The Surge 2 Reviews

Despite it’s difficulty and what seems to be a never ending grind The Surge 2 is a good game. Some of its shortcomings can be overlooked such as access to a map which is in the wild and keeping track of your quests can be confusing at times. It’s challenges and intense action will keep you coming back for more. The need to adapt keeps the gameplay fresh and exciting.

The Surge 2 looks to expand its predecessor's brutal and calculated violence from the cold confines of automated production facilities to the wreckage of the recently devastated Jericho City. Has the formula been tweaked enough to withstand this change of scenery?

Hugely satisfying combat and some smart world design carries a decent Souls-like that feels like a solid, if safe, alternative for genre fans. The Surge 2 is competent, with flashes of excellence, but loses some of its own identity in the shadows of its inspirations.

A great follow up to The Surge with new weapons, new enemies and new ways to die.

Given how I had quite a bit of fun with the original The Surge back in 2017, I was definitely looking forward to finally playing its sequel. Not to mention discovering all of the improvements implemented by Deck13 in this short two year span between releases. E3 2018 gave me a glimpse of how impressive the game was shaping up to become, but I had to wait more than a year to finally get my hands on the final product. Thankfully, it more than delivers. The Surge 2 is a commendable improvement o...

While Deck13 still has some work to do, The Surge 2 is a massive step up from its predecessor in just about every respect. For the first time, I’m actually excited to see what the studio is working on next.

In the opening moments of The Surge 2, my character looks like a walking junkyard. He had ridged red armor on his left arm, a bulky yellow metal casing on his right, grey leg braces, and a jumble of circuitry on his chest. His weapon of choice is a spinning sawblade that looks like it should be used for construction work. Flash forward dozens of hours, and my character stands tall like an angelic being outfitted in unified white armor, a gold halo on his back, and a staff that sizzles with magical power. This strange rags-to-riches journey is just one reason why The Surge 2 is notably better than its predecessor. Developer Deck13 Interactive sticks to its guns on what The Surge is, yet improves upon the predecessor’s systems and flow to create a thrilling pursuit of power backed by excellent combat encounters.

A disappointing sequel that offers few new ideas as either a Dark Souls clone or a follow-up to the original, with a less interesting setting and story.

The Surge 2 has great combat, but no areas stand out visually, a forgettable story, and the feeling that you've done all of this before makes Jericho City a place you'd want to visit, not live.

The Surge was generally well-received among fans and critics alike but didn’t add a whole lot to the souls-like formula besides a fresh coat of sci-fi paint and a satisfying dismemberment mechanic. If you are expecting The Surge 2, then, to be a reinvention of the series and a bold new direction for the genre, you’ll likely be disappointed. Instead, The Surge 2 tweaks and adds to the relatively solid foundation it already had in place. The result is a game that is more ambitious and still enjoyable, but certainly not revolutionary.

Strap on some industrial hardware and make limbs fly.

Despite some performance hiccups, The Surge 2 is a sequel done right. Meaningful changes have been made to address the criticisms aimed at the original game, new features have been added to enrich and expand the gameplay, and storytelling has been put more at the forefront. It’s definitely one of the best Souls-likes currently available, though it’s doing the game a bit of a disservice to call it one; The Surge 2 further takes the series into its own territory, enabling it to stand on its own two feet. If you like challenging action adventures and dystopian sci-fi worlds, it truly deserves your attention.

The Surge 2 combines a rewarding combat system with a fantastic game world to craft one of the best games of 2019. Fans of Soulsborne games shouldn't hesitate to check this one out.

The second installment of The Surge improves all the most important mistakes of its predecessor and is simply a better game... but its reduced difficulty level will disappoint many fans of soulslike games.

Here’s my “dark gaming secret” that isn’t really that dark or much of a secret: I hate the Souls genre. I have tried so hard on several different occasions to get into it. I’ve played Dark Souls, Nioh, Lords of the Fallen, Salt & Sanctuary, and even Bloodborne. Yet I’ve bounced off of nearly every single one after a few hours little more than confused and annoyed. (I finished Lords of the Fallen. Don’t ask.) I keep trying to get it. I want to get it. So The Surge 2 is my latest attempt. Will it finally be the one?

The Surge 2 makes some knowledgeable choices to help players deal with some of the more painful aspects of the genre while maintaining the vital tension that should seep through every moment of gameplay. It won’t pluck away at your emotional strings the way they expect the genre-leading Dark Souls games to do. But you will be so busy chopping off limbs and finding new parts for your Rig that I suspect you won’t notice.

Deck 13 has produced a game that offers genre fans a lot to like. The story and setting is a welcome departure from the swords and sorcery that typically dominate similar titles. Most sci-fi games rely on gunfights or boring intergalactic diplomacy to handle conflict, while The Surge 2 presents medieval violence as a path to enlightenment. I can dig that. Uneven pacing, some visual issues, and inconsistent performance serve to prevent the experience from reaching its full potential, but the foundation is solid. Strap yourself into a medbay and upgrade. Who wouldn’t want robot legs? 8/10 cybernetic implants

The developers at Deck13 may have stumbled initially with the derivative Lords of the Fallen, trying to clone the Dark Souls formula with middling results, but The Surge was a big step forward, with the team eager to shake loose the shackles of the genre and add their own unique twist, which resulted in a pretty good action RPG that did more than enough to stand out from the crowd. It carved its own identity and made a great case for an ongoing franchise; thankfully, it did well enough to spa...

It's been a couple of years since Deck13 debuted their indisputably Souls-like The Surge and we now have a very cool sequel.

The Surge 2 improves upon the first game in almost every way which is a huge testament to how far Deck 13 have come as a developer. If you disliked the first game and found no enjoyment anywhere, you’ll most likely find nothing for you here but if there were parts you enjoyed about the original, the Surge 2 improves upon it and makes the sci-fi Soulslike genre it’s own.

Two years after the tumultuous release of the original, Deck13 is giving things another shot, once again bringing players back to their unique, machine-driven dystopian future with The Surge 2.

The Surge 2 boasts a much better combat system than its predecessor. Unfortunately, everything else is mediocre to poor. The game shows improvement, but Deck13 still isn't there by a long way.

The Surge 2 manages to recapture a lot of what made the original Souls-style sci-fi adventure fun, even improving on its already-solid combat and gear grind in several meaningful ways, from the added variety of weapons and enemies to the simple but oh-so-welcome ability to build multiple equipment loadouts. It’s missteps, however, made the sequel an overall lesser game than the original: uninspired environmental design and overly ambitious story choices rob it of the same level of satisfaction, even with the mechanical improvements. That said, if you're just here to chop dudes in robot suits in half as you grind up to the next power bracket or craft another piece of gear made out of severed arms, you're probably gonna have a great time. Either way you'll likely still have a good time, but will probably spend most of your playthrough fondly remembering your first time.

In many ways, The Surge 2 does come off as a significant step-up from the 2017 original -- Deck13 offering proof that they're listening to feedback and critique prior not only exists but has been implemented more importantly. When it's at its best (and technically-stable), The Surge 2 is a genuine joy to explore and progress through -- the multi-floor, woven level design garnering many a satisfied reaction as to the way its world is all connected. But in others, plenty of the original's issues once more spring up to smear the short-term high's the sequel generates. Boss battles are still a mixed bag of misjudged difficulty and an underwhelming delivery at their worst; at their best there are still those fulfilling elations and sparks of relief that come via finally defeating that one troublesome boss. Tonally it may waver, even fall flat when the story tries its best to invoke a sense of mystery and doom-ridden desperation it never really achieves. Deck13's second go of the sci-fi themed action RPG set-up, carves out just enough of a worthwhile combat and upgrade system alike, for The Surge 2 to leave players both optimistic and curious -- if not eager -- for what a hopeful third entry may have in store.

If you want a sci-fi, difficult timing-based combat game with that unforgiving hardcore Dark Souls touch, you can’t go wrong with The Surge 2.

It’s rare that a genre hits such a high note on its first time out like the Souls-like genre. FromSoftware’s own games have yet to be matched or topped by any studio that isn’t Team Ninja. But that doesn’t stop teams from trying. German developer Deck13 is one of those teams, churning out three Souls-like games in since 2014. THE SURGE 2 is its newest effort and despite the presence of beloved, familiar systems, it’s a formulaic, jumbled mess of an RPG that sits at the bottom of the junk pile because of its inability to meaningfully apply the genre staples it has shamelessly borrowed.

The Surge 2 is a must-play for fans of the soulslike genre. With incredibly well-designed areas, excellent combat featuring a wider variety of enemies, and a story that proves itself worth being invested in by the end, it improves upon its predecessor in almost every area and is absolutely worth your time.

Developer Deck 13 is so, so close to putting out a good video game. After failing to capitalize on the clear potential of The Surge, the studio is back with a sequel that is bigger and better in almost every way, but it continues to slightly miss the mark in one too many key areas. The Surge 2 will satisfy those looking for their next Souls-like dosage, but a shift in focus to a more open world framework brings about a new set of problems the original never faced.

Though those problems can make parts of this sequel annoying, The Surge 2 is still a fun improvement over the original that will win more people over with its tight and well-designed environments and combat. The Surge series remains the uncontested champion of sci-fi Soulslikes, and The Surge 2 establishes it as a Soulslike series that players can confidently continue to look forward to while FromSoftware moves onto new things like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Elden Ring.

No summary available

With more options, more weapons, and a much bigger environment to play with, The Surge 2 improves on everything from its predecessor.