Focus Home and Deck 13’s near-future action RPG The Surge was on display at this year’s E3, and that’s presented with an opportunity to take in and contemplate a new interview as well as a few new previews of the game.
We begin with the interview at RPGSite:
RPG Site: I noticed in the demo during the boss encounter that there were several ways to go about the fight. In this case the easier path to victory was taken, however the harder path grants you better loot. So is there a risk/reward system in play when it comes to obtaining items?
Jan Klose: Exactly. So with our combat system, you can target the weak body parts on an enemy to bring them down faster. However you will probably see enemies carrying stuff you want to have, so you will need to target the parts of their bodies that make the fight much harder, but the reward for beating them is much bigger.
Followed by a preview at GameInformer:
In the demo, the world is bright, but still manages to communicate a sense of unease. The first co-worker he encounters is also equipped with an exosuit, but it’s clear that something has gone wrong with him. Warren has to avoid the lurching man’s attacks. According to Deck 13, attacks are focused more on horizontal and vertical swings, as opposed to light and heavy attacks that players may be accustomed to. Players can target enemies with a press of a button, which is standard stuff, but while locked on can also target specific body parts. We see this in action in a short battle against another armored foe. After dodge-rolling away from his attacks, Warren focuses his retaliation on his opponent’s head. After weakening it sufficiently, he decapitates his victim with a powerful blow. Each successful attack fills an electric meter, and when it’s filled Warren can unleash powerful finishing attacks. The meter depletes relatively quickly, which should encourage players to use it rather than attempt to hoard the attack for later.
Warren moves through the facility, encountering malfunctioning drone-like disassembly bots, which announce “You have been scheduled for disassembly” before swooping down with blowtorches out. He also finds a blueprint for an electric staff, which he later crafts at a 3D printing station. The enemies are diverse in the demo, including a simian loader bot, which attacks with its powerful arms and a spinning tail, and workers in exosuits that are clearly designed for loading. The forklift-like blades on the ends of their arms are intimidating, but fortunately Warren is able to dodge them – impaling his enemy with a spear before splitting it in half at the waist. Even though the game doesn’t have a dark-fantasy setting, there’s plenty of gore and horror on display.
Another at FextraLife:
Enemies are powerful, deliberate, mostly robotic and you could see that each enemy is designed to challenge the player. You can clearly see that they went for quality over quantity in terms of numbers; something I think many fans of Lords of the Fallen or Dark Souls will appreciate. The boss that was shown was a large malfunctioning mech that shot missiles and looked similar to ED209 from Robocop. We were told that there were multiple ways the boss could be defeated and that some were more rewarding (in terms of loot) than others.
What impressed us most was how fluid, tight, and electrifying the combat looked. The player dashed through and around enemy attacks, getting in 2 or 3 hit combos before finally finishing his target with vicious fatalities time and time again, each looking different based on which part he targeted. At one point, the player equipped claw like weapons that were dual-wielded, allowing for some really fast combos that ended in the player kick flipping off the targets head and landing some meters back. This method of kill, cut, craft and repeat gave it an Armored Core vibe, albeit on a smaller scale.
One more at RPGFan:
You play as Warren, a strapping young man wearing something like Matt Damon’s power armor from Elysium. The world, though appearing broken and ruined, is surprisingly bright and colorful despite the incredibly macabre artwork we’ve had up until now. I wasn’t expecting so much vibrancy to the world, which certainly sets it apart from most other post-apocalyptic environments.
The Surge seems to have a lot in common with From Software’s Souls series at first sight (which makes sense given Deck 13’s previous game). The dynamic duo of health bar and stamina bar remain, but the emphasis of the combat system is on dismembering your opponents to loot their corpses for precious resources. You use the right analog stick to target an enemy’s limbs, though you still have to actually hit the target with a horizontal or vertical attack. It certainly seems like a unique and strategic system, but it’s hard to tell how it works without getting my actual hands on a controller to test it out. I couldn’t help but notice the targeting reticule constantly disappearing in the heat of combat, but maybe the system is far more responsive than initially previewed.
And yet another at Entertainment Buddha:
Due to the inclusion of exo-suits, The Surge’s gameplay is laser focused on melee combat, which is where my quasi-Mortal Kombat comparison comes into play. This game isn’t a fighter and you don’t line up on a 2D plane to battle, but its focus on strategic melee combat and special finishing moves echoes the brutality found in the Mortal Kombat franchise perfectly.
The game is presented in a third person view like other action adventure titles, but rather than just being a button masher, The Surge requires strategy for any chance of success. Each enemy has identifiable hit points which you can aim for while swinging your weapon using the right stick. This promotes a unique approach to melee combat since you can target noticeable weak areas on someone’s suit, leading to deadlier attacks and a quicker filling finishing meter. You definitely want your basic attacks to land successfully, because the quicker you can fill the finisher meter, the quicker you’ll get to see this game’s hardcore gore in action. These finishers are definitely inspired by Mortal Kombat’s fatalities, as one I saw had an enemy get his head knocked off in slow motion complete with the requisite amount of blood and giblets spewing from his open neck wound. Other finishers are equally as gory and brutal, so becoming proficient in strategic melee attacks is key in The Surge.
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