“Addictive and astonishing combat system”
Name: The Surge
Developer: Deck13 Interactive
Publisher: Focus Home Interactive
Released: 16, May 2017
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Reviewed on: PlayStation 4 Pro
The Surge is an action-RPG video game, with a all new combat and loot system. Alongside with a fresh crafting system as well, for creating weapons, armors and more. I will try to explain this later on in this review. Will the developer company behind the discussed game “Lords of the Fallen” lift himself up with The Surge?
Story
The story itself in The Surge is set in a world ravaged by war and global warming. We begin our journey with Warren who sits in a wheelchair, and on the look for employment and the ability to walk again by using CREO’s exo suits.
Launch Trailer
CREO was a corporation with a mission to save the world, but instead encounter a total failure and ruined the world instead. Our hero, Warren enters this corporation in good hope of saving himself and maybe help the world a little. But during your “surgery” of receiving the exo suit a catastrophic event occurs. Warren wakes up beaten up, and in a new half finished exo rig in a world corrupted by machines and employees gone haywire.
What has happened and how can we survive? Well that is the question and our main mission to find out in The Surge.
It isn’t easy to come up with new type of storylines these days, as video games are more and more common. And that means a lot of story topics, settings etc might feel “used” or similar. The ground setting of the story in The Surge might be a little basic, but it is well written and told. If we look beside a few bad voice acting sometimes. Overall an intriguing story worth your time.
Gameplay + Graphics
It is in the gameplay and the new combat system where The Surge shines at the best.
Exploration, looting, crafting and of course surviving is just a few topics of things we can and must do in this world of corrupt CREO employees and machines.
“Target, Loot and Equip”
The new combat system is quite unique, astonishing and surprisingly fun to play in long terms even though the system is kinda basic.
In almost every combat you can choose what kind of loot you want, by that I mean you can decide which part you want to take from your enemy and use that to upgrade your exo rig.
Target, Loot and Equip video
The Surge offers a action packed melee combat system, in a world of mysterious things to explore. Some people might not like this kind of combat, as it is melee only. You’ll do get a “drone companion” that you can upgrade later on, but that is about it. Gameplay felt unique in my opinion, it was challenging, frustrating and incredible fun to accomplish a few levels or even defeating a boss. Each encounter of a boss, or even smaller enemies enforces you to think differently and even makes you stop and think on strategy. You might have to suffer as the enemies are unforgiving a-holes if you just barsh right into the fight. But when you finally get the final blow and receiving the loot, the feeling I was stuck with afterwards was priceless.
UlvePlay – [The Surge] First Boss Fight
The Surge could remind us of one movie called “Edge of Tomorrow” with Tom Cruise. As the experience in The Surge is as they say “Live, Die and Repeat”. If you die in The Surge, and you will die a lot (like in Dark Souls or even the predecessor Lords of the Fallen) you will respawn back at the latest checkpoint aka Medbay you check in to and then all the enemies are back in position again.
This gave me a small challenge to think of what I was doing in the game, how far was I willing to explore before I ran back to store all my scrap (xp, ingame currency). Because if you died, all the scrap you had looted would be lost. From each body part you loot from your enemies, you’ll get different blueprints and bodyparts. From this you can upgrade and craft your own armor and weapons to your combat rig, easy to learn and use.
But what about the graphics you might wonder?
I’ve played on the PlayStation 4 Pro, and I must say I’m impressed. Deck13 truly does deliver astonishing visuals to this world and characters. A confusing level design some places, and some smaller drop in textures and animation, but not crucial for the gameplay experience.
The Verdict
Deck13 has done an amazing job with creating the world in The Surge. Minor visual drops in textures and animations, but not crucial. The new combat system is addictive, astonishing and unique in my opinion. And the most important topic, the gameplay is fun to play. I have already tons of hours into the game even though I die a lot, and I do die a lot (took me almost 20 attempts on the first boss fight) If you like a challenge and enjoy games such as Dark Souls and Lords of the Fallen I would recommend The Surge for you. If you are a newcomer to the genre, I would also recommend The Surge for you, this game is easy to learn and hard to master at the same time.
9/10
+ Combat system
+ Visuals / Graphics
+ Replay value
– Some confusing level design
– A few minor texture / visual drop
– Can be repetitive for some
