The Surge 2 Review
Fast Facts
Title: The Surge 2
Developer: Deck 13 Interactive
Publisher: Focus Home Interactive
Website: https://www.focus-home.com/games/the-surge-2
Genre: Action, Role-Playing
Platform: Xbox One
Age Rating: PEGI 18
Release Date: 24/09/19
Price: £49.99+ – Rapid Reviews UK was very kindly provided with a review code for this title.
No urge for The Surge…2
Dead Souls 2077
Full disclosure: I am not a fan of Dead Souls-type games. It isn’t that I don’t like difficult games, I just tend towards more lore-focused, character-driven gameplay – but I’m always happy to expand my horizons.
The Surge 2 looks gorgeous. As soon as the start menu screen loads and you choose New Game, you’re treated to a stunning cinematic cutscene that succeeds in its goal of amping you up for some immersive future fightin’ action/RPG.
And then the actual game starts and everything goes out the window. Ok, not entirely true: there is a limited character creator. You’re locked into some preset choices for looks and while you do get to choose a “backstory” for your character, I never really saw where it affected the overall story.
The controls are kludgy and on a steep learning curve. I’d say they are actually needlessly over-complicated – as if they were intentionally made inefficient so they could decry, “We made us one a’them hard games!“
The storyline seems cobbled together from various sources – the beginning seems to be a bit of The Forest, there’s some Detroit Become Human and even some Red Faction thrown in for a little zest. Unfortunately, not enough. The smashy-smashy physics are inconsistent. You can smash a watercooler but can’t knock over a lab tray. You can obliterate a Policebot but can’t open a door without upgrading your…something? I don’t even remember what the upgrades do – but there are a lot of them!
To make your upgrading adventure easier, they’ve managed to make respawnable bad guys. It takes you immediately out of the immersion as you step out of the upgrade chamber and continuously beat up the same guy in front of you because he gives you the “tech” you need for upgrading. I upgraded quite a few levels by just grinding right there before walking on and facing the first boss.
Speaking of which, the AI of the enemies is horrendous. If they go off-screen as you’re running around them, they forget you exist and just stand there. Just…standin’…doin’ nuthin’…until you remind them they’re in the middle of a fight.
The graphics overall aren’t great, especially after the stunning opening cutscene. They look about the equivalent of an Xbox 360 game, which makes the ridiculously long loading times even more perplexing. There’s no music that I even remember, nor was the sound design of any particular note. It was almost as if all time, resources, and energy were spent on the opening scene and then…they just gave up.
All in all, if you’re needing a Dark Souls-type fix, I’d wait till the inevitable very soon drop in price and pick it up. If you’re not into Dark Souls-type games, avoid. It was just frustrating and monotonous.
Rapid Reviews Rating
You can purchase The Surge 2 from the Microsoft Store on the following link, https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/p/the-surge-2/bswtlfkmv96k#activetab=pivot:overviewtab
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