Like most of Deck 13’s recent output, The Surge 2 steals a lot of its ideas from a certain series of action RPGs developed by From Software. Game critics have made so many comparisons to From’s work that there are entire Twitter accounts dedicated to how absurd it is. It’s a shame, because the comparison is valid here. If you’ve played a From game in the last decade, you are probably familiar with the basics of how The Surge 2’s gameplay works. Playing it generally goes like this: leave the latest medbay or safe area, murder a bunch of enemies on your way to whatever your current objective is, kill whatever boss you need to kill or get whatever you need to get, and then either find a new medbay or backtrack to an old one to upgrade your Exo-Suit, bank your scrap, and craft and upgrade new armor and weapons. Rinse and repeat and you have The Surge 2’s core gameplay loop. Sound familiar?

"Cutting off an armored body part – or the hand carrying a weapon – takes longer, but rewards with you scrap, schematics for weapons and armor, and the parts necessary to construct and upgrade them."

Dying means you’ll lose whatever Tech Scrap (read: XP) you’ve gained along the way and you’ll be spawned at the last medbay you used. As in From’s games, you can head back to where you bought the farm and reacquire what you lost, but dying again means it will be replaced with however much scrap you’re currently carrying. Dying – or using a medbay – also respawns every enemy you’ve already killed, which means getting back what you lost can be challenging and death has consequences. In From’s titles, you can make your way back to what you lost at your own pace, but The Surge 2 puts a time limit on it. You can increase said limit by killing enemies along the way, but it’s still an extra layer of tension on a system that’s already tense, especially since you’ll have to fight back through enemies you’ve already killed to get there. It’s not immediately clear why the random prisoner and his big metal stick you just killed respawn whenever you use a medbay, but that’s the way it is. It’s all pretty standard stuff for this type of game.

What sets The Surge 2 apart is its combat and upgrade system. Like most games of this type, you acquire materials by killing enemies, but there’s a trick to it. When you target an enemy in combat, you move your targeting cursor to select specific body parts. Do enough damage to a body part, and you can cut it off with a rather gruesome execution that’s weapon specific and a lot less fun after you’ve seen it a dozen or so times. You can also target unarmored body parts for more damage and faster kills. Cutting off an armored body part – or the hand carrying a weapon – takes longer, but rewards with you scrap, schematics for weapons and armor, and the parts necessary to construct and upgrade them. Why you can’t just rip the parts off their corpses is beyond me, but it does add a layer of strategy and tension to the combat that otherwise wouldn’t be there. If you want better gear, you’ll have to earn it.

By far the fastest way to deal with enemies is to parry their attacks, which requires blocking in a specific direction just as their attack is about to hit you. It takes work to nail the timing, but with practice – and the implant that tells you what direction the enemy is attacking from – I eventually nailed it. Whiffing leaves you open to big damage, but the rewards are more than worth it. The other major difference in The Surge 2 is that instead of light and heavy attacks, your character uses horizontal and vertical moves. These can be chained together to create combos that are fairly freeform, but the real benefit is that they allow you to deal damage to specific body parts, ensuring you get to cut off the side of beef you want before the enemy in question dies. You can lock onto specific body parts, but unless you use the right attacks to actually damage them, it’s a moot point.

"Each piece of armor and implant has a power cost associated with it, so there’s some min-maxing to be done if you want to equip the best things you can."

Other than that, The Surge 2’s combat works a lot like how you’d expect it to. You have a stamina bar that dictates how often you can attack, dodge, sprint, block, and parry, and you can acquire a drone that can target individual body parts and attack from a distance. As you fight, your Exo-Suit will build charge in its battery, which, when paired with certain implants, can heal you, so staying alive means fighting. Killing enemies also builds a multiplier that increases your rewards the longer you stay away from a medbay. All of these combine to make for a combat system that rewards you for fighting as much as possible. It’s a fun little system, and crafting new gear is interesting because you actually have to think during combat to do it. The fact that all of it feels and sounds good is just a bonus.

Certain social features From pioneered have also made the transition, all of which are accessed through your drone. You can leave graffiti around the environment that will alert other players to hidden enemies, paths, and items. You can also track down Revenge Enemies, which are baddies that have slain other players for extra rewards and hide a banner that rewards you with scrap if only a few players manage to find it. These features keep the environments from growing stale and encourage exploration, even if they are somewhat derivative.

Leveling up means heading back to a medbay and spending your scrap and materials to craft new gear and upgrade your Exo-Suit. Scrap can be spent to upgrade your health, stamina, and battery, and each upgrade adds a power core to your suit, which allows you to equip more gear. Each piece of armor and implant has a power cost associated with it, so there’s some min-maxing to be done if you want to equip the best things you can. Thankfully, the game allows you up to three sets that you can swap between, making inventory management a little less of a chore.

"The Surge 2 takes itself very seriously, but a lot of it is the typical, predictable “the-stakes-are-way-too-high” storytelling that plagues so many mass market games, and I just couldn’t bring myself to care."

The Surge 2’s combat is good, but unfortunately, the rest of the game can’t match up. Jericho City is a big place, with several areas to explore, and the game does its best to vary them up. The port is a waterlogged and rusted husk, the hospital is spooky, and the streets are littered with rubble and he ruins of buildings. Navigating them means traversing magnetic lifts and zip lines and creating shortcuts by opening gates where you can. None of these areas is bad, but they’re not particularly memorable, either. They all share the same “beautifully destroyed city” vibe that has been prevalent since the original Gears of War. The most interesting thing here is the verticality present in the environments, and how they connect, but there’s nothing particularly new or groundbreaking here. The game also has a serious issue with frame tearing, even on the Xbox One X, that brought down what it otherwise impressive visual and environmental design.

The story is worse. The Surge 2 tries to build intrigue, asking questions about you, the plane crash, and the little girl who appears in your dreams, and the city isn’t short of people to talk to and do quests for. Unfortunately, none of it is particularly memorable, and I wasn’t invested to enough to care about anything beyond my next quest objective. The Surge 2 takes itself very seriously, but a lot of it is the typical, predictable “the-stakes-are-way-too-high” storytelling that plagues so many mass market games, and I just couldn’t bring myself to care. If you’re looking for environmental storytelling with depth or a particularly moving tale, you’re not going to find it here.

At the end of the day, The Surge 2’s appeal lies almost entirely in its combat and how much of a fan you are of this kind of game design. It’s not a bad game, but it’s not a particularly memorable one, either. Outside of the combat, there isn’t much that makes it stand out. If you like this kind of design and don’t much care for originality, you’ll have a lot of fun chopping people up across Jericho City, and I can see people choosing to play this game for a long time because the combat is so compelling. As for me, I think I’ll be taking the next flight out. Jericho City’s a nice place to visit, but it mostly reminds me of other worlds with more to offer. And all the severed heads in the world aren’t going to change that.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox One.

Let’s deal with the elephant in the room now. Like its predecessor, The Surge 2 is a lot like a certain Action RPG series from From Software, which shall go unnamed for the sake of not invoking the tired “It’s like…” comparison. Deck 13 has made something of a career aping From Software’s signature design in the last few years with both Lords of the Fallen and The Surge, and that hasn’t changed here. What has changed is how well they do it. From isn’t in danger of losing their throne in the genre they invented, but Deck 13’s showing here is respectable, and from what I played, pretty fun.

"Do enough damage to a body part, and you can cut it off with a rather gruesome execution that’s weapon specific and a lot less fun after you’ve seen it a dozen or so times. Cut off a part of the enemy that is armored and you’ll receive a weapon, armor schematic, or parts for that specific part of the body or weapon."

If you’ve played a From game in the last decade, you’ll have an idea of what’s going on here. You’ll go from point to point, killing enemies and gaining items you can spend to level up. In the game that shall not be named, that means gaining souls to spend at a bonfire. Here, that means gathering scrap to upgrade your Exo-suit, which can be done at Medical Stations. Using a Medical Station heals you, but it also respawns all the enemies you have already killed. It’s not really clear why this happens in The Surge 2 – in From’s titles, magic is a thing and most of the world is undead, so it tracks – and I’m not sure why Bob the Prisoner respawns whenever I jump into a Medical Station, but respawn he does. It means using a Medical Station, whether to heal up or upgrade your gear, is always a proposition with risk as well as reward. It’s also a way to get more enemies to spawn if you would like to farm materials.

Defeating enemies gives you scrap, which you can spend to level up, and can be forged into upgraded weapons and armor, provided you have the other materials you need. How you get those materials is what sets The Surge 2 apart. Like most games of this type, you acquire materials by killing enemies, but there’s a trick to it. When you target an enemy in combat, you move your targeting cursor to select specific body parts. Do enough damage to a body part, and you can cut it off with a rather gruesome execution that’s weapon specific and a lot less fun after you’ve seen it a dozen or so times. Alternatively, You can target unarmored parts to do more damage. Cut off a part of the enemy that is armored – or, if they have a weapon, cut off the arm they’re wielding it with – and you’ll receive a weapon, armor schematic, or parts for that specific part of the body or weapon, which can be used to craft the weapons once you have the required materials or upgrade what you already have. Why you can’t just rip the parts off them once they’re dead is beyond me, but it does make combat with enemies more fun and add an element of strategy that otherwise wouldn’t be there.

Otherwise, combat works like how you’d expect it to. There’s a stamina meter, which determines how often you can attack, dodge, and sprint, and there are light and heavy – read: horizontal and vertical – attacks, though the damage difference between the two seems fairly minimal, at least on the weapon I was using. Still, there are a few touches that make it unique. You can acquire drones, which can target individual body parts and do good damage from a distance, and instead of flasks or potions, you get charge, which builds up in your suit and can be stored to use implants, which can do things like heal you, or passively allow you to see enemies’ health. The combat system may be derivative, but it is fun, and weapons have an appropriate amount of heft and sound suitably loud.

"You can acquire drones, which can target individual body parts and do good damage from a distance, and instead of flasks or potions, you get charge, which builds up in your suit and can be stored to use implants, which can do things like heal you, or passively allow you to see enemies’ health."

The story is nothing to write home about. It’s standard-issue environmental storytelling circa 2007, with audiologs to listen to and scattered pieces of lore conveyed through text on terminals or small items. The voice acting is fine, if unremarkable, and the characters seem good enough. There’s a story here, if you care, and it seems compelling enough, if for no other reason than to find out what happened to Jericho City and your character. Story isn’t the main selling point in these types of games, but The Surge 2’s seems like a step up from its predecessors.

The game also looks good, and the environments feel inhabited, though the character models, particularly their facial animations, leave something to be desired. I did encounter some technical issues during my time with the beta – no matter what I did, I couldn’t maintain a smooth framerate, even on low. My framerate hovered around 25, no matter what I did with my settings. There’s also some texture pop-in, and the game crashed frequently, especially when I tried to stream it. Thankfully, there’s still time for Deck 13 to iron these issues out before release. In a positive, the game plays fine on a mouse and keyboard, but I’d still recommend a controller.

The Surge 2 is shaping up to be a solid take on the genre inspired by the franchise that shall not be named, though it doesn’t have From’s level of polish. Still, the game is in beta, and what’s here, particularly in the combat system, is just different enough to be compelling. Jericho City is a cool setting, and I hope Deck 13 can make the most of it without producing a game that feels too much like its obvious inspirations because I can’t think of many other games where you loot armor by delimbing folks. That, at the very least, feels original.

This game was previewed on the PC.

Though Lords of the Fallen wasn’t the best received Souls-like title out there, CI Games and Deck 13 Interactive managed to carve out a decent clone that got some attention. However, with Lords of the Fallen 2, a new studio has been brought in to offer “a fresh start” to the series. That means any work previously done by Deck 13 will be scrapped.

Eurogamer spoke to Defiant Studios managing director David Grijns, who noted, “It’s really a reset, it’s a fresh start. It’s a new engine – Unreal 4 – and a new team. A team which does not have a long and illustrious background in action RPG development, but we actually see it as a strength.”

Lords of the Fallen 2 is still very much a Souls-like game that looks to From Software’s Dark Souls for immediate inspiration. As a former general manager/executive producer for the Just Cause franchise, Grijns says the development team doesn’t “have a long and illustrious background in action RPG development, but we actually see it as a strength.”

Defiant also wants to make its own identity in the genre, standing out from From Software’s efforts. “It’s an area of the games industry which is now considered untouchable in some degree,” Grijns said. “It’s like, ‘From Software rules the roost in this particular area of the badlands so abandon all hope ye who enter here.’ And those are exactly the sorts of projects we love. From taking inspiration from a lot of these games, we were able to come up with a new concept that tried to push a few of those categories a little further along.”

While Defiant’s approach to the sequel is admirable, Lords of the Fallen wasn’t the first attempt by Deck 13 to create a Souls-like title. It also developed The Surge, which offers a sci-fi twist on Souls action, and which will also see a sequel sometime next year. As for Lords of the Fallen 2, there’s no word on when exactly it will be coming.

Let’s get the basics out of the way. This time around you won’t be playing as Warren. Instead, the developers have decided to switch him out for a fully customized character — which seems to be the current trend among video games these days. You’ll have several options to choose from including gender, some aesthetic variations, and other modifications. We don’t have all of the details yet, but during the hands-off presentation, they decided to use a male character that looked similar to Warren in a lot of ways.

This time around in The Surge 2, combat looks sped up. What was a slow, measured combat system within the original game, looks more refined and a lot faster. Melee combat swings and hits are smoother, especially with the animations. This time the characters can sway from left to right without a moment of hesitation. Furthermore, there’s more of a spring in their step as they’re facing off against a foe. What’s interesting is not only faster combat, but the luxury of being able to void enemy attacks much quicker, like it was originally designed to do. Where combat is often compared to Dark Souls, this time around it’s much more improved and more closer to Bloodborne.

"One of the things the game will have you rely on is its crafting system. You can acquire parts and blue prints from destroying enemies and configuring the items you want. The items you can build are weapons, armor, and more."

According to the developer, players can expect a ton of weapons. And the weapon limit per character build has also been doubled in the sequel. What is immediately striking about the Surge 2 is its world, it’s simply mesmerizing. Within the E3 demo, we saw only a snippet of the game’s world which is full of lush forest, or a jungle of sorts. Compared to the mechanical feel of the original, The Surge 2 feels more colorful with foliage surrounding the player, and an environment which is full of flowers, leaves, and trees, and rocks.

The world is also interactive. You and your enemies can actually chop trees down and interactive with certain objects during the game. It just adds another touch of realism to an already spectacular looking world, not to mention it also makes the gameplay a bit dynamic. Also, the game world is much larger than in the previous ha,e. This isn’t an open world sandbox though, but it will be large enough to keep the battles more interesting this time around. It won’t feel as though you’re playing on a tight course avoiding the enemy’s hug.

One of the things the game will have you rely on is its crafting system. You can acquire parts and blue prints from destroying enemies and configuring the items you want. The items you can build are weapons, armor, and more. The armor has always been the main staple of the original game, and in The Surge 2 it doesn’t seem much different. Besides new sets and builds, the armor will be key to your survival and along with the custom mods that you decide to place on it.

"Overall, The Surge 2 is shaping up great. That does’t exactly mean that you’re going to get a totally brand new game this time around. Think Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2. I know it’s a weird comparison, but the games were very similar but still had those additives that made the second one worth playing."

If you’re looking for a challenging game, The Surge 2 is bound to do that for you. It is designed to have elements similar to Dark Souls, where you can have a hit-and-fall-back interaction with the game’s enemies. This game definitely isn’t showing any signs of easing up, either (especially with the mini boss in the demo).

Overall, The Surge 2 is shaping up great. That does’t exactly mean that you’re going to get a totally brand new game this time around. Think Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2. I know it’s a weird comparison, but the games were very similar but still had those additives that made the second one worth playing. The Surge 2 may possibly surprass the original in terms of gameplay and level design, however there is much to learn about it as we approach the game’s launch in 2019.

Deck 13’s The Surge was an interesting take on the Souls formula, one that found it’s share of supporters but had a ways to go. The developer has been taking feedback into account though – according to a demo that Just Press Start saw at E3 2018, The Surge 2 makes a number of changes.

Warren isn’t the protagonist in the sequel. Instead, players can create their own character, deciding on the gender, race and stuff like beards. Enemies consist of mercenaries possessing greater intelligence – they’ll throw down traps, set up ambushes and even use stealth armour. To further up the variety, there are now 10 weapon types, new armour and changes to drones.

One such weapon is a blade hammer that can also change into a dual wield weapon – heavy attacks use the blade hammer while quick attacks will turn utilize the dual wield form. Crafting armour is more or less the same as the first game – sever limbs to gain schematics and then find the right materials. Look for some of the first game’s armour to return.

Along with armour and weapon schematics, players can also find long range weaponry by killing enemies. These can be used on the drone, thus providing more flexibility when it comes to firepower. It should be noted that in terms of returning content, there will be a “tasteful” amount to look forward to.

The Surge 2’s development is still in the early stages. We’ll have to wait for more information on a proper release date but it will be heading to Xbox One, PS4 and PC in 2019. Check out gameplay footage below courtesy of IGN which depicts the combat and smarter enemies.

Deck13 continues to provide robust post-launch content for their near future dystopian Soulslike, The Surge with a new DLC pack very soon. The Cutting Edge Pack was revealed on the game’s Twitter page. This will grant players three brand new armour sets and weapons for  free.

Released in May 2017, The Surge brought a very unique take on the genre, with a dark near future controlled by technology and exosuits, and a high degree of customization in the gameplay, letting players freely swap builds. Gamingbolt’s review of the first expansion, A Walk In The Park, can be seen here.

The Tweet, which can be found below, teases that the free DLC includes “CREO’s finest technology”, and that the pack is completely free. You can see the original Tweet and some screenshots of the new content below the story. The Surge 2 has been announced for a 2019 release, and you can bet Gamingbolt will be on top of continued coverage of the game.

Discover CREO's finest technology in the Cutting Edge Pack, a free DLC for The Surge introducing three brand new sets of armor and weapons!

The Cutting Edge Pack releases April 17 on PS4, Xbox One and PC. pic.twitter.com/Q8Q7ao7Gmt

— The Surge (@TheSurgeGame) April 6, 2018

GamingBolt recently had a sit down with Deck 13 Interactive’s CEO Jan Klose for some more details on this ever intriguing game:

"We were really thinking to make it a little bit more fast-paced, and also to become more tactical. It will not turn into a slasher or something, but you will need to be way more precise."

What is the story behind The Surge and what inspired it?

It’s inspired by today’s world and today’s trends. What’s going to happen in the future. We think not so cool things might happen. For the future we do not pay attention. The Surge is what happens if we don’t pay attention. So the backstory is that you an average guy trying to get a job in a world where it’s not so easy anymore to get a job at all. And he’s working for a company designated to repair the atmosphere of the world with huge fundings. At the beginning he’s getting the super cool expo rig that will help him do heavy duty work. But when he’s getting it fitted he’s blacking out, he doesn’t know what’s going on. Then everything seems to have changed. He’s outside and the company junkyard is attacked by robots, and by people who might have been his former co-workers – he doesn’t know it. Not the best first working day for sure.

Why move to a new property in The Surge rather than pursuing a sequel to Lords of the Fallen?

We were talking with the publisher about a sequel to Lords of the Fallen, but we were not immediately on the same page as we wanted to do. At the same time Focus [Home Interactive] came along and we were talking with them and being able to do this great opportunity with a new brand where we can go very, very free with our ideas. We said, “okay, this sounds really, really good and we can be very creative.” And we really appreciate it.

The Surge is looking to be more fast paced than Lords of the Fallen with its combat. How does this flow affect battles, especially compared to Dark Souls?

We were really thinking to make it a little bit more fast-paced, and also to become more tactical. It will not turn into a slasher or something, but you will need to be way more precise. It adds to the difficulty of the game, because at the same time we have the new system where you can target individual body parts in real time with your analog stick, which gives you a lot of more fighting options there. So it’s more faster, it’s more versatile, and it’s something different.

Will combat in The Surge be as punishing as Dark Souls or will there be varying difficulties of sorts to appeal to a wider variety of players?

We don’t really want to appeal to a certain type of player. We just want to make a really cool and really tough game. So we will not make anything easier or harder, but we want to make it richer. So if you’re really good player there will be more in for you, there will be more ways to figure out to me, more cool loot that you get, more rewards. If you’re not such a good player you’ll need to train a lot.

What kinds of upgrades can players pursue for different combat styles?

Of course there are weapon upgrades, there are a lot of different weapons in the game; ranging from makeshift weapons, to stuff in the factory that you kind of repurpose for fighting. Also security and military weapons that you have in the game. And also the gear you can upgrade your individual armor pieces, you can mix-and-match whatever you like.

And the other thing is that you have what we call implants, which adds a little bit the traditional attributes into game such as skills. You can pick them up, you can also craft them, you can get them from enemies, or loot; and they can really change your perception, they can change your stats and everything. They can even give you health information for your enemies.

"Well the crafting system is really at the core of the whole thing because there are no shops or stuff where you can just buy stuff. You need to craft everything that you want to use on the game."

What are some of the futuristic weapons that players can use in The Surge? Are there a variety of projectile weapons that can be utilized?

It’s not so much about ranged combat, there is stuff that you can use that’s also very exciting. But it’s mostly focused on close combat where you have a lot of different stuff so it can be military weapons, it can be electrical shock weapons, it can be anti-hazard/bio weapons and so on. There’s also some other very nice and very cool stuff that you can use.

The Surge is said to support limb targeting in combat. How does this further increase the tactical options for players?

You can go for a weak undefended parts to have an easier fight with the enemy, but that you don’t get any cool loot. If you target a very well protected part, it’s harder to fight but you get cool loot.

How will the crafting system encourage players to further experiment with different upgrades and abilities?

Well the crafting system is really at the core of the whole thing because there are no shops or stuff where you can just buy stuff. You need to craft everything that you want to use on the game. And so the crafting system will really be at the core of things. You’ll look for the parts and items that you need to craft something. Crafting is all focused around a crafting station, which is more or less like a super modern 3-D printer that will get the stuff that you use.

What kinds of worlds will players explore in their journey throughout The Surge?

They will see a lot of this huge, huge factory complex. But they will be out outside like we saw in this demo; they’ll be inside; they’ll be high up in the sky; they’ll be deep underground; so there’s a lot of variety not only in terms of vistas but also the level set up: is it more horizontal? Is it more vertical? Is it more like small? Is it more big? There’s a lot of different levels in there.

"So we are in pre-Alpha right now and we’re going to release in 2017, and we’ve got it all laid out, we know what we want to do, we need to finish this, and we hope we’re good at it to be there on time."

When can we expect The Surge to release? How far off is it with regards to development time?

So we are in pre-Alpha right now and we’re going to release in 2017, and we’ve got it all laid out, we know what we want to do, we need to finish this, and we hope we’re good at it to be there on time.

Okay this is a big one. I am kind of confident that the game will run at 1080p on the PS4. But what about the Xbox One? Can Xbox One players expect native 1080p resolution?

We try to get as high as possible, and were using the same engine that we were using for Lords of the Fallen. So we have a lot of time to approve it, to optimize it. So hopefully we get a really, really good performance. Whether we can hit 1080p we cannot say yet because this will be more in the polishing state of the game.

There has been a lot of talk regarding Xbox One’s eSRAM as the major culprit behind the lack of 1080p resolution. Do you think things are stable and developers have been able to overcome it now?

I think it really depends on the way you put the assets in your game. More than really the fine-tuning on the tech side. So if you need a lot of frames, yeah, you need to be pretty tricky. We hope we are.

The most recent Xbox One and PS4 SDK update allowed developers to use extra CPU processing power. How has that impacted performance?

I think we try to have a very high frame rate because this game is so much about timing, so this is our first and foremost focus. But on the other hand we also really want to have really cool visuals.. We have our own particle system and there we can really benefit from all the processing power we get. We are a bit scalable.

Microsoft has confirmed that Xbox One Scorpio will launch next year. From a developer and a technical perspective what kind of gaming experiences will be possible with that hardware?

Well you could just wrap things up if you’d like, and you can go in different directions: you can go for frame rate, you can go for resolution, or you can go for content. We don’t want to do two versions of the game for different consoles so we’re not likely going for content. We don’t know yet.

The Scorpio will feature 6 TFLOPs of GPU. Do you think it will be faster than most modern gaming PCs out there?

I’m not so much the expert there, but I think teraflops are most likely superseded by high-speed PCs. And if not today then tomorrow. They are very fast.

Microsoft is touting the Scorpio as the most powerful console every created. Do you think there is a worry that it may cost too much and may appeal only to the hardcore Xbox fans?

I think every new console generation where the greatest and fastest consoles ever created, they all drop down to a reasonable price. So I hope the same will happen here.

So any interest in launching The Surge on the Scorpio next year?

For Scorpio we don’t know yet, we have to see. The announcement is pretty new.

With the Xbox One Scorpio due out next year, it is an exciting time to be following the console gaming market, no matter which side of the divide you fall on- whether you’re a customer or a developer o video games, the Scorpio is something that you want to keep your eyes on.

We do know how customers are responding to the hardware, and there seems to be some general excitement in the air about Microsoft’s purported ‘beast,’ the most powerful gaming console ever made- but how are developers, especially some of the smaller ones who now have an additional SKU for their game to potentially consider, taking the news?

GamingBolt recently had a sit down with Deck 13 Interactive’s CEO Jan Klose, and we decided to spring some questions on the Scorpio, and its potential implications for the larger console gaming market, as well as for developers specifically.

“Well you could just wrap things up if you’d like, and you can go in different directions: you can go for frame rate, you can go for resolution, or you can go for content,” Klose said, discussing what developers could do with the Scorpio’s hardware. “We don’t want to do two versions of the game for different consoles so we’re not likely going for content. We don’t know yet.”

All this said, he did note that he does not expect the Scorpio to outpace gaming PCs at all- which is a sentiment that most developers seem to agree on- the most powerful gaming console is just that, the most powerful gaming console. It still cannot match up to the best gaming PCs.

“I’m not so much the expert there, but I think teraflops are most likely superseded by high-speed PCs,” he said. “And if not today, then tomorrow. They are very fast.”

He also noted that he is not too worried about how much the Scorpio may cost, as the price on it is bound to come down eventually. “I think every new console generation where the greatest and fastest consoles ever created, they all drop down to a reasonable price. So I hope the same will happen here.”

As for launching The Surge on Scorpio? He wasn’t too keen on the idea, not for now, in any case. “For Scorpio, we don’t know yet, we have to see. The announcement is pretty new.”

Which is a pretty fair and reasonable position to take- after all, for smaller developers, avoiding the extra work load the Scorpio poses may yet be the best thing they can do. The Xbox One Scorpio is due for a launch in Holiday 2017.

• 1. Development
• 2. Story
• 3. Gameplay

Development

Deck 13 is a medium-sized German developer, operating from Frankfurt. Deck 13 started out developing adventure games for PC. The point-and-click title Ankh, itself a remake of 1997 adventure game Ankh: The Tales of Mystery. Ankh is notable for being the earliest game to make use of the OGRE engine. After the success of Ankh, its sequels, and a spin-off, Jack Keane, set in India, Deck 13 released their first RPG, Venetica, in 2009. Venetica arrived on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 to mixed reviews.

The Surge was announced in August 2015. The game was in the initial stages of development at the point, and as such, the announcement was only accompanied by concept art. German site PCGamesHardware showcased the gameplay footage for The Surge in March 2016. The early gameplay footage focused on The Surge’s melee combat. One notable difference is the inclusion of slow-motion combat finishers. It is not known as of now whether the finishers merely add flair to the action or play a more significant role in the combat system. The Surge will be running on Deck 13’s own Fledge engine and will likely feature close integration of Nvidia Gameworks so dynamic cloth and particle effects, and Gameworks integration will likely carry over to The Surge.

Story

The Surge is set in dystopic vision of the future, sixty to seventy years from the present, in the aftermath of a technology-based catastrophe. Deck 13’s Jan Klose stated that The Surge’s setting was in large part inspired by contemporary sociopolitical and environmental issues. Deck 13 researched current developments in AI and cybernetics in order to flesh out the game’s future tech concepts. The Surge’s world is populated by both human survivors, sentient non-humans, and robots. Advanced pre-catastrophe technology plays a key role, both in the narrative and as a gameplay element. The game’s protagonist is not a soldier, but wears an exoskeleton and has access to bio-mechanical upgrades which also feature prominently in the game’s crafting and upgrade systems.

Gameplay

Deck 13 claim that they want to bring something new to the action-RPG genre with The Surge, adding to the Dark Souls formula, not merely copying from it. The Surge’s combat is set to be faster-paced than Dark Souls. A tactical dismemberment system evocative of Dead Space is one of The Surge’s gameplay highlights. Many in-game enemies are robots, which will have to be dismantled through targeted limb-by-limb dismemberment. Interestingly, The Surge’s dismemberment mechanic appears to tie in with its crafting and upgrade system. Players can obtain equipment and crafting components by cutting these off enemies. The Surge eschews a conventional RPG progression system and instead ties crafting, looting, and leveling up together. The player character’s exoskeleton has a power level which scales in the same way as conventional RPG leveling up. However, the player character can collect and equip implants at will—these are obtained from the environment and offer powerful stat boosts as well as abilities.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game

Deck 13’s The Surge will be continuing from where the studio’s earlier effort Lords of the Fallen began. No, that doesn’t mean it’s a sequel but it signifies yet another action title with Dark Souls-inspired combat. New screenshots for the game showcase the kinds of enemies you’ll be dealing with.

The Surge takes place in a more futuristic society and differs significantly from the Souls series with its limb targeting. You can effectively cut off enemy limbs and use these as materials for upgrading your exo-suit. One could also simply defeat enemies and gather upgrades for their character. The combat will apparently be fast-paced and brutal with a good amount of tactics thrown in.

Scheduled for release in 2017 for PS4, Xbox One and PC, The Surge will likely receive more information at E3 2016. What are your thoughts on it so far at this stage in development? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned for more information.