I had quite high hopes for The Surge, and why wouldn’t I? With a gameplay system clearly inspired by one of the most iconic series Dark Souls, all enveloped in a cool Sci-Fi casing which is undoubtedly one of my favourite genres of all time, this was something I just had to get my hands on. So after playing it, I guess the main question would be if or not the game managed to sit well with my expectations. Is the game good? Without a doubt. Did it reach my expectations? Pretty Much.

The Surge takes place in a somewhat dystopian setting where the world’s resources have been depleted and mother earth for that matter isn’t what it used to be. Thus comes in the powerful corporation known as CREO, a company promising to bring back the beauty of earth and it’s nature in hopes to bring about a brighter future. It is a very well financed corporation that awards its employees with heavy grade Exoskeleton’s to help around its biggest factory. Our story follows one of the aspiring employees, Warren who decides to take up a job with them.

One aspect of The Surge that I really liked was that it started strong, and has genuinely one of the best presented twists in videogames in the first few minutes. To avoid spoiling something this interesting I won’t go into specifics but the twist beautifully and very simply without effort conveys why our protagonist wants to take up such a job. It is a very human reason that makes us relate to our character from the get go. There are no cut-scenes which bog you down in rampant details, just a very simple visual cue.

Of course, things are not always as they seem, especially when a massive corporation from a dystopian future promises you something. Things go haywire absolutely fast for our protagonist as the anaesthesia fails to administer correctly during the exoskeleton attachment phase, and the heavy suit is literally drilled into Warren’s bones without any pain relief. It paints the picture of the grim situation in store for our protagonist. The protagonist is luckily not mute as well and is very well voice acted and talks during specific story based moments.

If you have ever played a Dark Souls game, which of course includes the excellent Bloodborne then you will be really familiar with how the combat system works on the basic level. You have got a health bar, with one for the stamina that depletes each time you attack or dodge. However, compared to the usual light or heavy attack mechanics the attacks you perform here are slightly different, as instead you are allowed to either attack horizontally or vertically. You are of course, allowed to dodge as I have mentioned but one of the interesting additions to the game is the ability to duck and jump attacks. Ducking allows you to avoid high horizontal attacks while jumping allows you to jump over low attacks. There is also an energy meter that fills up the more you attack, and after filling it to certain points you are able to use consumables that let give you attack or health buffs.

I have genuinely no problems with the combat system at all, as it is robustly built in the sense that it feels both responsive and powerful at the same time which clearly shows that the developers have taken their time to build something this polished. I can easily say that the combat is on par, and believe it or not, at times better than the combat offerings of a Souls game. Where the combat truly stands out however is when the limb dislocation mechanic comes to play. In order to upgrade or create new rigs and components for Warren’s exoskeleton, which are divided by type such as arms, torso and legs, you have to target specific limbs and armoured parts of the enemies you are up against.

While in confrontation with an enemy, you can lock onto them and cycle between targeting specific parts of their body in order to target them for your blows, and once your enemy is hanging by a thread with a few life points left, a button prompt will show up and holding that specific button will have Warren execute a brutal finisher slicing off the body part that you were targeting. Of course the dismemberment doesn’t always work if for the majority of the confrontation you target an un-armoured part and for the execution bit switch to the armoured part you want. So the game makes it clear from the get go about damaging the part as much as you can if you want to successfully dismember it.

Each part will either give you schematics to unlock what you’ve just salvaged or provided that you already have the schematics, will give you a crafting part needed to upgrade or assemble your gear. Different parts will salvage different materials which are specific to upgrading a certain part of your exoskeleton. For example, if you salvage an arm from your enemy you will be given a force regulator item that can help upgrade the arm parts of your exoskeleton. However, different upgrade tiers have a different part requirement, so the more powerful the upgrade is the higher the version of the part is needed. Weakest enemies give MK 1 versions of the parts while stronger enemies will give either MK II or higher which allow you to upgrade the higher tiers of an armour. It is a very well thought out, and unique system that is fun to utilise and when mixed with the polished combat is really satisfying to pull off.

Another aspect of the game that really stood out to me is its take on the Souls iconic bonfire. As you may or may not know, the bonfire is an iconic gameplay mechanic in the Souls and Bloodborne series where the players can rest in order to replenish their health and in some cases even upgrade their abilities by levelling up. In The Surge, the workstation areas perform a similar function and include a Medbay and a Gear Assembly Station. The Medbay is akin to a bonfire where if you sit in it will replenish your health and the consumable items you have. Also similar to the bonfires, any enemies that you have killed will be resurrected if you do so. The Gear Assembly Station on the other hand allows you to turn the schematics you find into parts or upgrade them.

An interesting design choice that has managed to fix what was in my opinion, a pivotal design flaw from Dark Souls game is the banking system. Similar to picking up souls in the Dark Souls game, players will receive scrap points for taking down enemies which are required to upgrade your core level or assemble items, and similar to the Dark Souls series, each time you die you drop your scrap which you have to reclaim if you want it back by travelling back to where you died. However, The Surge allows you to bank any scrap you get to the workstation or Medbay so that if you die you will not lose what you have already banked. This is a good design choice in my opinion, as it helps encourage exploration and promotes taking greater risks as in Dark Souls games I usually had to hold back in terms of taking risks so that I did not lose any souls.

Also like the Dark Souls games, there are bosses in this game too which are interestingly designed machines and enemies with clear attack patterns and distinguishable weaknesses that players can exploit to win. There aren’t a plethora of bosses available, but what is there is highly enjoyable.

If I was to give one aspect of the game credit in making everything feel superbly alive, it would be the immaculate sound design. You truly get the impact of tons of metal clanging and violently smashing against each other, and vents rushing out air each time you dodge or evade due to how well the audio is recorded and mixed. The enemy sound design is particularly harrowing as they scream in pain each time they attack you as it goes to show that the zombie-esque enemies that are now being controlled by their exoskeletons are in a lot of pain. In fact, the sound design might just be the best I have come across so far this year as it truly puts you in the world of the game with all the sounds of bells and whistles you’d expect from a heavy sci-fi setting such as this.

Unfortunately of course, the game is still not completely perfect and it does manage to fall back on a few important aspects. The first and almost game breaking issue I came across was the lack of tutorials. Everything I have mentioned relating to limbs and salvaging different tiers of exoskeleton parts took a lot of trial and error from my part to figure out. This could have been a much smoother experience if the developers had actually explained this properly. I was almost about to quit playing the game because I didn’t know how I could find the materials required for upgrades and especially where to get the higher tiered variations of the equipment. Don’t get me wrong, the game does a great job of explaining and teaching everything related to combat but the upgrade mechanics could do with a bit more explanation. There are still things I believe that if I had known would make the game more enjoyable for me.

Another issue I had with the game was in the environment design. Most of the game takes place in industrial factory based layouts where pipes run through the walls with paint peeling off of them and rusted machinery grinding loudly around you. The environment does start feeling a bit claustrophobic the further on you get in the game as it gets monotonous taking in similar environments each time. One of the reasons Dark Souls is where it is in my opinion is how varied the environment design is, and how it just seeps lore if you were to look for it. This is something that I hope the developers will consider when they start work on their next game, as I definitely want more of this.

Still, even with the shortcomings, The Surge is genuinely one of my favourite sci-fi games to come out recently as it has done what I have been longing for in regards to a Souls spin off. I absolutely love the Souls series but the medieval fantasy setting has lost its charm after a while, so seeing the best parts of it in a setting such as this was as refreshing as it was satisfying. More importantly, the combat is where the game needed to excel and manages to surpass expectations beautifully. Not to mention, it has without a doubt, excellent audio design that really complements the ambience and combat in game. If you are fan of Dark Souls series, or challenging games that offer engaging and responsive combat, then this is definitely the game for you as The Surge not only puts on the shoes previously worn by its idol but it fits comfortably in it. In fact I would even say that this is a game that everyone else needs to get their hands on as well.

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