The Surge 2 builds upon the unique ideas of its predecessor to create a more engaging, sprawling sequel. A few bumps in the road do little to impede a satisfying construct of combat and customization.
The Surge 2, like many sequels, is burdened with having to justify its existence. Tantamount is taking the core of the previous game and building on it to make a more cohesive, improved experience. Developers may trim the fat of what didn’t work in the first place or inject more attention and care into what was previously neglected. Or, possibly, you tweak all the great things and maintain the status quo of a fun, interesting game.
For The Surge, developer Deck13 Interactive sought out to fill a particular Souls-sized hole in players’ catalog. A satisfyingly difficult third-person action game that used death and dying as a mechanic felt intrinsically bound to a world of magic and sharpened steel. So how can that all be put into a science fiction back drop? An obvious answer: robot dystopia.
Deck13 takes players away from the confines of the CREO facilities of The Surge and puts them in Jericho City, a futuristic metropolis meant to stave off the nanite swarm from the first game that sent the world on a path to total extinction. Those who never played The Surge shouldn’t feel completely left out when jumping into sequel. The Surge 2‘s world is peppered with references from the first game and for fans, it makes for a deeper understanding and appreciation of the world at large.
After using an admirable character creator, players awake in a prison two months after a rocket struck an airplane they were flying on. This lucky brush with death allows enough time for Jericho City to have gone to hell and the player to have no idea what’s going on. The prison is under siege by a militaristic force, crazed prisoners, and a swarm of nanites taking the shape of a robotic beast.
Over the course of the game, players will unravel just what the hell happened in Jericho City. Like the events of The Surge, citizens have become rabid as the nanites infect their exoskeletons and minds. It’s an interesting commentary carried over into the sequel as players see how machines are intrinsically bound to daily life or have completely taken over normal day-to-day functions.
At large, The Surge 2‘s story never eclipses the lore-heavy depths of Souls games. Part of that is due to the setting of the game. There aren’t millennia of untold histories to dwell on where the less said compels players to dig deeper. Instead, the setting focuses on a slice of time that only slightly extends past the borders of each game. But that’s okay. Tackling the many sections of Jericho City allows players to meet quest-giving NPCs and pick up bits of lore and environmental cues. Deck13 opts to deliver a mostly straightforward story. Rather than shoveling narrative down a player’s throat, they can choose whether or not to soak up the world for more information. The ability to change the tone of your character in small ways by responding to dialog choices and other actions will also impact the final moments of the game.
Jericho City also makes an effort at being both practical and interesting to work your way through. While only painted with a few truly cool bits of environmental storytelling (the large giant octopus goalpost upon leaving the prison being the first), I found the structure to be rewarding from a gameplay perspective. MedBays act as safe havens for players wishing to level up and customize loadouts. Level structure in The Surge 2 is based around seeking out one MedBay and then spreading out into the open world until you find a new MedBay or a shortcut to the previous one. Discovering a shortcut after slicing through a difficult swath of foes is one of the many moments of instant gratification offered in The Surge 2.
The twists and turns of Jericho City are believable enough for a metropolis of this magnitude. Though we all may joke how our player characters can expertly slice through body parts or take on monstrous bosses yet are impeded by a gate with a lock, it allows one to really soak up the world and think of the best lanes and paths to more confidently run to safety and through a pack of enemies.
Combat, unsurprisingly, is where The Surge 2 delivers its most satisfying chunks of time. Systems introduced in the first game allowed Deck13 to differentiate it from others. Thankfully, that work is not abandoned here.
The basics: players hack, slash, and dodge their way through blockades of human meat and cold steel while managing health, stamina, and battery charges. A fight in The Surge 2 unfolds with a player (hopefully) locking onto a target and looking for cues on when an enemy will attack and when they will be open. After enough damage, you or the enemy will die
Things start to get a little more complex after that and ensure The Surge 2‘s combat maintains your interest throughout the game. Players can target individual body parts or mechanized limbs to attack. There are multiple strategic reasons for picking the spot to inflict the most damage. An unarmored arm or head will take the most damage and usually result in an enemy dying pretty quick. However, you might come across a tougher opponent who is holding a weapon you’ve never seen before.
In The Surge 2, players acquire new gear and crafting materials most commonly through combat. Want that cool looking weapon? Well, you have to chop off the arm holding it. To do so, players must target an enemy and then cycle through their body parts until it is highlighted and wail on it until a prompt comes up to hold down the appropriate button. A finisher move will result in an instant kill but also requires a battery charge, which is only earned after engaging in combat. The Surge 2 uses a mild directional attack and parry system as well. Vertical and horizontal attacks can be pulled off by weaponry and will inflict more damage to specific body parts. Enemies will also attack from different directions and, while you can guard against an attack, timing a guard at the perfect moment initiates a parry and leaves the enemy open for a barrage of attacks.
The same method of acquiring weapons also applies to schematics to create armor and the upgrade material required to improve damage output or defense of your gear. Once you rip away a weapon, doing so a second time on that same weapon rewards upgrade materials. Small skirmishes often feel more intense because players may be attempting to decipher if an enemy is wearing a piece of gear not yet acquired. Though targeting a different limb in a fight with more than one opponent can sometimes feel clumsy, it nevertheless ratchets up the overall stakes of a fight. The brutal and gory finishers that unfold in slow time are also their own satisfying reward, especially when you came out of a fight with your life barely intact.
Players improve their chances of survival by customizing their character with increasingly better gear. The most basic way this is done is through banking scrap. Banking a certain amount of scrap grants players upgrade points that can be put into health, stamina, or energy efficiency (basically how fast batteries charge up). Exoskeletons act as armor in The Surge 2 and while players will get a set bonus for wearing multiple pieces of the same armor type, any combination can be equipped. Ranging from protective, heavy pieces to agile, light ones, it’s up to the player to determine what works best for them. Additionally, a number of modifications can be attached to the exoskeleton. Health injections, enemy attack indicators, stamina buffs, and other useful tools can be added. The catch is that every piece of armor and every mod has a power level and players can only equip so much before reaching that threshold requiring a level up. This ensures you don’t become too overpowered too fast. The ability to also create loadouts and equip them from the MedBay is a great feature that allows players to easily test out new equipment and playstyles.
Early on, players also acquire a drone buddy that becomes an essential tool in battle. The drone can be equipped with numerous weapons that inflict massive damage or status effects on opponents at the cost of ammo that can be found throughout Jericho City. The drone is also used in the social elements of the game where players can leave helpful or harmful graffiti to others online that may indicate danger or loot, or maybe just lure someone into death. A fun addition is the ability to leave a banner of yourself in Jericho City that grants you rewards the longer it takes another player access it (so hide well).
Combining all of these elements together makes combat intensely satisfying and rewarding. When a player achieves synergy, The Surge 2 truly begins to click. The race to regain your dropped scrap after death before it disappears becomes more thrilling, as does the reward for not retreating back to a MedBay at every opportunity. The rank-and-file enemy types are fun to fight with but boss fights often leave a bit to be desired. Across The Surge 2, players will engage in a few repeated boss fights which is disappointing considering the possibilities of this universe. But whether a mostly human boss or a robotic one, it still boils down to the strategy of attacking weak points and crippling them. The stakes are raised for those seeking out boss-specific loot but it may pale in comparison to your already leveled-up arsenal.
Without a doubt, The Surge 2 builds upon the structure of what came before. Making already fun combat systems even more enjoyable is not an easy task, but Deck13 achieved it. The dedication to building Jericho City into a viable arena for death and exploration comes across in its intricate paths and hidden bits. But I do think just a bit more time and polish could have not only made the game a bit prettier but also resulted in a handful of additional bosses that really put players through the ringer. But The Surge 2 still rewards those looking for a hardcore game in a new setting. And who knows where a third game might go.
