywhere while the pool of blood leaves on the floor just proves the awesomeness of the game's ultra-violence action.

The frame-rate performance in this game are incredibly smooth with 60 fps that are ridiculously fast and stable with no signs of slow-downs which is amazing to see this kind of FPS game that are all about being a fast-paced shooter and over-the-top action just runs really well on PS5, and I was hoping the same goes with XSX/S (mostly X model) just ran well as the PS5 version in terms of performance and resolution.

Overall, it has solid visual design, smooth frame-rate performance, and has ultra-violence gore-fest system.

Music and Sounds

The game sure does have a wicked metal soundtrack similar to other FPS game such as Doom Eternal and Prodeus in which it made these soundtrack starts off bit settled synth when no ones around in the level yet until the kickass music starts kicking in with shredded riffs and chaotic drums when the enemies showed up for action just adds the game's badassery that makes you want to blow their limbs and head off clean.

It was composed by Brandon McKagan just really nails the heavyness level of the game's soundtrack just delivers the excitement of game's fast-paced action.

The sound effects are mostly great in this game with weapon's booming noises, the ambient sounds from the background noises in surrounding areas, and of course the part where the floating ghost comes near you just makes it everything goes mute till you killed them to bring the normal sound back are just well-designed.

The voice acting in this game sure really does enjoy delivering really cool use of F-bombs in every sentence, so f**k yeah I really love the edginess feel of the game.

Overall, it has wicked metal soundtrack, great sound design, and insane amount of F-Bombs by edgy voice cast.

Special Features

The game does comes with unlockable weapons and items on the supply crates when completing the higher difficulty on campaign, and you also can unlock the cheat menu which is pretty cool to have it in the game.

You can also gather collecting multiples of documents, PDF, photos, and etc in every levels which is fine.

I also wanted to mention that the game does comes with season pass which includes new survival mode and additional story missions to be released in this year, so the season pass cost £9 which is a little bit too much but this may going to surprise you with these new content to this game.

Overall, a really great content. 

Advantages    

Remarkable presentation settings

Excellent combat gameplay

Very good campaign action

Fun combat simulator mode

Ultra-violence gore-fest

Wicked metal soundtrack

Cool use of F-Bombs by edgy voice cast

Disadvantages

Short-length playthrough

Button-mapping settings has an issue

Lacks multiplayer mode

Final Verdict

Presentation 7/10 - okay storyplot, but has awesome enemies and bosses, and remarkable presentation settings. 

Gameplay 8/10 - excellent combat gameplay, very good campaign missions, and has fun combat simulator mode.

Graphics 8.5/10 - solid visual design, smooth frame-rate performance, and has ultra-violence gore-fest system.

Music and Sounds 9/10 - wicked metal soundtrack, great sound design, and insane amount of F-Bombs by edgy voice cast.

Special Features 8/10 - has unlockable weapons and items, cheat menu, collectables documents and infos, and has season pass which includes survival mode and additional story missions. 

Overall 8/10 - Trepang2 is a fun and over-the-top FPS game that does the job well done. I never got disappointed with the single-player missions are packed with epic bosses, great combat system, and intense shooting action is what made the game quite fun to play, even though its pretty too short but I'm really sure they will soon gonna release an additional story DLC to expand the playthrough length would help the game quite a bit.  

I also did however enjoyed the combat simulator where you had fun blasting many waves of hordes are also quite fun too, but I wish they should have added the multiplayer modes would have made the game bit better.

That being said, I really liked the game so far which I did not regret playing it which I'm sure they will consider making a future sequel to deliver more awesomeness like the original game has to offer.

The physical copy is cost between £25 to £35 for both the PS5 and XSX/S (X model), where as the digital releases are usually cheaper on PCs for £25 on Steam as comparison with the Consoles are just for £30 on PS Store and Xbox Store. 

I say if you really love the style of FPS action, then it's worth to go check it out and play some gory-action madness.      

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