Introduction

The Surge is developer Deck 13's sophomore entry into the Sorta Like Dark Souls genre of action RPG. It is a sci-fi adventure thriller set in a dystopian world where a whole bunch of apocalyptic scenarios happened at once, leaving the planet wracked with a ruined climate and dwindling population. Luckily, Silicon Valley Hellcompany CREO stepped up to save the day and restore the planet's atmosphere with their revolutionary Project Resolve.

CREO makes all kinds of devices for your home and family, most notably their EXO-RIG (pictured prominently above), a metal suit grafted into your very bones and muscles that enhances your body beyond its natural limits. You play as Warren, a man having the worst first day of work anyone has ever had ever, as you wake up after your The Surgery with your new exo-suit and a broken down CREO facility to explore. There are robots to fight, insane exo-suit workers to do bloody battle with, souls-I-mean-tech-scrap to collect, and a hell of a lot of ways to supplement your playstyle to your own specifications. With a workplace so versatile and exciting as CREO, why would you ever want to leave?




This game is incredible! Deck 13's first entry into the action RPG genre was a game known as Lords of the Fallen, a much, much more straightforward clone of the Souls games it takes inspiration from. It wasn't great, the kind of thing where you had to make your own fun because the game itself was a bit bland. It was noteworthy for being that game where you can shield bash and only shield bash your way to victory.

The Surge brings new life and new interesting mechanics however in the form of enemy executions, individual limb targeting, and implant chips that let you build your Warren however you please at any time. Cutting off enemy limbs will build up your stock of weapons, body parts, and upgrade materials so that you can pick and choose how you want to improve and what you want to wield to beat the crap out of your enemies. But if me describing the intricate, in-depth and well thought out gameplay systems is boring to you, I'll let the game speak for itself:








Please don't. This game's got a really fascinating (if a bit hard to decipher) world and history and I'm going to be talking at length about why I really enjoy it and think it's an above average story, even if the storytelling methodology needs a bit of work. That means you'll probably be discovering it along the way, so don't spoil anything important until we get to it in the videos! I promise, there's a lot to unpack, but when you do you'll find there's a really unique story hidden underneath the obfuscation.