A little more than two months after the official arrival on the market, scheduled for next 24 September, we got to try the closed beta of The Surge 2, the “Souls-like” Sci-fi by Deck13. Since the writer is a hopeless romantic, it gives us a great pleasure to be able to immediately anticipate a fundamental concept: starting from the game menus up to the vast majority of aesthetic aspects (but not only), the game looks exactly what it should be, that is a following - more or less direct - that wants to improve without distorting, in particular going to shore up all those shortcomings that have prevented its predecessor from establishing itself as something more than a simple good game. And since we feel in the mood to open our hearts to you as much as possible, we reveal a secret: the good conditions seem to be all there.
Is a weapon forever?
Immediately after starting the game, the game proudly flaunts the first big difference with its big brother: the character editor. In The Surge 2, in fact, we will not play the role of the good Warren, but we could create our own avatar through a modest editor that makes it possible, among other things, to choose sex. Once our alter ego has been created, we will immediately find ourselves catapulted into the center of attention. Our videogame counterpart, in fact, will wake up in the midst of the total chaos of a gloomy and threatening police station, in which every single survivor will seem to want to make an attempt on his existence. To grasp the extent of the changes made to the basic play formula, it will take a few moments.
The most relevant news certainly concerns the combat, cross and delight system of the first The Surge, which here certainly appears much improved, although not free from discordant notes of any kind. The general rhythm is certainly more fluid and harmonious and the feedback of the blows appears clearly far from that feeling of continuous woodiness that ran through Warren's fatal deeds.. The structural changes also extend to another factor of capital importance, for the gender they belong to, and that is to say the progression system. This time the developers have decided to offer a shy glimmer of extra customization to players, including the ability to enhance specific physical parameters.
Nothing transcendental, mind you, but by leveling the power of the exoskeleton we will unlock several skill points to be spent at will on Health, Energy and Stamina. The first is essential to increase the life points, the Energy is essential as regards the use of devices powered by batteries, while the Stamina well, the word itself says so. Choosing which skills to pursue, especially at the beginning, seems to be a very important step, since the enemies appear very difficult, from the very first bars.
One more enemy
The enemy forces of The Surge 2, or at least those that we were able to see and test during the closed beta, are characterized by a level of danger set decidedly upwards. Starting from the "base" enemy up to the most difficult and armored mini-boss, all of them have a clear superiority in terms of physical power and speed compared to our avatar. Enemies in The Surge 2 are divided by strength level, conveniently visible (and with a color according to the degree of danger) next to their vital bar and appear equipped with a grim and dirty-game artificial intelligence.. Often, in fact, the latter will try to attack us en masse or surprise us with stealth attacks (or even with shots from a distance) showing without the possibility of equivocation an asphyxiating underlying malice.
More generally, The Surge 2 appears much more ghostly and dark both visually and in the perceived atmospheres, compared to its predecessor, while inheriting much of the dynamics from the latter. To be more in focus, however, is the issue related to the loot: the defeated mini-bosses (we have already met more than one) drop their upgrades (we have grabbed a beautiful turret), as well as the enemies continue to drop pieces of equipment if hit in their weak spots. A continuous push and pull between the past and the future, therefore, but which overall works just fine.
A city to save
One of the main breaking points with the first chapter is certainly linked to the choice of the setting. The Surge 2 appears much more varied and, above all, inspired, than in the past and this can be seen from the very first bars. Unlike the first chapter, whose anonymous artistic vein has heavily lowered the overall quality level, the new work of the guys at Deck13 strongly shows an edge. The settings are much more beautiful to look at, but not only: even in terms of level design everything seems to work for the best, with an excellent system of shortcuts to discover and unlock and the numerous well-interconnected roads.
All without forgetting to underline that the new main location, Jericho City, it looks really very beautiful to see and, we are sure, capable of hiding many secrets and dangers, for all those most careless of their health. This appears much more important, thanks also to the presence of numerous NPCs scattered around the map and sometimes even well hidden and difficult to find. The latter will not only limit themselves to assigning us various secondary quests, but, a bit like it works in the Dark Souls saga, they seem to offer us important information on what surrounds the protagonist, a pawn all in all unaware of what is happening around him. Thanks to these factors it is also possible to notice the greater care of the developers in creating a more full-bodied and less "smoky" imaginary, even if the basic plot does not seem exactly focal for the general economy of production.
One for all, all for one?
On a strictly technical level, The Surge 2 shows itself all in all healthy, albeit without making a miracle cry. During our test, carried out on a fairly decent PC, we were able to ascertain a very high level of detail, for example in terms of lighting, but also on other less relevant factors, testifying to a good care by the development team with regard to the aesthetic component of the title. More generally, however, everything is much more defined and stable, with a solid frame-rate and which only rarely has shown any signs of failure, often resulting in total crashes, due, we are sure, to the nature of the demo, again. far from the final version.
The various maps seen so far are of an excellent level, both in terms of construction and variety, and seem to be able to easily sweep away the shadows of an excessive recycling of assets that the eldest son of The Surge family had stained. In conclusion, the introduction of the online sector in the Dark Souls style left us good feelings: the messages (and perhaps "invocations"?) Of the other players scattered around Jericho City made us go back in time to the moments in which to read "wall secret later "and finding themselves shortly after flying down a ravine has been able to infuriate - but also fall in love with - millions of gamers.
The first date with The Surge 2 has established an important bond: it will be a complicated love story, with many pushes and pulls and, why not, many quarrels. Allegories aside, the more or less direct sequel to the work of the German team Deck13 seems to have all the credentials to surpass its predecessor and stand as an excellent Souls-like. A much more responsive and snappy combat system, a much more varied setting and an excellent level design are the masters. All without giving up that difficult and punitive level of challenge, which manifests itself already in the very first area, capable of offering all fans of the genre many hours of healthy fun mixed with the pain of an inevitable death (or more deaths). To leave us some doubts are elements such as the variety of weapons, for the moment still to be discovered, and the longevity of the title, another factor that in the first The Surge had turned up their noses not a little to all those who expected a Dark Souls in sci-fi sauce. If a good morning starts in the morning, we feel we are fairly confident. For a definitive confirmation, however, we will have to wait until next September 24, the day in which The Surge 2 will officially debut on Xbox One, PC and PlayStation 4.
► The Surge 2 is an Action-RPG type game developed by Deck13 and published by Focus Home Interactive for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 24/09/2019
The Surge 2 is a beautiful game that cannot be missing from your collection: we have decided to evaluate it with a 78%, if you are interested in learning more you can read the Review of The Surge 2
