The Surge 2

 PC
User Score
6.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 172 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 84 out of 172
  2. Mixed: 39 out of 172
  3. Negative: 49 out of 172

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  1. B2BigAl
    Jul 20, 2020
    5
    Same problems as the first game; terrible level design, cheap enemy placement, claustrophobic environments, frustrating and repetitive combat, irritating gear upgrade system, etc. It’s an improvement over the last game, and it looks like nice, but it isn’t enough to overshadow the games glaring flaws.
  2. tobivv
    Apr 3, 2020
    5
    A pretty good soulslike game that introduces its own mechanics to the genre, however, it relies to heavily on its progression system, going too far in a grind-to-win direction.
  3. saber_rider
    Sep 24, 2019
    5
    I had high hopes for this game. There are not nearly enough sci fi souls out there.

    But as it turns out Surge 2 is in almost all important points actually worse than Surge 1. The only improvements compared to its predecessor where made in the combat mechanics, upgrade system and small quality of life updates. But otherwise: - worse level design - worse story - worse graphic -    I had high hopes for this game. There are not nearly enough sci fi souls out there.

    But as it turns out Surge 2 is in almost all important points actually worse than Surge 1.
    The only improvements compared to its predecessor where made in the combat mechanics, upgrade system and small quality of life updates. But otherwise:

    - worse level design
    - worse story
    - worse graphic
    - worse lighting
    - worse frame rate and hardware stability

    I spare you with the details about the uninteresting npcs, boring bossfights and bare bone story design and come right to the points which really matter:

    The worst parts of this game are the unimaginative level design, with far to many narrow maze like alleyways, connected together in a convoluted way and flooded with overcrowded randomly placed level assets. And the careless low effort graphics.

    Those two things combined make the game look very cheap and not very fun to navigate through and explore. Its not even that every single texture, or asset is bad, but the few good and sharp textures and assets which are undoubtedly in this game just drown under all the mediocre half finished assets. And none of the assets is carefully placed in the levels to make the level feel believable. It's almost as if the level designers just randomly dropped them into the level, while wearing a blindfold. I understand that they are going for a destroyed city in a chaotic state of emergency and decay,but not every maze like area with randomly thrown together assets is an interesting place to explore. The only exception is the park area with all the trees, which was actually well made fun to play through.

    And oh my god does the lighting in this game look artificial and ugly. You have this silent hill looking fog hanging around everywhere on the map combined with one of the worst skyboxes and most artificial looking bloom infested skylights and lighting I have seen in a while.Objects which stand in the shadows have no shadow details. Objects which stand in the bright sunlight have no highlights or reflections.Many metallic objects have almost no reflections either.

    This game is not a total disaster, because it has good combat and animations, but its also not far away from being one.Seems as if Deck 13 had not nearly enough developer to fill this giant sandbox with life and make it look good in the available development time.Even starving long time souls fans should consider here very carefully if it is really worth it, going through all that trouble, before buying the game.

    Rather, buy Surge 1 instead, which while also not being perfect, is clearly the better game.    … Expand
  4. V1ru5
    Sep 30, 2019
    5
    Это игра жанра Souls и презентует себя она также, но проблемы видны ещё в начале. Как только ваш персонаж очнулся ( что сопровождается катсценой в которой одежда проваливается сквозь персонажа) вам презентуют управление, но дойдя до первого босса вы всё ещё не знаете как перекатываться, а управление на клавиатуре устроено так ,что блок по умолчанию на Л.Ctrl ,из-за чего битва с боссомЭто игра жанра Souls и презентует себя она также, но проблемы видны ещё в начале. Как только ваш персонаж очнулся ( что сопровождается катсценой в которой одежда проваливается сквозь персонажа) вам презентуют управление, но дойдя до первого босса вы всё ещё не знаете как перекатываться, а управление на клавиатуре устроено так ,что блок по умолчанию на Л.Ctrl ,из-за чего битва с боссом представляет собой "ударил, отошёл". В игре присутствует разделение оружия, но действенными оказывается лишь парные клинки. В игре присутствуют перки, но большая часть ситуативная и подгоняются они под стиль игры ,из-за чего многие попросту могут не пригодится. В начале игры ты вообще встречаешь броню которая по "прямым" показателям лучше всей той, которая будет встречаться по игре. Также игра прочно завязана на гринде. Русская локализация страдает от переноса одной буквы слова на другую строку Всё это минусы, но в игре есть атмосфера, графика не сильно страдает, боёвка сделала шаг вперёд. И вообще игр сделала большой шаг в отличии от своей первой части.… Expand
  5. Destinylver
    Oct 20, 2019
    6
    As a huge ...HUGE Surge 1 fan I had high hopes for this game.
    But as it turns out Surge 2 is in almost all important points actually worse than Surge 1. 
    The only improvements compared to its predecessor were made in the combat mechanics, upgrade system and small quality of life updates. But otherwise:  - worse level design  - worse story  - worse graphic  - worse lighting  -    As a huge ...HUGE Surge 1 fan I had high hopes for this game.
    But as it turns out Surge 2 is in almost all important points actually worse than Surge 1. 

    The only improvements compared to its predecessor were made in the combat mechanics, upgrade system and small quality of life updates. But otherwise: 

    - worse level design 
    - worse story 
    - worse graphic 
    - worse lighting 
    - worse frame rate and hardware stability 
    - completley different tone to the first game.

    Surge 1 for me was a deadspace like horror game. True scifi horror with plenty of jump scares and intense battles. Dark humour and bleak disturbing side quests. Also amazing cgi monitor screens with interesting characters and complex themes. Inexplicably none of rhis is present in the surge 2.

    The reason for the shift in tone is because the developer did not rehire the same writers, or any writers and in their arrogance wrote their own story and script. The result if a shallow, lifeless world with bland directionless characters. This aspect is a huge step down from the first game.

    A good example of how the lack of good story telling impacts on a single player game is the opening of s1 vs s2. Surge 1 has a fantastic wheel chair segment where a disabled man is given a second chance through technology to walk. But that gift comes with horrific consequences which is the surge campaign. But MILD SPOILERS Surge 2 starts with a bad cgi and a crash and then you wake up in a prison for some reason which is being attacked. But its a mess and doesnt make sense and it goes nowhere with an obsure mystery. Part of the issue is the character creation which feels horribly out of place as does the loss of Warren the protagonist of The Surge. But the shift to a pointless system and like the game, your character has no voice.

    I spare you with the details about the uninteresting npcs, boring bossfights and bare bone story design and come right to the points which really matter: 

    The worst parts of this game are the unimaginative level design, with far to many narrow maze like alleyways, connected together in a convoluted way and flooded with overcrowded randomly placed level assets. And the careless low effort graphics. 

    Those two things combined make the game look very cheap and not very fun to navigate through and explore. Its not even that every single texture, or asset is bad, but the few good and sharp textures and assets which are undoubtedly in this game just drown under all the mediocre half finished assets. And none of the assets is carefully placed in the levels to make the level feel believable. It's almost as if the level designers just randomly dropped them into the level, while wearing a blindfold. I understand that they are going for a destroyed city in a chaotic state of emergency and decay,but not every maze like area with randomly thrown together assets is an interesting place to explore. The only exception is the park area with all the trees, which was actually well made fun to play through. 

    And oh my god does the lighting in this game look artificial and ugly. You have this silent hill looking fog hanging around everywhere on the map combined with one of the worst skyboxes and most artificial looking bloom infested skylights and lighting I have seen in a while.Objects which stand in the shadows have no shadow details. Objects which stand in the bright sunlight have no highlights or reflections.Many metallic objects have almost no reflections either. 

    This game is not a total disaster, because it has good combat and animations, but its also not far away from being one.Seems as if Deck 13 had not nearly enough developer to fill this giant sandbox with life and make it look good in the available development time.Even starving long time souls fans should consider here very carefully if it is really worth it, going through all that trouble, before buying the game. 

    Rather, buy Surge 1 or the excellent dlc instead, which while also not being perfect, is clearly the better game.     … Expand
  6. lur_
    Jul 4, 2020
    6
    Review for the base game without any DLC.

    Deck13 keeps improving and The Surge 2 is their best soulslike yet. Unfortunately it's still far from the quality of the top offerings from FromSoft and Team Ninja. Improvements over The Surge include faster and smoother combat and much more environmental variety. The new directional parry mechanic is a mixed bag. The directional aspect adds    Review for the base game without any DLC.

    Deck13 keeps improving and The Surge 2 is their best soulslike yet. Unfortunately it's still far from the quality of the top offerings from FromSoft and Team Ninja.

    Improvements over The Surge include faster and smoother combat and much more environmental variety. The new directional parry mechanic is a mixed bag. The directional aspect adds almost nothing over having non-directional parries, and the overuse of difficult-to-read windup animations in enemy attacks gets really tiresome. Also, placing even more mechanics on the right stick which is already used for lock-on and limb selection makes for some frustrating mistaken inputs, such as losing your lock-on by accidentally clicking the stick trying to do a directional parry. On the positive side, the big damage opportunity reward after a set number of successful parries on bosses is fun, and the limited but easily recharged healing system is good.

    Level/area design is much better than The Surge, but is still one of the weakest points of the game. Very few areas are memorable, and several areas feel like they could have been randomly generated. Cramped, cluttered, samey, nonsensical and/or anonymous area design causes the large amount of interconnectedness to become confusing and tedious. "A jumbled mess" is another description fitting many of the areas. The exolines (zip lines) are pretty neat, but also provide the designers a means to do very lazy area designs.

    The bosses are generally an improvement over The Surge, but some of the fights still suffer from misdirected gimmicks that fail to meld with the core combat mechanics. The "Metal Armor" fight being perhaps the clearest example. A couple of bosses are repeated several times over, and at least one boss is "just" a souped-up version of a regular enemy you've fought many times before.

    The game has a quirky tone and feels a lot less dark and foreboding compared to the first game. I didn't really pay attention to the story.

    There are a couple of technical issues. The upgraded engine (I assume) seems to run a bit worse than the previous one without really looking much better. The loading screen seems strangely decoupled from the main game engine, causing the annoying issues of sound effects continuing to play when entering a loading screen and the game actually giving you control of your character long before exiting the loading screen. It's probably possible to walk off a ledge before you even know you have control. The game crashed to desktop about once per hour (three times) before I set it to run as administrator, after which it never crashed again. Not really an acceptable solution on principle but it seems to work.

    The list of soulslikes I would recommend over The Surge 2 include all of FromSofts offerings, both of the Nioh games and Code Vein. If you've exhausted all of that and still feel an itch to play a soulslike, I would say The Surge 2 is a decent choice.    … Expand
  7. Pmstz
    Jan 30, 2023
    6
    Nice Souls like.

    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
  8. Naked_Snakee
    Apr 7, 2023
    6
    Just text (crutch) to save the game to the list. Such things. Maybe I'll do a review later.

Awards & Rankings

71
#71 Most Discussed PC Game of 2019

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 39 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 39
  2. Mixed: 17 out of 39
  3. Negative: 0 out of 39
  1. IGN Japan
    Jan 17, 2020
    70
    With the environment changing from a factory to a city, The Surge 2 loses its appeal of heavy machinery. With a spiritual story and a confusing map, it was never really clear where The Surge 2’s gameplay or world atmosphere was heading. Luckily, changes in the game’s system are more clear. By making battles less challenging and improving the upgrade system, the game’s dismemberment-focused action has become genuinely more fun. That being said, there are just too many aspects that hold it back.
    Read full review
  2. Game World Navigator Magazine
    Jan 14, 2020
    76
    Graphics are rarely worth mentioning nowadays, since most games look good or great. That’s not The Surge 2’s case: sometimes graphics are so bad it messes with gameplay, as it gets hard to tell if it’s a puddle of water, poison or a chasm. [Issue#242, p.50]
  3. The Overpowered Noobs
    Nov 22, 2019
    70
    Despite a few technical hiccups, The Surge 2 presents a marked improvement over its predecessors and an all-around good game.
    Read full review
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