The Surge 2 Preview – More of What You Want (PS4)

The Surge released last May, and our reviewer Martin Patiño found it to be a pretty great take on the brutally-hard action RPG, or Souls-like genre. At the recent Le What’s Next De Focus event hosted by publisher Focus Home Interactive, a sequel titled The Surge 2 was officially announced. We managed to sit down with a few members of Deck13 Interactive to talk about what’s new this time around, and have our impressions ready below.

Wide Open Spaces

The setting in The Surge 2 is a large shift away from indoor spaces, to incorporate the wider world. It’s more of an open world, and the player will be able to meet the people who inhabit the dystopian society. The city center will be seen and traversed. While the world is now more open, there are still plenty of threats to be found.

Since The Surge 2’s world is more opened up, side quests can be taken on, and things other than the current main mission will be allowed to be done. The FLEDGE engine, a proprietary game engine created by Deck13 for this and other games, has been upgraded to allow for many gameplay improvements.

Targeting individual body parts was a key distinction of The Surge. In this sequel, limb damage will now change how robotic enemies react. So when a part of theirs is disabled, they may become much more enraged, since some critical system has been destroyed. Attacking from the side or behind can also give the player an advantage, which is something most will try to do.

Drone Upgrades

Drones were a unique aspect of the original The Surge. They’re back for more in The Surge 2, as a more integral part of the combat experience. While it’s not required, Deck13 has been busy building out incentives to make it easier to use. The player can trigger the drone to perform actions while they are busy attacking, which can be incorporated into combos. Conquering a foe still allows for the player to take their weapons, but now they can also attach these weapons to the drone, which should make drones more capable offensively.

Character customization is usually a given in RPGs. The Surge 2 includes customizing your character, but also your drone. So there are a lot of options, both cosmetically and functionally, to ensure that the player has more choices when it comes to tactically taking enemies down or overcoming an obstacle. Deck13 received feedback from some players that The Surge eventually got too tough, and they could not progress any further at certain points. They took this to heart, and while the sequel’s difficulty remains more or less the same, there are now multiple ways to take down bosses and the drone’s improved capabilities should help to alleviate some of this.

The Surge 2 is still in very early, active development. While we didn’t see any bit of game footage at our meeting, it sounds like Deck13 has been listening to player feedback, and is ready to try things a bit differently. A more open world full of things to do, improved drones, and more strategic options should appeal to more gamers than the original, and it sounds like some of players’ frustrations are being worked on. The Surge 2 is currently slated for release sometime in 2019.

PlayStation LifeStyle would like to thank Deck13 and Focus Home Interactive for showing us the first bits of information for The Surge 2. Watch this space for more information on this and other games from the Le What’s Next De Focus event, coming soon!