Trepang2 Looks Like a Stylish Throwback to Max Payne

The first-person shooter genre has continued to enjoy mainstream popularity ever since classic shooters burst onto the seams back in the 90s. What was once a genre mostly limited to running and gunning through hordes of aliens and demons has now branched out into a much bigger umbrella complete with new and interesting releases that have constantly pushed the boundaries of the genre from its humble beginning.

That being said, most modern FPS games tend to follow the rather rigid blueprint laid by modern shooters and other titles that do something interesting or fresh in terms of mechanics are a rare sight to behold especially in the AAA market. That said, the indie scene fares much better in this regard, with plenty of emerging AA and indie developers doing a great job of providing unique experiences like so many modern shooters and this feature series is dedicated to highlighting such promising games.

Trepang Studios’ upcoming Trepang2 is one such game that we will be looking at today. Trepang2 is shaping up to be one of the most brutal looking FPS games of recent memory, and the game features some interesting gameplay mechanics and design choices borrowed from popular PS2 era shooters with some of its own tricks that should hopefully result in an experience that’s equal parts fresh and nostalgic for long time fans of the genre.

The game puts you in the shoes of a soldier who wakes up in a jail cell with no memory of his past life. And being the hot headed berserk that you are, you immediately take up arms and set out on a quest to exact revenge from who captured you in the first place and hopefully regain your memories in the process. As you can imagine, it’s an incredibly straightforward narrative setup with minimal characters and exposition – so it’s obviously best not to expect a deeply engrossing story with Trepang2.

But that’s not something that should be taken as an objective criticism of the game. Of course, it would be a pleasant surprise if Trepang Studios ends up telling a compelling story with Trepang2 – but when the core gameplay is what’s driving the experience, it’s best to polish those mechanics to an immaculate sheen and keep distractions to a minimum.

And when it comes to the core gameplay, Trepang Studios seems to have brought their A game to the field. As mentioned previously as well, the action here looks extremely brutal in all the right ways. The weapons feature sounds that are appropriately punchy and intense, and firing each shot also results in realistic amounts of recoil as the weapon flails around the screen to depict the force of each shot. The developer has done a great job in terms of nailing the game feel here – which deserves praise because most AA and indie games tend to lack behind in this particular aspect.

Players also get a couple of supernatural abilities to use during combat encounters. Firstly, you have the ability to slow down time which enables you to fire off a buffet of shots in rapid succession to clear out entire groups of enemies in the blink of an eye. It looks absolutely slick in action, and has a ton of utility as well. Furthermore, you can also use a cloaking ability which turns you invisible for a short amount of time – which can be really useful for flanking the enemy between firefights. While such supernatural abilities aren’t something entirely new for first person shooters (it’s a clear throwback to Max Payne), it has been some time since we have seen them implemented in such an effortless fashion.

Thankfully though, the fun doesn’t just stop there. You can also grab an enemy from up close and use them as a human shield to block out incoming fire before hurling that dead body into another enemy and knocking them out in an instant. Furthermore, you can also cause enemies to slip by sliding towards them and toppling them over for a tactical advantage. All in all, the combat loop looks to be supremely fun and the developer has done a great job of stitching these abilities together in a way that results in a cohesive experience.

Trepang2 might be a shooter at its core, but the comprehensive suite of abilities at your disposal certainly makes it feel like a modern character action game where the focus is less on defeating your enemies and more on doing it in absolute style. Just take a look at the gameplay trailers and observe how the action feels like a meticulous ballet of last minute swerves and thoughtful use of the player’s supernatural abilities – and you’d get a sense of what we’re trying to say here.

But endlessly mowing through waves of enemies is sure to get monotonous after a while, regardless of how fun the actual combat system might be. Thankfully, Trepang2 is also set to feature stealth sections where players will have to remain hidden from their enemies and make their way through dark corridors and crawl through claustrophobic air vents – which should hopefully help in creating some variety in the gameplay. That said, the stealth gameplay also seems to be fleshed out with proper vision cones on enemies and what looks to be adequately functional light and dark mechanics. As such, you can use the element of surprise to your advantage and ambush your enemies from the dark.

But for all the merits that we previously discussed, Trepang2 also seems to be suffering from some important issues that are worth noting. The enemy AI seems pretty basic at this point, which will probably make it really easy to clear out entire rooms of opposition without much hassle. While this could be a direct result of trying to give the player a sense of a power fantasy, it could easily backfire and make the game’s encounters mundane after a while.

Furthermore, the environment design seems to lack in terms of visual variety. It looks great from a graphics standpoint, but as you can already see in the gameplay trailers – each room looks almost identical from the last. Combine that with the maze like levels and seemingly no objective markers to boot, Trepang2 could end up being a frustrating experience if players don’t enjoy traversing through these labyrinthian environments.

As one can already gauge by playing the free demo on Steam, Trepang2 is a game that doesn’t take much time to really get going – but what remains to be seen is how the developer will morph that instantly gratifying experience into something that’s consistently enjoyable right through to the end. Will players get more powers as they progress? Or will there be boss fights that require smart usage of your supernatural abilities? Or will the game have set-piece driven sequences?

Of course, we’ll finally get to know what’s in store when the game releases in June 2023 for PC – but these are the biggest questions that will ultimately decide how the final release ends up faring in the eyes of both critics and fans alike. That said, there’s little to detract from the fact that Trepang2 looks like an incredibly stylish throwback to shooters like Max Payne. A well realized combat loop and the apt portrayal of brutal firefights is what really makes this game well worth keeping on your radar. We have some really high hopes from Trepang2, and hopefully it will stand true on all of its promises.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.