Real Gud Reviews: The Surge

Dark Souls was and is a phenomenon in gaming culture. Even though it’s predecessor, Demon Souls was the origin of many of the systems that would define FromSoftware’s ARPG style, it was Dark Souls that put the Souls formula on the map. The formula getting increased notoriety from FromSoftware’s recent release of Elden Ring, it itself being a major mainstream success. The Dark Souls formula has spawned its own genre, “Souls-like”. Despite the term being as abstract as the term “Metroidvania”, the consensus is that a Souls-like is a game with Action RPG elements, dynamic combat, and high difficulty. Many developers since have tried to capture the same spirit in their games, some succeeding and some not.

A lot of souls-likes have come out since the release of Dark Souls trying to capitalize on that market, trying to be the next break out success. Deck 13 attempted this with Lords of the Fallen, a game notorious for its failure to enter this market despite its big budget. Due to its middling reception and average-rated reviews, it was a critical-failure which is no surprise when you see Deck 13’s development history. Though met with success in their native German market from their earlier titles, most of their games were received poorly outside of home. Lords of The Fallen was their biggest game yet, it’s clear a lot was riding on this game being a success as big name publishers were putting their name behind this project, Bandai Namco for the North American Release and SquareEnix for the European, and it was even featured at E3 and Comic Con 2014. It was at this E3 that Jan Klose, director of Lords of the Fallen, gave an interview that revealed a lot about their intentions with this game. To paraphrase, they wanted the game to seem challenging but not punishing. Though this concept would end up with a game that received poor reviews it did sell well garnering 900 thousand copies sold in 6 months according to City Interactive, its co-developer and publisher for the PAL Regions.

*/You might be wondering what this has to do with “The Surge”. To completely understand “The Surge” you must understand that the game was developed by a studio with mostly adventure games under their belt, and the action games they did develop were considered poor or average. Additionally, we see some the design philosophy behind “Lords of the Fallen” show up again in “The Surge” for its benefit and for its harm. “The Surge” isn’t a bad game, from what I understand it seems like quite a step up from “Lords of the Fallen”, I wouldn’t know as I’ve never played it. But complaints that were made about Lords of the Fallen (according to reviews I’ve read) are like one’s I have about The Surge, so it’s worth bringing up the company’s history to better show what went right and what went wrong with The Surge.

The Surge had a fair amount of coverage pre-release, it wasn’t a highly anticipated release for the average gamer, but gaming outlets gave it generally favorable coverage, nothing really indicating troubled development or internal drama. Yet it will end up with less than 50 thousand copies sold in its first week and end up with less total copies sold than Lords of the Fallen. I personally never heard of the Surge until a years after its release. It becomes clearer when you put its competition into perspective: Injustice 2. From what I remember, everyone was talking about Injustice 2, while The Surge was only mentioned in the Souls niche. It’s a sad fact because The Surge is considered the better game over Lords of the Fallen, however, The Surge failed to capture its audience with same kind of magic that other Souls-like have done. The middling reviews of this game are deserved after experiencing the game myself. Yet it’s still worth discussing this entry in the souls-like catalogue, due to its unique setting, and interesting take on the genre.

Introduction to the World

Let’s begin with the prologue, which was fantastic. The game opens with a recruitment video for CREO, a tech company operating during a period where humanity is at the precipice of its downfall, due to increasing social and environmental problems. The video is very typical of corporate propaganda that we see in our own lives, “The world has problems, but we have solutions”-kind of message, ending with showcasing one of the company’s crowning products, its exo-skeleton followed by a big red “Apply Now” button which is hesitantly pressed by our main character, Warren.

We’re then brought onto a train where we can begin to familiarize ourselves with the game’s camera, it’s great. You get to see the facility as you enter it while being preached to by CREO’s spokesman Don Hacket, the very hip and charismatic figurehead of the company. It may seem like you’re in first person, but it turns out you’ve been staring at the back of the head of the main character, Warren, the entire time. When you finally arrive, you learn a very important aspect of him, he’s in a wheelchair. It suddenly becomes very clear, warren is an average guy, looking for the opportunity to walk again, despite any issues he may have with CREO. We don’t get to know Warren all that well, as the game doesn’t do much to explore his own history. We do get know him a little better in a DLC area, which is a real shame as not many people get to this area before they stop playing the game (and it’s the best area of the game). Games do this with their main characters so that they act as a vessel for the player and give them agency to do what they want. It mostly works here, however character creation is almost always a better option in these kinds of situations. Though the idea of a blue-collar worker having to deal with the consequences of bad/evil corporate decisions, is very relatable one.

Once off the train, you direct Warren toward the application center where you will be surgically equipped with a rig, talking to the guards will prompt Warren to ask where to go, and they’re friendly. “Don’t be late” they playfully tell you. You get to the center and choose which position you’d like, it doesn't matter. Then the procedure begins. The computer announces the steps as Warren nervously lays on the table and the process begin, but horrifyingly the computer announces “Patient Sedated” to a fully conscious Warren and we see pieces of metal drilled and grafted into our protagonist. He screams in agony and blood spills from the drill holes. The rig set up ends, sweat on the face of the poor Warren. But a drill pops up from under Warren’s head, the computer announces, “implanting neural link”, and Warren lets out a scream with the camera focused on his horrified expression, then a fade to black.

This opening was great. It told us all we need to know about the world, CREO, and Warren. It also sets the tone for the rest of the game, a gory and intense venture into a world of technology gone wrong. Virtually a playable “Black Mirror” episode. I was really excited to get into the game, and without delay The Surge throws you into the world.

The Experience

From here it’s a roller coaster of an experience. You fight your way through the facility trying to figure out what happened, meeting several NPCs on the way, and finding various audio logs that sheds light on the universe around you. The audio logs were great world building, and you learn a lot about the world as you go. Though you do have to do a lot of guesses work and ascertain the implications of what certain logs and NPCs say, you’re rarely told exactly what’s going on, a few NPCs do, but they always do it from their perspective and they’re not always trustworthy. A lot of people are turned off by this kind of story telling because it doesn’t provide a clear enough reason to care about what’s going on. That’s a fair criticism, however it is reminiscent of how Dark Souls does it’s worldbuilding, which is critically acclaimed. They give you an opening cutscene to establish the plot, throw you in the game, and give you little context as to what you’re supposed to be doing or where you’re supposed to go. It's a different way to tell a story, a way only a video game could succeed at. However, Dark Souls does do it better. Dark Souls gives you worldbuilding from everything, the environment, item descriptions, item locations, enemy locations, ally locations (summonings & NPC’s), paintings even. It’s almost like studying a historical site and piecing together what ancient society was like. The Surge does not have that same degree of worldbuilding. What it does have is sufficient to keep the player engaged, but it is below par when compared to the trend-setting Dark Souls.

Criticism

To summarize the narrative, Warren’s mission, at first, is to simply survive. You meet “Sally” through a com’s device, and she begins to guide you through the facility. Something is off though, she is dodgy with certain questions, and gets defensive or changes the topic when confronted. You do meet other NPCs, but most have no clue what’s going on. However, it’s the audio logs you find that point at what’s really going, and as you near the end of the game you start learning the truth about CREO, project Resolve, and the mysterious project Utopia. After learning the truth, you get to put the future of humanity into your hands. The narrative overall is above the average; I liked it. Since I liked it, I won’t spoil it, but those who are looking for a rich narrative experience will not find it here. Lords of the Fallen received similar criticism regarding the story, one Metacritic User reviewer would describe Lords of the Fallen as “uninspired” and another “generic”. Some would have that same criticism of The Surge, but I found it at least a few levels above that.

The Environement, however, was bland. Though some areas are well designed, most of the game takes place in what is pretty much a Factory/Lab/Rocket Pad. Imagine if Elon Musk created a large facility to house all his projects, that's pretty much the setting. The DLC area of CREO World is breath of fresh air and some of the late-game levels have a neat look, but most of the game is a bland mesh of service tunnels and different factory zones which is, as you can imagine, not visually appealing even though it fits the theme. They tried to make these zones as interesting as possible, however, making a factory an interesting place to be in was a challenge they did not overcome.

Unbelievably it gets worse. The level design is often terrible. There are many cramped and narrow areas that make combat frustratingly difficult, mostly because it makes it difficult to dodge. Dodging is a necessary part of the combat. You can try to tank it through blocking but blocking often takes a lot out of your stamina bar, and enemies at your level hit hard. Also parrying isn’t always an option because most of the time you fight multiple enemies, and they can interfere with your counter. So, it’s almost always better to dodge. Most times you must lead enemies out of their cramped spaces into somewhere more spacious, but since there are no ranged weapons (you do get a drone but using it requires "energy" meaning you’re already mid combat) you can't kite them. You must aggro them by getting spotted or physically attacking them. It's a painstaking process. Also, some areas are incredibly dark, though your gear does have lights it’s like having a dollar store flashlight on a moonless night, you appreciate the light source but wish you had something better. Lastly, the environments can be so bland that traversing the map is confusing and you often get lost, a map would've benefited this game a lot. People had complaints about the level design of Lords of the Fallen, but I doubt people got lost while playing it.

The next worst part is the lackluster bosses and enemies. Since you're in a factory, enemies consist of the crazed workers, its various robotic equipment, and the security force. The act of fighting them is fun, but they themselves are generic (except for CREO World, 10/10 would visit again) and don't really stand out. Only a few enemies standout due to special weapons or armor they have. The Bosses themselves aren't all that special either, as they're either malfunctioning robotic equipment or members of the security force. Who looks forward to fighting a rocket assembly machine? Despite the design and concept though, most bosses were engaging and fun (They made fighting a rocket assembly robot fun). Ironically, the boss I was most disappointed with was the final one. The lackluster bosses and enemies were also a criticism Lord’s of the Fallen had and it seems the same issue carried over.

Despite these glaring issues, you can still have fun, especially if you like to “git gud”. The combat loop is fun, even the farming I didn't mind much, and I usually hate grinding. The game’s focus is melee combat, though the combat is good, it doesn't offer a ton of variety in terms of weapon options There’s lots of weapons, but they fall into a one of the 5 weapon categories. It’s limiting, but what is there is solid. You can mix and match armors, weapons, implants (interchangeable buffs dependent on your exosuit's Core Power) to create your preferred build. The builds range from Light armor & weapons to Heavy Armor and weapons. Heavy armor requires more “Core Power” to wear, meaning you can't use as many high-quality implants unless you’re very high level. The combat has you targeting various body parts of enemies to deal maximum damage but targeting armored areas will allow you to do an "execution" amputating that body part and receive schematics and resources for that armor area. Targeting the dominant hand will result in receiving the weapon directly. You can't do the same with bosses, but they always drop something for you regardless of where you target them. The combat is tough, enemies hit hard, parrying can be difficult, and you must watch your stamina and surroundings, but it is very engaging. You can immerse yourself in planning your route and going through enemies with surgical precision, and if you know the map well you can often run pass them. The combat is the best part of the game.

I had genuine fun with the game, thought the areas that it languished would be enough to detract most gamers. Ultimately this game would only be attractive to the niche community of “git-gudders”, it’s a decent sized community, but the sales reflect the amount of people that would buy this kind of game. Critically it received the same kind of response that Lords of the Fallen did, middling reviews to positive reviews, and when gamers were faced between buying “The Surge” or buying “Injustice 2”, the choice was obvious. From what I’ve read, it seems “The Surge” was the better game over Lords of the Fallen, but the developers seemed to have learned little from Lords of the Fallen. It’s like if they thought if they changed the setting, then the game would be more interesting. They were right to a degree, but it’s clear the direction at Deck13 did not change much in the three years between their respective releases. However, they did learn something in between the release of “The Surge” and “The Surge 2”, the first few minutes of The Surge 2 shows a vast improvement. So if you’re interested in a sci-fi souls-like, start with The Surge 2, it was pretty great.