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The Surge 2

Arnust

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http://thesurge-game.com




https://af.gog.com/game/the_surge_2?as=1649904300

Nuq5d81.png

https://forums.focus-home.com/topic/4954/announcing-the-surge-2


We're excited to announce the development of The Surge 2!

After the success of The Surge, our hardcore Action RPG released in May 2017 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC, we are happy to announce the renewal of the partnership between Deck13 and Focus Home Interactive and the development of The Surge 2, with a release date planned for 2019 on consoles and PC.

The Surge 2 keeps what fans and critics loved about the original – hardcore combat utilizing a unique, dynamic limb targeting system and deep character progression – while also expanding greatly upon the formula.

The Surge 2 takes place in a brand new environment: a sprawling, devastated city with larger and more ambitious level design, made possible by Deck13’s upgraded and improved engine.

Combat is more brutal and tactical than ever, with even more options thanks to an expanded limb targeting system. In addition, more abilities, weapons, implants, and drones give players a vast arsenal to build their character with, in their fight against the array of diverse new enemies and bosses.

More information about The Surge 2 will be unveiled at Le What’s Next de Focus – February 7-8, the yearly press event organized by the French publisher in Paris. Deck13 will talk more about their new title to the international press, so stay tuned.

The Surge 2 will release on consoles and PC in 2019.
Cor. We shall see if they keep the incline.
 
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frajaq

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Huh, found the first one to be kinda mediocre, but I guess it sold well enough to warrant a sequel
 

Arnust

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I do wonder what is going behind the hood, it didn't sell that remarkably (LOTF sold waaay better) and critic average reception didn't really go over 75 with most gamers being pretty "meh" about it, but we still have this. A Noclip documentary or something like it about the devs and/or the games would be definitively interesting.
 

LESS T_T

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Codex 2014
I guess one of the LotF's selling points was that it was one of the few big-ish action games on then new consoles. I didn't play the game so I'm just saying this based on the context, but I doubt it would be a similar success if it was out around the same time with The Surge.
 

Arnust

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I guess one of the LotF's selling points was that it was one of the few big-ish action games on then new consoles. I didn't play the game so I'm just saying this based on the context, but I doubt it would be a similar success if it was out around the same time with The Surge.
A big thing it had going for it was basically being the first Pepsi of the Dark Souls' Cola, added to be sandwitched in the wait for DS3 parallel to DS2's release. Surge has been way more low key indeed.
 

PrettyDeadman

Guest
I guess one of the LotF's selling points was that it was one of the few big-ish action games on then new consoles. I didn't play the game so I'm just saying this based on the context, but I doubt it would be a similar success if it was out around the same time with The Surge.
Surge has ~100 000 owners on steam, while LOTF has ~700 000 owners on steam.
Maybe Surge suffered from people losing cofidence after LOTF? I don' think LOTF is terrible, but Surge is simply a better game.
I am glad it's going to get a sequel.
 

Arnust

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The Surge 2: release date, bosses, implants, weapons, combat - everything we know
By
Julian Benson

the%20surge%202%20release%20date%20trailer%20implants%20boss%20guide.png


In a move that should not surprise fans of the original game, Deck 13 have announced that they are working on The Surge 2. While the team are not ready to show off the game in action they were willing to tell us all about what they are bringing to the sequel.

The Surge 2 sees you return to the dystopian future of an Earth going through ecological collapse. Once again, you will slip into an exosuit and carve your way through crowds of rage-filled survivors. As in the first game, should any of those survivors be carrying a weapon that catches your fancy then you can cut off the limb and fit it to your own suit.

The Surge 2 release date is still unannounced but we’ll see the game soon
While Deck13 aren’t talking about The Surge 2’s release date just yet, Hetenyi did say that the team will “be at the major game shows this year, E3, Gamescom, all that stuff and we'll have some pretty cool things to show.”


The Surge 2 setting is a city tearing itself apart
The Surge takes place in a world in the middle of an ecological collapse. Rivers are drying out, pollution is killing off wildlife, and humanity is concentrated in cities that are scrabbling for the resources to survive. The corporation you worked for in the first game, CREO, were trying to restore the planet by firing rockets full of nanobots into the atmosphere. Spoilers: it didn’t work. Worse still, the nanobots drove most the world’s mechanically-enhanced humans on a rampage.

All the action of the first game was contained in a CREO-owned industrial complex. But the sequel moves the action over to a city that is dealing with the crisis brought on by the nanobots. Everyone is trying to kill each other.

“Once again, this is a story about survival but this time we're not in the aftermath finding out what happened, we're right in the middle of events trying to survive,” Deck13’s managing director Jan Klose tells us. “The play area is much more alive.”

Using newly-developed technology and the new setting, Deck13 are making a layered environment. “The levels are built in [a] very different way with many more layers and many more connections,” Klose says. “The whole setup is very different. To the extent that we had to redesign our engine a bit.”

A problem with designing levels in The Surge was “there were bits where you didn't really know what your mission was,” according to Klose, so you would just wander forwards until you came across an objective. The team want to fix that in the sequel. You should always have a clear idea of what your mission is and where you need to travel to in the city to complete it, but the team also want you to find distractions along the way - “So you might go off the beaten path and find more things that you're not really meant to do now but you want to take them on anyway.”

The Surge 2 enemies now hunt in packs
the%20surge%202%20enemies.png


An aspect of the original game that the team plan on expanding in The Surge 2 is enemy behaviour. “Enemies will have advanced AI,” chief designer Adam Hetenyi says. “They're able to adapt better to what you're doing, behave more interestingly in groups, not to the point that they're reading your mind but the idea that there are more layers of behaviour for you to learn and master and anticipate.”

An enemy type you will find in the new city environment are survivors who don’t have exo-suits. They have not been affected by the nanobots but “they want to take your stuff, they're envious but they're individually less strong than you are so they have to behave in a way that still makes them challenging,” Hetenyi explains. “They can group together and set up ambushes. Or, if the group starts to decay, then they'll attempt to find another group and come back with them.” It is this push and pull of enemies reacting to you that we will see a lot more of in The Surge 2.

The AI will take advantage of the newly-layered playspace, too. “They can do really interesting things in terms of changing height levels to avoid and ambush you,” Hetenyi says. “It's not just them spawning behind a corner to jump out at you, they're reacting to your movement through the world.”

Larger enemies, too, will behave differently. “Robot enemies aren't just going to fall over dead when you chop something off them, they're going to change their behaviour,” Hetenyi says. “Remove a cannon from their body, they won't use the cannon anymore [but they’re still a threat]. Maybe you smash some armour plating and expose a weak point on them but [respond by going] berserk.”

Hetenyi explains this is all “part of a new sort of ceiling to mastery.” You don’t have to learn enemy behaviour to get through The Surge 2, but it will allow you to better predict how an enemy will attack if you do.

“You can engage with it as much or as little as you want to,” Hetenyi says.

The Surge 2 combat is expanding with new moves to master
the%20surge%20combat.png


Deck13 are giving you a string of new moves that have a big pay-off when executed well but, if not, can leave you in the dust.

An example of this that Hetenyi gives is a hard parry: “If you're in heavy gear then you can hard parry an enemy’s directional attack, pushing an attack away and cracking open their defences.” You could have simply dodged the attack but by staying in danger to parry the attack you’re rewarded with an opportunity to hit the enemy in the gizzards.

The team want to reward that kind of risk taking because it gives you a reason to master the movements of their enemies.

The Surge 2 drone system is being rebuilt
While largely a solo experience, you have one friend in The Surge and its sequel - a loyal drone that follows you around and jabs your enemies when they’re not looking.

Deck13 found that people didn’t use it all that much in the first game - “or they only used one or two modules, like the shock module, not a lot else,” Hetenyi says. In The Surge 2 the team are giving the drone “a more central role.”

In the same way you can cut off melee weapons from enemies for your own use, in The Surge 2 you can now cut off ranged weapons and fit them to your drone. Hetenyi says this can lead to “interesting combat manoeuvres.” You can, for instance, use the drone to bridge your combos between enemies or disrupt one enemy while you are trying to focus on another. Or, for cowards like me, if you are facing a heavily guarded enemy you can send it to shoot them in the back, breaking their defence.

The Surge 2 gear is equal parts homemade and top of the line military gear
the%20surge%202%20gear.png


Most of the armour and weaponry you amassed in The Surge was repurposed industrial equipment. You weren’t playing in a war, after all, but picking your way through a series of factories and labs.

Deck13 are taking the opportunity that comes with moving the action to the city to widen what is available to you. There will still be some industrial equipment, but you will also find “garage-built, welded together stuff people are using to survive in this hazardous, radioactive environment,” Hetenyi says. At the other end of the spectrum, the team are stuffing the game with high-tech, military-grade weaponry, too.

“We wanted upgraded gear to not just be 'Oh your DPS goes up' but actually add effects to different combat moves,” Hetenyi says.

All these additions - drone abilities, combat moves, and gear grades - are intended to give you enough customisation options to define your character.

“I didn't even mention implants,” Hetenyi says. “There are lots and lots of implants that you can rebuild and find combinations of to emphasise certain behaviour or shore up certain weaknesses. We want people to experiment with this stuff and find what works for them.”

The Surge 2 character creator
Unlike the first game, in which you played a particular character called Warren, in The Surge 2 you will be allowed to design your on-screen persona with a character creator. Not only will it allow you to pick your gender and appearance, you will also be able decide which kind of playstyle you would like to start the game kitted out for.

“Do you want to play more stealthy, sneaky for the first parts of the game?,” Klose asks. “Or do you want to go more tanky, bulky? You're not bound to that but you can start the game with the playstyle you like most when you play such games. Then you can mix and match all that stuff with things you find later.”

The Surge 2 difficulty
Part of the reason you are free to pick your starting gear is because The Surge 2’s difficulty is much more flexible than the first game’s. Not in that you set a difficulty level, but in how you decide to approach challenges.

“We had people who played the first game that really liked the difficulty curve,” Klose says, “but other players said 'I started the game, I liked it, and then came this boss and I felt I was running against a wall’.” At which point those players put the game down and walked away.

The idea for The Surge 2 is about “giving you options,” Klose continues. “When you approach an enemy that appears too hard for you, you can go somewhere else or find other stuff, take on other missions, expand your skills in some ways and come back when you're stronger.”

Klose even suggests simply grinding an area until you find better gear. “That's the idea behind everything we're doing,” Klose says. “We think it makes the game much richer than the first one.”

The Surge 2 bosses are going to be tough but not "cheap"
the%20surge%202%20boss%20battles.png


A particular part of The Surge’s difficulty was the game’s bosses and they, too, are being revised in the sequel.

The first major boss of the first game - a military robot called P.A.X. - was a significant challenge to new players. Not only was it heavily armed and armoured, to defeat it you had to discover how to make it injure itself with a rocket strike.

Hetenyi admits this is something the team is addressing in the sequel: “These sorts of things are really cool as elements of a boss fight but when it's the central element it becomes way too much. You either did the thing or you didn't do the thing, which means you either killed the boss or you failed. This is something we're trying to smooth out.”

Boss fights will still have those unique mechanics, Hetenyi says, but they “won’t feel cheap.”

Do not go away thinking that this means there won’t be as many bosses in The Surge 2. In fact, “we're going to have more boss encounters,” Hetenyi says. “We're going to have more boss encounters that are varying sizes and levels of complexity. It's not like you're clearing area, clearing area, clearing area, BOSS. We want different levels of difficulty and challenge, bosses you can skip all together. Every level will have a big awesome end of level boss that will demand the most from you but these interstitial encounters let the player learn what is expected from them in the game.

“It's not just that brick wall sort of feeling that generates bad emotions, even if you do feel relief when you win. Being happy you're done is not the same as pride in defeating something.”

RIP Warren prefab, long live purple dwarves.
 

Arnust

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I do find interesting how relatively extensive the feature list is considering it's a whole year off. That's not something too common.
 

Wunderbar

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Arnust

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The last update on it was way more extensive, here's hoping for at least a damn trailer.
Another article: http://cogconnected.com/preview/the-surge-2-e3-2018/
The Surge 2 E3 Preview
We had a chance to see Focus Home Interactive’s The Surge 2 in all its glory at E3 2018 that showed off numerous improvements, as well as changes from the original game. It was shortly after The Surge that The Surge 2 started being developed, moving towards a more punishing combat experience and immersive world.

The Surge 2 is set in Jericho City this time around that allows players to create their very own character instead of playing as Warren all in his lonesome. Gender, skin tone, and various other features are customizable to further create an immersive experience. Weapon classes have been doubled from five to ten, allowing you to approach the game with different weapons each with their very own strengths and weaknesses. In addition, schematics can be learned and various weapons can be obtained depending on the enemy you defeat.

The-Surge-2-Top-min-700x394.jpg


Combat largely stays the same mirroring the combat system present in the Souls franchise. However, The Surge 2 aims to further enhance the difficulty from its predecessor by making combat much more punishable. With various enemy types, environmental hazards, and tactical approaches to combat, it keeps the game dynamic by keeping you on your toes at all times. And, of course, the body parts system returns that focuses on both the enemies, as well as players. They feed into a sort of feedback and dependent system of one another which creates a unique aspect for the game.

More specifically, the focus on advanced AI is a major highlight in the game. The AI will vary in their approaches in annihilating players as locking-on to them affects their movement and battle tactics. For example, when two enemies team up in a battle against players, they will cooperatively work together instead of rehashing the same battle tactics and animations. One will most likely poke at you with a ranged weapon, while the other one will come at full force with melee combat – dynamically adapting to the situation in consideration to how you choose to fight them.

TheSurgeIns1-min-700x394.jpg


Visually, The Surge 2 plays out extremely smoothly with the immense amount of detail in the environment and your very own character. Jericho City creates an interesting setting that’s filled with greenery, but also eerie creatures and ruthless individuals that roam it. Overall, The Surge 2 looks to be a solid, immersive, and brutal adventure that contains massive improvements from the first game. It’s set for a 2019 release on the PS4, Xbox One, and PC that’ll surely have something in store for those who crave a sci-fi souls-like game.

the-surge-2-2.jpg

The Surge 2 Will Have Online Features That Let You “Influence Other Player’s Experiences”
By
Hayes Madsen

  • The Surge 2, the sequel to the Dark-Souls inspired sci-fi RPG, will have some kind of online features, but no co-op or multiplayer is currently planned for the game. Twinfinite recently had a behind-closed-doors demo on the game, as well as an interview with Deck13, who confirmed the news.
According to Jan Klose, the creative director for The Surge 2 at Deck13, the game will have online features that let you influence other players games. During our interview, Klose told us “We really do love multiplayer gaming, and right now we have planned lots of online features there. There’s no synchronous co-op or multiplayer gameplay planned right now, but so far we’re starting with some online features where you can influence other gamer’s experience in a way. So this will definitely be there, and the other stuff has to be seen maybe further in the future. But we’re looking into that stuff very much.”

While fans might be disappointed that there’s no multiplayer currently planned, it does at least sound like Deck13 is open to the potential of the idea. It’ll also be interesting to see what kind of features the development team has in mind, and how those might compare to other games like Dark Souls and Nioh.

The Surge 2 is currently scheduled to release sometime in 2019 on PC and consoles.

And a way longer interview with director Jan Klose: https://www.gaminginstincts.com/the-surge-2-interview-jan-klose/

Apparently they're gonna have another big, paid DLC for The Surge 1 as well.

Also, there's currently no demo for 2 in E3. At most they could share what they showed to journalists.
 
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Abu Antar

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Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is. Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth


Like a lot of companies, Deck 13 seems to have taken fan feedback to heart, resulting in a couple small, yet important changes. First and foremost, The Surge 2 will no longer follow Warren, replaced by a customizable character, which includes gender, beards, race and all that good stuff. From there, it’s no longer centered in a building, taking place outside in a fenced off town.

From what was shown, enemies were hostile mercenaries, looking to come out ahead. These enemies seemed significantly smarter than any enemy in The Surge, utilizing traps, stealth armor, laying in wait and more. To counter this, they increased weapon types to 10, created new armor and changed drones.

Only one of the new weapons was shown, a bladed hammer that was a hybrid of heavy-duty and dual wield. If this sounds confusing, the way the weapon works is slower attacks use the weapons full force, where as rapidly pressing attack separates it into two distinct and different weapons.

No specifics were given on armor, outside of two things. You still need to remove limbs to obtain a schematic and then craft it and some armor from the original will return. No specifics were given on returning content, though they confirmed it will be a “tasteful” amount.

In addition to collecting armor schematics and weapons, long range weapons can also be obtained by enemies. Instead of using a gun to blast foes, these weapons are applied to the drone, potentially giving players far more options than were previously available.

While The Surge 2 is still in the early stages of development, it certainly seems like it’s heading in the right direction. With plans to increase the number of bosses, more varied combat, a more diverse location to explore and more, it looks to be much of what players were looking for in a sequel. Hopefully, as we get closer to the 2019 release, it will continue to improve and be everything fans are hoping for.
 

Tancred

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Smells like decline. Original game had a decent industrial aesthetic and their first gameplay footage of the sequel is in a generic fantasy forest with a generic large humanoid robot wielding a shield + swordpike combo?

Also pretty sure all the pics posted so far in this thread, are actually from the first game (with the obvious exception of the one that says 'The Surge 2'). Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
 

Wunderbar

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Also pretty sure all the pics posted so far in this thread, are actually from the first game (with the obvious exception of the one that says 'The Surge 2'). Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
here you go

ss-001.jpg


ss-002.jpg


ss-003.jpg
 

Steezus

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The Surge 2 seems like a good idea, if your goal is to shut down your studio. Even if it ends up good, you still got to fight an uphill battle against the reputation of the first game. New IP might've been a better call, then again, they already got the assets and systems in place so the turnaround on a sequel is going to be faster. Seem like a hail mary for Deck13.
 

Arnust

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The Surge 2 seems like a good idea, if your goal is to shut down your studio. Even if it ends up good, you still got to fight an uphill battle against the reputation of the first game. New IP might've been a better call, then again, they already got the assets and systems in place so the turnaround on a sequel is going to be faster. Seem like a hail mary for Deck13.
The Surge doesn't have a bad reputation, though. It is commonly dismissed as the Souls "ripoff" that it is to an extent, and that's kind of it. It performed satisfactorily enough for it to ensue continued support through updates, two DLC, and a sequel. LOTF is the more infamous, but even it sold very satisfactorily. LOTF 2 will surely have way more of an uphill battle, but they've already claimed that it'll have esentially fuckall to do with the previous game, beyond the basic design ethos.
 
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Steezus

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The Surge doesn't have a bad reputation, though. It is commonly as the Souls "ripoff" that it is to an extent, and that's kind of it. It performed satisfactorily enough for it to ensue continued support through updates, two DLC, and a sequel. LOTF is the more infamous, but even it sold very satisfactorily. LOTF 2 will surely have way more of an uphill battle, but they've already claimed that it'll have esentially fuckall to do with the previous game, beyond the basic design ethos.

Yeah, "bad" is the wrong term. Mediocre maybe? They can try and claim that it's different and what not, but the fact of the matter is that it's still attached to the franchise. People are going to pass on this one, just because it is a sequel to The Surge and their market share is already small to begin with. But hey, if they were satisfied with the sales, more power to them. I just assumed they were struggling with making money.
 

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