The Surge

 PC
User Score
6.7

Mixed or average reviews- based on 285 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 146 out of 285
  2. Mixed: 74 out of 285
  3. Negative: 65 out of 285

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  1. nik_balani
    Aug 31, 2019
    3
    This game had a lot of potential. The intro scenes were excellent and the player control and graphics are good + gameplay entertaining. However after about 20 mins it becomes far too challenging to continue. Need to spend a significant amount of time leveling up before you can make it further which is annoying so I simply gave up.
  2. CaueV
    Nov 8, 2019
    4
    I tried to like this game. I really did. I had a somewhat good time in the beginning hours, but soon enough you'll see that deck 13 just can't make good games.
    Even though this is not nearly as bad as lords of the fallen, it has so many flaws that it is still not worth your time.
    The bad decisions in game design make me wonder if the devs ever played a video game before. Better yet, if    I tried to like this game. I really did. I had a somewhat good time in the beginning hours, but soon enough you'll see that deck 13 just can't make good games.
    Even though this is not nearly as bad as lords of the fallen, it has so many flaws that it is still not worth your time.
    The bad decisions in game design make me wonder if the devs ever played a video game before. Better yet, if they ever played a souls game, the series that they so clearly are trying to mimic here.
    Let me run you through of some the frustrations you'll encounter:
    Stats are unclear. You don't know what exactly what is the damage of you weapon or the protection your armor has. They mix a numeric scale with a scale from very low to very high to describe stats. who was the genius behind this? how do I know the damage I do? 30dmg times "high" equals what?
    Maps are very dull and it look all the same.
    The amount of branching paths in the last hours of the game is laughable.
    Your health bar means nothing. half of the bosses attacks will one shot you. The other half will two-shot you, but the first attack staggers you so the second will always hit.
    Don't even get me started on the hit boxes. On every boss fight you'll get hit by invisible hitboxes, so your only option is to memorize them by trial and error.
    Lots of cheap deaths. enemies can easily two shot you, especially if you try to run pas them.

    This game had a lot of potential, but by the end of it all you'll think of is "please just end already".
    Don't play this game. You won't have fun with it. At least no enough to justify all the frustration.    … Expand
  3. Joe_Friday
    Apr 17, 2018
    0
    A boring, grinding chore of a game. Gameplay mechanics are slow and clunky. Dead enemies respawn in areas you've already cleared, so be prepared to kill the exact same enemies over and over and over again. It was so awful that I refunded it.
  4. valkas
    May 16, 2017
    3
    the game start pretty well but become super borring after 5/6 hours playing, every area looks the same, no real diversity, even with the trash mobs, all the same except the stuff they have, the story is just meh, at the end the only thing fun in the game is grinding for new stuff, not worth buying imo, 4/10 but with the opmisation being so bad, it's a 3.
  5. TheTG
    May 17, 2017
    0
    Terrible game, does nothing new, full of bugs and glitches, only 5 boring and easy bosses, the environment is always the same, no creativity, 90% of the game mechanics are copied from Souls, shameless thieves. Don't waste your time on this garbage game.
  6. elitepredetor99
    May 17, 2017
    0
    cant lie this is one of the most boring games i have ever played, it is so repetitive with barely any armor sets and weapons. i had to delete this game half way through due to how boring it was lmao, definitely one of the worst games i have ever played, cant remember the last time i deleted a game due to how boring it was.
  7. Vilquar
    May 29, 2017
    4
    Couldn't decide between 4 and 5 but went with 4. If you buy this game expecting a sci-fi Dark Souls as I have, you might be severely disappointed. While it is an "okay" game in it's own right it just feels lacking to me. Enemies don't click with me at all, the way combat works does not make sense to me, I feel like they tried to go for a fast paced combat like Bloodborne? But it's such aCouldn't decide between 4 and 5 but went with 4. If you buy this game expecting a sci-fi Dark Souls as I have, you might be severely disappointed. While it is an "okay" game in it's own right it just feels lacking to me. Enemies don't click with me at all, the way combat works does not make sense to me, I feel like they tried to go for a fast paced combat like Bloodborne? But it's such a lower quality combat that I just wish I was playing Bloodborne instead. Bosses feel gimmicky so they kept that going from Lords of the Fallen (which I consider a superior game to The Surge). Characters or places have no feel to them, like I finished the game last week and I can't recall what the places or characters were called while I can recite every single zone and character from DS1 that I haven't played in over 8 months.

    Overall, if soulsborne never happened it would be a great game, but that series just reigns supreme and nobody comes even close when it comes to this type of games and their depth.    … Expand
  8. Nokturnalex
    May 29, 2017
    0
    Much as I wanted a sci-fi Dark Souls there's too much wrong with this game for me to enjoy.

    Every single weapon type just feels wrong, the combos are wonky as hell no matter which weapon type I used and there are only like 5 different weapon types to pick from. Every weapon just didn't have the the impact or the flair of Dark Souls weapons and there's no magic or Ranged weapons to use    Much as I wanted a sci-fi Dark Souls there's too much wrong with this game for me to enjoy.

    Every single weapon type just feels wrong, the combos are wonky as hell no matter which weapon type I used and there are only like 5 different weapon types to pick from. Every weapon just didn't have the the impact or the flair of Dark Souls weapons and there's no magic or Ranged weapons to use for when your melee weapon isn't cutting it, all you have is a terrible drone that does god awful damage. The grind to upgrade gear really gets boring as the game goes on and most significant upgrades are locked behind doors that you have to progress to get through meaning even if you do grind you can't over-level the content. Armor is basically useless as everything hits you like a truck and the level design tried to be like Dark Souls but failed pretty terribly. Sometimes you'll open like 5 shortcuts in a row and other times play for hours straight without unlocking a short cut leading you to have to backtrack or fight through the same enemies over and over if you die. The controls are pretty terrible as well forcing you to activate Damage boosters as you fight but having them be in the same category as your healing items, so not only do you have to pay attention to the fight but you have to scroll through all your consumables while you're fighting. With no way to bind healing and damage buffs onto different keys. (In Dark Souls for example, Estus could be bound to always being 1 button and consumables being a different one)

    Where as in Dark souls you have abilities at your disposal to deal with multiple enemies. (AoE spells, Grenade consumables, etc) the only thing you can do in the Surge is abuse the pathing, try to pull one enemy at a time and if that doesn't work pull them till they turn around and go back then hit them in the back. Which just leads to annoyance when dealing with multiple enemies as the lock on system is basically required for your character to not move like an idiot but he can't dodge 2 enemies for **** while locked on.

    I never really cared for the aesthetic and would've preferred a more Warhammer 40k type of Sci-Fi Dark Souls over this futuristic Construction Worker art style. The story is given to you insanely slowly and it's not open to interpretation like Dark Souls, it's just a rather bland Post Apocalyptic setting with not much of a twist and lacks any interesting characters.

    As bad as Lords of the Fallen was I actually enjoyed that a lot more than this. Hard Pass from me.    … Expand
  9. muzmuz
    Aug 7, 2018
    2
    Painfully disappointing Dark Souls-esque game with primitive mechanics, bad linear design and immediately obvious lack of creativity. Not to mention this game respawns your enemies in the exact same spot it hits the cringe in the right place.
  10. anarky321
    Jun 12, 2017
    2
    surprisingly uncreative and lacking variety...combat is dull after 1 hour

    punishing difficulty and lack of save only makes you quit faster...i played to the end with god mode trainer on and even so it was a total drag

    a lot more could have been done here, such as ranged weapons
  11. lhmtgame
    May 21, 2017
    4
    I have terrible feeling from The Surge!

    - Graphics is just good enough but game content is bad.
    - There is no Mission/Quest panel to track or maps system at least.
    - Poor level design and gears system.
    - Useless conversation system from NPCs.
    If you Google any info about The Surge, less people play this game.
  12. FusionHAA
    May 26, 2017
    0
    Average combat, extremely boring exploration, unfair difficulty. There is nothing here for souls fans. Better go replay Dark Souls because this game is is ****
  13. Caliburn89
    May 20, 2017
    3
    A failure of a well established formula. Game mechanics not adequate explained, with a tutorial that's abrupt and confusing. Worthless run around to bloat the runtime especially after the halfway point. Every area looks the same so it's not uncommon to get lost. Bosses with unclear mechanics and an exceptional amount of trial and error to finally beat them. Unfortunately Deck 13 hasA failure of a well established formula. Game mechanics not adequate explained, with a tutorial that's abrupt and confusing. Worthless run around to bloat the runtime especially after the halfway point. Every area looks the same so it's not uncommon to get lost. Bosses with unclear mechanics and an exceptional amount of trial and error to finally beat them. Unfortunately Deck 13 has failed, just like with Lords of the Falllen.

    Don't waste your time. Even if you're a fan of the FROMsoft games, and looking to scratch that itch, just avoid this abomination.    … Expand
  14. SaintMSent
    May 22, 2017
    4
    Better than Lords of the Fallen, but not by much. Main idea of the combat system is interesting, but not enough. Other aspects of the game are awful. Bad level design, bad hitboxes, bad enemy placement. I don't know why you should play this game in the world where Dark Souls exists.
  15. JonsGone
    Oct 22, 2020
    4
    It's bad.
    It's so bad.
    Bad as in you get to understand why and how similar games like Dark Souls are good. The level design is horrendous and easily THE worst part of this unoriginal pile of junk. Maps are labyrinthian and paths more than often lead to dead ends, shortcuts to nowhere and severe migranes trying to figure out the way forward. The environments all look identical in every    It's bad.
    It's so bad.
    Bad as in you get to understand why and how similar games like Dark Souls are good.
    The level design is horrendous and easily THE worst part of this unoriginal pile of junk.
    Maps are labyrinthian and paths more than often lead to dead ends, shortcuts to nowhere and severe migranes trying to figure out the way forward.
    The environments all look identical in every single area.
    BUT I GUESS DARK SOULS DIDNT HAVE A MAP SO THERES NO NEED FOR ONE THERE.
    Enemies are bland at best and absolutely horrible at worst and there's not enough blandess in there to patch out the awfulness.
    Bosses are just plain dumb with very little tells as to what attack is coming, where it's coming from and how fast it's going to hit you.
    Mostly it's either guesswork and/or facetanking until it breaks.
    Last boss just straight up goes from standing still to AoE damage in less than a second.
    Went for political commentary on overcorporatisation and climate change until it didn't and just decided to roll with a **** Terminator ripoff.
    Targeting body parts is to loot armor is fine i guess but when you have to fiddle with the controls for a good 10 seconds to target a leg before engaging it gets old real fast.
    CBA, went full caveman and bashed heads until the end of the game.
    Weapon proficiency is dumb AF and disincentivises trying out other playstyles.

    Had to push myself to finish this **** and honestly, its not worth it.

    Dont bother.    … Expand
  16. Traxillion
    Feb 5, 2022
    4
    Imagine Dark Souls with non of the good features and most of the negative aspects of it given more screen-time.

    That's The Surge.

    Creo world DLC is good while the Wild West themed DLC is rather poor and a waste of time.
  17. Dco326
    Apr 12, 2020
    4
    ISt afora kao dark souls samo nekako meni totalno nezanimljiva iskreno. NEma mape to je jako smaracki borba je onako leveli su mejzovi jebote naporni faozn. Stv nema nista da privuce cak sta vise jako je naporno i dosadno. Nzm ja ne bih igrao ovo nikad vise. Kad sam ja odustao na pola igrice sve ti jano. 4 puta sam crkao jer padnem dok napadam lika jer su im leveli debilni fazon.
  18. OberiousLocke
    Mar 9, 2020
    0
    Short - The first game in over 7-8 years that has forced me to bring Cheat Engine out with insistence on poorly designed enemies that only gets more egregious as the game goes on. Do not recommend unless you're a masochist.

    I'm currently I think towards the end of the resolve biolab area, I'm putting this in now because by this point I've already seen enough to warrant the semi-verbal    Short - The first game in over 7-8 years that has forced me to bring Cheat Engine out with insistence on poorly designed enemies that only gets more egregious as the game goes on. Do not recommend unless you're a masochist.

    I'm currently I think towards the end of the resolve biolab area, I'm putting this in now because by this point I've already seen enough to warrant the semi-verbal castigation of Deck 13 and The Surge. Enemies that don't play by the rules that the Player does, erratic/semi-random enemy behavior make it impossible to really learn like you can in a half-way decent souls/soulslike game. A small list of things that I've already encountered.

    -The four legged robots. They can knock off half your health with a backflip which floors you, and it's a coin toss if, by the time you get off the floor, they immediately screw you for the other half of your health with their heatseeking lunge attack. I say heatseeking because I've literally baited it, ran around a 90 degree corner, only for the robot to jank itself around the corner and hit me anyway.

    -Poorly designed "stability" poise system. I can't stagger a single-rigged enemy out of their attack (like the Hammer guys through Area 2) but enemies can very easily stagger me if I reverse the situations. General rule of thumb, if you need to ask "Am I going to get staggered out of my attack" in the moment, the answer is yes. The reverse also applies, "Can I stagger the enemy out of their attack" in the moment, the answer is usually no.

    -The box robots throughout the Biolabs that can literally slow you to a crawl, and god forbid you're low on stamina because some how COOLANT results in your stamina regen stopping(?!)

    -Enemy attacks frequently have no wind up. Take the hammer guys again throughout the second area. If you don't proceed very cautiously, their first move is going to be knock you into the air for 40% of your HP, depriving you of the ability to dodge, block or heal, before they slam you back down with the second hit, taking off another 50%-ish percent.

    -Obnoxious targeting of limbs. It's a catch 22. If you only target unarmored limbs, you won't get upgrade materials or schematics. If you target armored limbs, they can very easily wombo combo you through your attacks, again displaying the fact that the only good poise system was Dark Souls 1's.

    -Tying the player's healing estus flask analog to a **** equippable. Even things like healing with energy or the injectables you get to start do very little to stop the insane amount of damage enemies do anyway.

    I've tried many kinds of weapons and many kinds of rigs (Lynx, Rhino and Liquidator), and while the numbers may change, there is very little in terms of real difference.

    Overall, 3/10. If your tolerance for bull**** is good, I recommend. If not, maybe pass and go play something less frustrating, like trying to fight a bear.

    I'm revising this to a 0. Everything else I've seen in the final areas, Black Cerberus fight, and now the nanite masses that can do the following.

    -Kill you in a rapid 3 hit combo and there's nothing you can do if you get caught.
    -Stun you so you cannot heal, block, dodge, or attack, while removing 1/3rd - 1/2 your health
    -Launch a giant rock at you that will take off 1/2 your HP
    -Multiply
    -Heal
    -Suddenly need a special execute that you have never had to use a single time in the game to that point.

    So poorly designed this game, and yet people love it. I think we might need another Video Game crash to get Dev's heads back on straight.    … Expand
  19. hubblebubble
    May 9, 2019
    4
    If you like running into recycled enemies of the same exact type every 10 meters while you run into recycled textures every 20 meters, then the Surge is for you. If you also like every enemy to follow the same exact principle, then go ahead and buy this... gem. You have 5 whole bosses to look forward to. Who all suck. Armour and levels don't matter, but they exist for some reason. You'llIf you like running into recycled enemies of the same exact type every 10 meters while you run into recycled textures every 20 meters, then the Surge is for you. If you also like every enemy to follow the same exact principle, then go ahead and buy this... gem. You have 5 whole bosses to look forward to. Who all suck. Armour and levels don't matter, but they exist for some reason. You'll get two-shot by most enemies whatever you wear though, so choose your **** looking yellow suit with pointless stats over the **** looking blue one if you want. It literally makes no difference. There is literally no reason beyond wanting to play a worse version of a type of game to choose this over the Souls franchise, Salt and Sanctuary, Ashen, Nioh etc. This is THE worst 'Soulslike' by far.… Expand
  20. OGgamer2001
    Jul 9, 2019
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I've played worse games. Namely, most games made by EA in the past 7 years. This game starts out pretty cool, the story seems unique and the game play seems like it might be cool for the fors hour or so, but that is when it stops. After spending 8-10 hours playing this game you notice how **** it really is. Thefame play loop is the exact same 3 moves, the enemies constantly scale up above your level s on no matter how much you level your character, you are always weak. Further more, if you die, you lose all your **** uh unless you can get back to your stuff without dieing a second time. I lost 4 levels worth of stuff because it suprise spawned me. Tthe mechanics are ****, the controls suck , the story is lack luster and the graphics are dated. I have played worse games, but this is at the bottom of the **** pile for sure.… Expand
  21. pwnarella
    Jun 1, 2021
    0
    This game starts with some great ideas:
    Cutting body parts of enemies to build better equipment, explore new gear sets and implants to overcome stronger enemies, destroy big machine bosses with skill and good equipment. With all the ideas the first 3-6 hours can be fun. But the downsite of the game shows also very fast: The gameplay is very static, enemie routes are maybe 5 meters long,    This game starts with some great ideas:
    Cutting body parts of enemies to build better equipment, explore new gear sets and implants to overcome stronger enemies, destroy big machine bosses with skill and good equipment. With all the ideas the first 3-6 hours can be fun. But the downsite of the game shows also very fast: The gameplay is very static, enemie routes are maybe 5 meters long, the most enemies do not move at all and prefer to bang their head against some wall, while grunting. Stealth mechanics are also pretty non existent, sure you can sneak in form of very slow movement to an enemy, but there seems no real crit system, there is no ability tree except for weappns and so on. The game therefore feels static and repetitive after some hours, no dynamic gameplay can eb found on the AI. Enemies arent warning each other, there are no alarm bells you can kill an enemy while another stands 6 meters away and stares at the fight.
    But the problems of static and dumb AI could be put aside, when the game would offer intersting points on some other side. Here the game also fails utterly: The story could be a reason to keep playing, but it is just a bunch of random story pics from classic sci-fi themes: mad professor who broke moral laws to save mankind? check. Human progression through technical implants? Check. Danger of technology in form of some virus, which took control of the enhanced robo humans??? Check. This goes so far, that mr.evilgenius even has to face the player behind some lab-window to talk the average mad-evil-genius-blabla as in thousands of games and movies before. And this is the point, where i have to say, the negative elements of this game destroy every good new and innovative impression i had in the start. Th gameplay feels static, the story is utterly garbage, the grinding was cool at beginning of the new millenia, but geeez we got 2020, we dont need no more eviolgenius scientists behind some glasses, static mobs and dumb AIs.    … Expand
  22. realWhiteMan
    Apr 9, 2023
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. My rating is based on my impressions of the game. This is not an objective review. I play quite a big number of titles per year and decided to review them as a peace of art and not as a product.… Expand

Awards & Rankings

43
#43 Most Discussed PC Game of 2017
59
#59 Most Shared PC Game of 2017

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
72

Mixed or average reviews - based on 33 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 33
  2. Mixed: 16 out of 33
  3. Negative: 0 out of 33
  1. IGN Japan
    Dec 14, 2017
    78
    Bringing a Dead Space-style SF horror atmosphere to a Dark Souls-inspired action game makes things interesting, and the speedy battle system, which includes cutting off body parts and crafting elements, is a success. However, the somewhat dull pace of the game results in the player dying a bit too often, leaving plenty of room for improvement when it comes to the game’s overall balance.
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  2. Riot Pixels
    Jul 23, 2017
    55
    I wanted to say something about the story, but it is nothingburger… just like everything else in The Surge.
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  3. PC PowerPlay
    Jun 30, 2017
    80
    Despite some pacing and story flaws, the thoughtful, tactical combat is always engrossing. [Issue#263, p.58]
    Read full review
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