![]() It’s still a satisfying variation on traditional Action/RPG combat, kind of adding a V.A.T.S like system to proceedings, but there hasn’t been any real noticeable overhaul over what was present combat-wise in the previous game, which is a bit of a letdown. There’s now the ability to regain battery power that you can use for quick bursts of health whilst fighting aggressively and the game retains the ability to target individual limbs and either get extra attack points due to hitting an unarmoured portion of your enemy or obtain materials by removing the appendage in question. I understand why Deck13 would have added such a mechanic, particularly as it adds an the dimension to one of the weaker elements from the previous game, but much like in the aforementioned previous game, you’ll just end up dodging 99% of the time, which renders the blocking mechanic useless, until you’re railroaded into using it at determined moments and then have to contend with the janky hit collision detection, that is.Īside from the blocking, the combat is essentially a tightening up of the combat in the first game, refining the fluidity and hitboxes in an attempt to provide a more enjoyable fighting experience. As I alluded to above, I wasn’t really taken with the new directional blocking system, which basically boils down to blocking in the direction a flashing indicator will appear. The combat also feels a lot more intuitive and less clunky than in the first game, although I still found it to be cumbersome at times. The Surge 2 has been positioned to be bigger and better than ever, to be a true contender to Fromsoft’s crown, and although it certainly nails certain key facets of the genre, a misguided directional blocking system and a criminally uninspired approach to level design and environmental variation means that many might find the flaws outweigh what the game actually gets right.īy adhering to an established template like that created by the Souls series, one of the biggest pitfalls developers need to learn to avoid is churning out a formulaic title that fails to deviate from that familiar structure in any meaningful way, and The Surge 2 finds itself on the wrong side of that struggle far too often.įirst, the good: the narrative is much stronger here than in either the first Surge game or most certainly the abstruse plotlines of the Souls titles, offering a clear and tangible objective in seeking out a young girl from your recurring visions and to try and piece together the events that caused the plane crash that lead you to awaken in a hostile Jericho City overrun by malignant enemy forces. One of the best things about video games when compared to most other media, particularly films, is that each series generally gets better with each successive instalment there’s rarely a case of diminishing returns when it comes to gaming, so I came to The Surge 2 optimistic that Deck13 had managed to build upon the potential of the admittedly engaging foundation present in their first go around. With that said, I did enjoy the futuristic setting of The Surge, as well as the enemy designs, although the lack of bosses served as a strike against it and the combat never felt as fluid as I would have liked. When The Surge first released in 2017, there was kind of a dearth of Soulslike titles on the market, which led to Deck13 Interactive’s sci-fi inspired take on the genre easily finding its niche as a relatively worthy alternative to the Souls games, with enough minor additions to the format, such as specific limb targeting and dismemberment, to forge its own unique identity.įast forward two years later and the soulslike genre is more than a little saturated, with recent attempts to build upon Fromsoft’s Action/RPG foundations, such as Ashen, Remnant: From the Ashes, Immortal: Unchained, Code Vein and many others, constantly jostling for attention in an attempt to rise to the top of the pack.Īlthough I’d played a bit of the first Surge title, the truth is that I rarely spend much time with games that attempt to ape Fromsoft’s formula there’s always some intangible element that never quite clicks on a personal level, and most efforts fall far short of what Miyazaki and company have achieved, so I usually just end up returning to the progenitors of the genre. 3.9 Feel the Urge to Purge? Try The Surge!
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