Title: The Surge
Platform: Windows, PS4, Xbox One
Cost: $59.99 for PS4/Xbox One, $49.99 for PC
Rating: Mature, with blood and gore, intense violence, strong language
It's difficult to review The Surge, the latest offering from developer Deck13, without many, repeated comparisons to the Dark Souls franchise -- because of the obvious parallels and because there are few games in this genre.
The Surge is a sci-fi spiritual successor (or copycat) of the popular (and difficult) Dark Souls games.
The game starts with an interesting visual hook: You are a disabled man who hopes for a better life and gainful employment by signing up with heartless technology company CREO. You roll your wheelchair into the CREO offices, choose which type of powered exoskeleton suit you want, and the operation begins.
And boy, what an operation. Right as it begins, there's some kind of malfunction (like a power surge, if you will), and the computer believes you're heavily sedated and begins a procedure. You are not. You are horribly, painfully aware of the process as your character is physically modified, Borg-style, and it's honestly pretty difficult to watch.
When it's all over, you have regained the use of your lower limbs, but everything around you has gone to heck. Everyone else wearing these suits has gone insane, and virtually everything alive or robotic is trying to kill you.
All in all, it's a pretty terrible first day on the job.
The level design and atmosphere of The Surge is a little claustrophobic, with few open spaces and lots of hallways and corridors that tend to look a lot alike. It's easy to get turned around and not be sure where to go next, or not know when and where the next section opens.
The combat is brutal. Nearly every enemy is a deadly force with which to be reckoned. Character creation boils down to how you choose to outfit the exoskeleton. Do you want a tankier, more defensive suit, or one that is faster and more agile, but also more vulnerable to hits? The weapons are virtually all for melee and correspond to the types of melee weapons traditionally seen in the more medieval style games -- clubs, staves, greatswords, hammers, fast dual weapons, etc.
Your character's exoskeleton can be modified in myriad ways. First, there are six armor pieces: helmet, chest, two arms and two legs. Collect all of one type of exosuit, or mix and match. Heavier pieces take more stamina when running and fighting, lighter ones take more damage from hits.
Next up are the customizable mods, up to eight of which can be attached. Some give a larger pool of health, others offer instant healing or heals-over-time, while others reduce how much of your energy attacks use or allow you to see more details about an enemy's health and armor.
How new weapons and armor are obtained is the most original part of The Surge. Rather than buying new gear from a shop or having bosses simply drop gear upgrades after you defeat them, in The Surge, you target specific enemy body parts. Repeated hits on enemies build up an energy meter, which can be expended by using a finishing move that lops body parts from enemies.
Most of your enemies are in exoskeletons and have better equipment than you do. So take it from them. Does the enemy have a weapon or armor piece you haven't found yet? Rip his arm off and it's yours.
Targeting in The Surge is a two-step process. One button locks your focus onto an enemy, and the second sends your attack to a particular body part. If the reticle is yellow, that body part is armored; blue, it's unarmored, which means attacks will do more damage. Rather than the heavy attack/light attack standard, The Surge uses a fairly unique horizontal/vertical attack scheme. A vertical attack is more likely to take an arm off, while a horizontal one is useful if you just want someone's head. Or helmet.
How death works in The Surge is very much like Dark Souls -- as you fight enemies, you gain tech scrap that is used for upgrades. Die, and all the scrap you were carrying falls to the ground. You must return to where you died to pick it back up. Take too long, or die again, and it's gone for good.
Boss fights are intense affairs that see you matched up against a colossal machine that must be defeated in a very particular manner -- figuring out how to dodge the deadly blows and deal damage is key to survival. Using a boss's weaknesses effectively can net you special equipment drops.
The Surge is a little light on story, but full of big action and difficult battles with excellent graphics. It doesn't break a lot of new ground, but is enjoyable and worth a play-through.
Review code for The Surge provided by publisher. Reviewed on the PS4.
Clash swords with Jason at
jbennett@arkansasonline.com
ActiveStyle on 05/29/2017