The Surge 2 , sci-fi souls-like

This game is legit. I started it up yesterday, thinking I’d only quickly test the performance because AMD software was warning me that I don’t meet CPU requirements and I ended up playing the entire evening and eventually downed the first real boss (Little Johnny. I can now honestly say that I (vastly) prefer this combat system to anything the souls games have had to offer. It’s more fluid, responsive, has more weight to it and the directional parrying system is amazing. Whoever came up with the healing/battery system is also a mad genius.

Exploration, much like in the first game, is also superb and I look forward to see what else the game will throw at me. I think I’ll even postpone playing Iceborne until I finish The Surge.

I’ll echo this. I picked it up in a fit of souls withdrawal, and I’ve really enjoyed my time with it. I wouldn’t go as far to say it’s my favorite souls-type combat, but it’s pretty great, and the way loot is tied to what you sever is the best innovation to this type of game. Very monster hunter in that regard.

For some reason I just didn’t like The Surge as much as The Lords of the Fallen, Dark Souls, or most games with this type of combat. I’m not sure why.

I heard mixed comments about the improvements of the sequel, when I already thought the first game was merely decent, so I’m glad to hear this. I skipped it during the last sale. Maybe the next one.

Finished last night, the game gets a solid 9 out of 10 from me. Towards the end it was a little easy because I was using the General’s ACU 2.0 punching gloves in combination with leech implant which meant that I was able to facetank pretty much everything, including bosses. Another misstep was the relatively big spike in difficulty in the middle of the game, it went from complete vanilla to being full of nano mobs and they hit pretty hard. It was at that point that I seriously started considering an armour change and eventually swapped from sentinel to goliath class.

Otherwise the game had incredibly strong design all around, from animations, combat flow, level design, loot, etc. I love the ideas that Deck 13 brought to the souls formula with their Lords of the Fallen and both Surge games and at this point I’d put them ahead of From as far as raw combat mechanics go. I hope we get to see more from these guys in the future.

Focus Home signed them for a 3rd project some time ago.

I’m playing this right now, got about 10 hours in so far. I <3 spears.

My only complaint right now is it’s a bit hard to figure out what I should be doing. I guess Gideon’s rock is my target zone right now but those robot guys are impossible. I’m not sure if I’m just supposed to run past them or if it’s a damage test that I need to farm more before proceeding the zone. I have a really good rhythm for killing people but those robots are hard.

I’m also confused. My memory of the end of Surge 1 was that after killing the AI, Warren lost control of his exosuit and thus was paralyzed again. Are we just to believe he just randomly got another one and is now vigilante out in jericho city? Seems a bit odd with what I remember the ending scene being.

I know it’s on game pass, but this game is on sale on Windows 10 and Xbox this week (I wish it was a play Anywhere game so I didn’t have to choose). $12.49 for the game, $7.49 for Season Pass. Has anyone played the DLC? Worth getting?

I’ve played the Kraken DLC - it’s probably the best designed area in the game, but very short. I don’t think that price tag is warranted unless you really love the game.

I do not get the directional blocking thing at all.

I did get Warden Garcia’s weapon, so some skills have certainly transferred from the first one! I kinda miss Warren.

It’s worth taking time to learn how the blocking works. You can manage without, but there will be enemies down the line can really punish you if you don’t.

Do you have to hit block at the same time like you’re doing a parry from the first game? I was holding block then moving the stick in the indicated direction and still getting hit. The game didn’t really explain it.

Performance is much worse than the first game.

No, holding down block and moving the stick is the right way to do it. What you have to time is moving the stick, and you have to read the animation to get it right. It’s easy for the parry direction indicator appearing (if you’ve got that chip equipped) to mislead you into parrying too early.

Ok, I’m getting the hang of the directional blocking. I am digging the post-apocalyptic vibe, lotta new weapons to check out.

I said in the Mortal Shell thread I was maybe taking a small break from this one because the performance is not great and it’s bugging me, but I wanted to mention the changes to how healing works, because I think it’s very interesting how you can use spare energy to charge your implants now, giving you a lot of sustain (if you’re decent at fighting, which you’d better be if you’re going to play a game like this). A lot of smaller studios have tried their hand at this type of game, but Deck 13 are consistently innovative, which most cannot say.

Yeah, that was a pretty cool design choice. I didn’t play much because (like you) I had performance issues, but I really liked that change.

I turned down the volumetric lighting and shadows all the way, and it helped, but I feel like I shouldn’t have to do that.

I gave this one another go. It’s on ps+extra++ or whatever, which is nice because it’s gone from gamepass.

I really like the variety in weapons- I found it pretty much as difficult as say DS1, but then I picked up a hammer and folks started dying and limbs flying real fast. Beat the first proper boss today after a good 10 tries at least. I’ve been bouncing around trying different games but this one I’ll stick with I think. Good chunky fights so far, story is whatever.

All these games on subscription services I Could play are really doing my head in. I was in the middle of a new attempt at DS2 but that’s so fucking brutal and it’s not on a sub so I can get my ass kicked in Huntsman’s Copse any time I want!

Still going, beat some big boss after a point of no return and then the game gracefully crashed right after. That’s the second time with this game. Haven’t been having crashes in other games but now suddenly this, and Deathloop on XSX as well. Definitely something I didn’t miss from PC gaming.