"While the Wild West aesthetic pitted against the cyberpunk setting of the game is a rather fresh take, the few ideas that are added to the game due to that don’t do nearly enough to stretch out for the 9 separate challenge episodes the expansion asks of you."

But The Surge is also receiving this expansion over 18 months after launch, and after the announcement of a full sequel which will hopefully help to iron off some of the rougher edges of the first game. Not to mention that the game never really set the world on fire to begin with, what place is there for The Good, The Bad And The Augmented? Well, not a lot.

Ahead of the announced sequel, The Good, The Bad and The Augmented unfortunately doesn’t follow suit with selling itself as a distinct thing from the Souls series, at least not well. It certainly breaks from the highly established progression formula where you fight your way around an interconnected world and open shortcuts, helping you gain more and more ground as you develop both your equipment and yourself as a player. Instead, the new expansion takes a drastic right turn into a series of trials, pitting players against a variety of combat situations on designed maps, with specific goals to change up how you need to approach the brawl for the most rewards. 

While the Wild West aesthetic pitted against the cyberpunk setting of the game is a rather fresh take, the few ideas that are added to the game due to that don’t do nearly enough to stretch out for the 9 separate challenge episodes the expansion asks of you, or even begin to combine them in ways nearly as interesting as they probably could. You’re not having to change your play style that much to account for the heat of the sun beating down on you and slowly draining your resources. You won’t find yourself needing to learn drastically different enemies or be fast on your toes around networks of runaway mine carts. You’ll exhaust the new ideas that the expansion brings within a few missions, and it never gets better.

"Narratively, there is very little tied into the rest of the game or world to be found in The Good, The Bad and The Augmented. "

The expansion of course, just like A Walk In The Park, also introduces a bevy of new weapon and armour sets to gun for, though aside from fun cosmetic differences that somewhat clash with other areas of the game, like putting a Mexican wrestler mask on before heading back to the main game to see what a Guacamelee crossover would look like, the equipment doesn’t justify itself much through power or function over items obtainable before the content launched. Items which were likely levelled up far beyond any of the new pickups well before the DLC ever launched in the first place. 

Narratively, there is very little tied into the rest of the game or world to be found in The Good, The Bad and The Augmented. The Supervisor, the mysterious figure who created the trials you undergo, simply challenges the player to see if they can “modify the west”, with little relation to CREO or the player character’s journey. To cap off each of the nine episodes, which are typically closed off within 30 minutes, the player will fight against a “Challenger”, which are all unfortunately, relatively normal looking. The rest of the expansion clearly isn’t taking the lore of the game seriously, very much to the game’s credit. So why not go big and extravagant with the bosses in ways that other action RPGs do? It’s a missed opportunity in an expansion almost completely focused on the combat.

Though the bosses are nothing special to begin with, if you don’t quite have a handle on the controls after a while away from the game, then Lucky Coins, found in areas ahead of that final showdown, can offer an extra shot against the big bad of the area. It’s a surface level change all told, and doesn’t really add the kind of risk and reward element the team was going for. Unfortunately, the general theme of the entire expansion comes out to be “Well, it exists”. There simply isn’t a lot going on. 

"With a sequel just around the corner, The Good, The Bad and The Augmented is a bit tricky to recommend to all but the most dedicated to The Surge. "

What helps stretch the game out a lot further beyond what would otherwise be a 5 and a half hour run time is the modifiers that you can take on once you clear an episode for the first time, which multiply your gains for every one you equip. Sure, you did it once, but can you do it again with no sound, a film grain and that old spaghetti western piano plunking as your only backdrop? What about if your enemies explode should you not properly dismember them like a Dead Space Necromorph? Weapon roulette needing you to be proficient with every kind of instrument? It’s an additional layer of challenge and distraction that can help prop up repeated playthroughs of a challenge, but otherwise isn’t bringing in anything major.

The unfortunate thing is that while this mechanic does help smooth over the short runtime by some margin, the fact remains that you’re still replaying the same content again, for rewards that don’t mean much and an unconnected piece of story that doesn’t tie back into the base game. Natch.

With a sequel just around the corner, The Good, The Bad and The Augmented is a bit tricky to recommend to all but the most dedicated to The Surge. But while the aesthetic is interesting and the challenge modifiers you can play with after the first mission are fun, there’s not a whole lot else to be found in the expansion outside of strangely missed opportunities. You could have capped off these crazy challenge gauntlets with the giant spider from that Will Smith movie, Deck13, but you didn’t. You didn’t. 

This game was reviewed on the PC.

Deck13’s sci-fi Souls-like The Surge has recently received new downloadable content with The Good, The Bad and The Augmented. The DLC sees players traveling to an abandoned Quality Assurance lab deep within CREO. They face off against Dr. Rischboter, who’s created dangerous test chambers teeming with twisted foes themed on the Wild West. Check out the trailer below.

Along with new stages, new Challengers await at the end of each to test your limits. They’ll drop 30 new pieces of equipment, ranging from armour and weapons to implants, which can be ripped off for your own arsenal. If you want even tougher challenges, then use up to four of 16 different modifiers to alter the experience and garner some more rewards.

The Surge: The Good, The Bad and The Augmented is now available for PC, Xbox One, and PS4. If you’ve never played the base game, then The Surge: Augmented Edition will be available on October 16th. This comes with the base game, A Walk in the Park, and The Good, The Bad and The Augmented in one package.

The Good, the Bad, and the Augmented expansion for The Surge was announced just a couple of weeks ago, a major new content drop that will allow players to explore a Wild West themed setting. Some brand new screenshots of this expansion have now been released, which showcase exactly what the world and characters are going to look like.

Unlike the base game, it looks like this expansion will take place in various stages. In this expansion, you will have to fight your way through the testing chambers of Dr. Rischboter. There  will be lots of challenges and modifiers available that will allow you to experience this content in different ways. There will also be 30 new unique pieces of equipment to find.

The new screenshots showcases the protagonist in his Western outfit, some enemies, scenes of battle, and a ghost train. You can check out all of them below. The Good, The Bad, and The Augmented is set to release on October 2.

Deck13’s sci-fi Souls-like The Surge is receiving a new expansion on October 2nd. Wait, The Surge? Not it’s sequel? Yes, the first game. Check out The Good, the Bad, and the Augmented in the new teaser trailer below. Try your hardest to decipher what’s going on.

Lest you think The Surge suddenly hopped back in time, The Good, the Bad, and the Augmented actually takes players to an abandoned Quality Assurance Lab in CREO. Players will battle their way through one Dr. Rischboter’s chambers, which recreate the Wild West.

Along with these different test chambers, players can apply four of 16 modifiers to increase their rewards. Different Challengers will emerge from the woodwork as well and utilize 30 new items, from armour to weapons and implants. Naturally, you can claim these for yourself.

If you haven’t hopped into The Surge and want to try out The Good, the Bad, and the Augmented, there’s the recently announced Augmented Edition for you to consider. This includes the base game and all DLC. Of course, The Surge 2 is also in development and will be coming next year.