The Surge Reviews

The Surge – Steam Review It's one of those games where you'll either push through the rough edges and enjoy the challenge—or you'll give up halfway through out of sheer annoyance. Pros: - Solid and enjoyable core gameplay - Good variety of gear to collect and experiment with - Interesting upgrade system that encourages exploration - Implant system adds a nice layer of customization - Cool game concept and world design - Visually impressive for its time Cons: - Level design is confusing and often frustrating to navigate - Combat feels stiff at times, with stamina management becoming tedious - Difficulty can be punishing, especially when grinding is required to upgrade gear - The story feels disconnected, possibly due to how easily you can miss side quests or get lost in the confusing areas Overall Thoughts: I'm on the fence about recommending this game. Did I enjoy it? Yes—especially the core gameplay and the satisfaction of collecting and upgrading gear. But I also found a lot of the experience frustrating. The poor navigation and overwhelming grind really took away from the fun. Final Verdict: 🤷‍♂️ Recommended for players who love Souls-like challenges and don’t mind a bit of frustration.

I played this on PS4 around two years ago for the first time and I was hooked. Despite the jank, the crashes and the often quick and unexpected deaths I adored this game. When I saw it was on Steam for less than £2 I bought it because I had the itch to play it again. This game is a flawed gem but the exploration and combat are fantastic

It's a Souls-like so don't even complain when it's hard you need to learn how to actually fight in this game you can't just mash and expect to beat it. It has a relatively similar lock-on target system to Fallout 4, buggy sometimes, Hard hitting enemies so you need to be careful with your HP, Great boss variety, sometimes janky combat mechanics. Would recommend changing some bindings for more comfortable controls

Playing through again, and it still holds up! I love the sci-fi horror setting for this soulslike action rpg. Very responsive controls and fun mechanics.

Yea just gonna pass on this one, while the Sci-Fi Dystopian theme is really cool and the graphics are top notch the balance of the difficulty is atrociously bad... I love Souls Likes and have played and beaten most of them but this one is just frustratingly difficult, it's essentially a wait and counter game, which is a shame because everything else about the game is great, Sci-Fi Dystopian Theme, Mechs, Robots, Power Suits, Good Story, Good Graphics, honestly it's a Sci-Fi Dream game but the asinine difficulty just completely ruins it and makes a game that would have been great a mess. Not saying it's a bad game, honestly it could have been a solid 10, but it's probably one of the hardest Souls Like in the Genre and i just don't think it's worth the effort, but if you want to try go ahead but don't say i didn't warn ya.

To put it simply, I think this game is excellent. I feel like a lot of people overlooked this game when it came out due to it's heavy inspiration from Dark Souls. Don't think like this: nothing will ever be that good -- especially considering Dark Souls has the edge when it comes to nostalgia. That aside, The Surge is a masterclass in level design. The game revolves around a central area that evolves throughout the game with new enemies and new metroidvania-esque pathways and the classic soulslike shortcuts. The combat is fluid and fast paced and features its super interesting targeting system that enables you to cut off specific limbs to grind for armor parts. This mechanic is really fun and enemies even will make use of creative applications of the limbs and armor systems in the game. I also really enjoyed the story and I'm pretty sure I found nearly almost all of the audio logs, which presented the game's minimalist narrative in a way that does not obstruct the pacing of gameplay. Nothing new to see here, and ultimately very predictable, but the way the mystery was slowly unraveled had my interest piqued nonetheless. Shortcomings? Bosses are underwhelming and weapons are effectively stat changes to one of five movesets. The game is not perfect, but when are we going to stop pretending our favorite games ever are? I love The Surge, and I think it's an easy recommend to any fan of science fiction and soulslikes.

Completion: 100% Achievements Playtime: 60.6 hours The Surge is an amazing game overall and a solid entry in the soulslike genre. I’d definitely recommend it to fans of the style who don’t mind pushing through some frustrating moments—because there will be a few. Combat is easily the weakest part. At times, it feels like you’re made of wet tissue paper, falling apart at the slightest touch. Hit feedback is odd, and enemies hit hard, which can lead to awkward combos that wipe you out instantly. That said, I enjoyed pretty much everything else. The voice acting was solid, I had fun collecting everything and trying out all the weapons, and the bosses were creative with a good mix of variety. It’s a flawed but worthwhile experience, and if you’re into soulslikes and can handle a bit of jank in the combat, it’s well worth playing.

Souls like with EXO suits and body part aiming. You can collect armor and weapons blueprints from cutting off the locked on body part and it's so satisfying. This isn't an easy game. Don't come into this with Dark Souls experiencing thinking you can breeze it. Also the bosses have upgraded weapon drops if you can beat them a certain way. It's so frikin' satisfying. Oh yea, and there is a part 2. I just hope there will be a part 3. Love ya'll Happy chopping.

I really wanted to like The Surge. It had all the ingredients for a great game: a dystopian sci-fi setting, exosuits, and Souls-like combat. Unfortunately, what I got was a frustrating, clunky, and often tedious experience that fails to live up to its inspirations. First, the combat—arguably the core of any Souls-like—is sluggish and unsatisfying. Enemy animations feel janky, hit detection is inconsistent, and the lock-on system is unreliable at best. While the limb-targeting mechanic is an interesting idea, it quickly turns into a repetitive chore. You’ll find yourself grinding the same enemies over and over just to get gear that barely makes a difference. Level design is another low point. The environments are dull, uninspired industrial corridors that all blend together. There's a serious lack of visual variety, and it doesn't help that getting lost is more annoying than rewarding. Shortcuts are supposed to be satisfying discoveries in this genre, but here they often feel like you're just circling the same bland areas. Then there's the story—or the lack of one. The Surge throws you into its world with barely any meaningful context, and it never really pays off. The plot is vague, the characters forgettable, and any attempt at lore feels shallow and disconnected. Even the performance was a letdown. Frequent stutters, awkward animations, and some truly frustrating bugs (getting stuck in geometry, anyone?) made the whole experience feel half-baked. Overall, The Surge is a forgettable, frustrating attempt at mimicking better games without understanding what made them work. Unless you’re absolutely starved for sci-fi Souls-likes, you’re better off spending your time elsewhere. Rating: 4/10

I'm closing in on 6 hours and have finished the first two maps. I'm halfway into the 3rd and this game is a painfully sluggish mess. I don't know if it comes from my "build" but the balance for stamina and enemy damage feels so overtuned. I say "build" because there are so few options to chose from, there are no "wow" powerspike or drop that make you feel like you've made progress at any point. The exploration is super frustrating because almost a 3rd of the secret area or path you find in the early game lead to blocked doors that you need to come back to way later in the game. It is not engaging at all and you feel punished for exploring thouroughly : it cost resources, time, and you end up either blocked or killed by some random darksoul bulls**t placed mob that just makes you fall to your death because there is no way to see him the first time (and now you have to come back if you want to save your money). When your exploration is this poor, this just feel like a huge middle finger. Lastly the enemy feel copy-pasted, the combat is always wait for the enemy to attack and counter attack. Some might like it, I just found it uninteresting. I am not a huge souls-like player but to me it felt like the game is trying to copy Souls mechanics without understanding what makes them great. It's feels shallow and tedious.