The Surge 2

As far as video game sequels go, The Surge 2 is a fairly good one. It has the familiar gameplay of the previous title but also introduces new features and improvements. I even liked the game enough to immediately replay it. New game plus mostly offered just bigger numbers though: I had been so thorough on my first playthrough that an alternative final boss armor set was pretty much the only thing I was missing.

A safe bet action RPG sequel

I believe story-wise The Surge 2 is a direct follow-up to the first game. You don't play as Warren: he only appears as an NPC. Instead, you're a silent protagonist whose appearance and background you get to customize a bit. You're somehow tied to a nanite outbreak in quarantined Jericho City that is not as maze-like as the first game's setting though I did find later areas to have potential to make you feel lost again. And shortcuts are very much a returning map feature.

The narrative had a stronger presence this time and I didn't feel as clueless. There are more side quests as well. You have to be careful with them though as sometimes the optimal way to complete a quest isn't obvious. One gotcha that caused me grief on the NG+ run was a quest in which you test a nano resistance granting implant. You can choose to keep the implant or get a weapon as a reward. On my first run I chose the weapon as I had read the implant is also found in a chest in the last area of the game. On NG+ I again chose the weapon without much thought -- I had both already so it shouldn't have mattered. Later I discovered the game had actually taken the implant from me and I had to make do without it again.

Refined mechanics

Weapon proficiencies had been removed which was a good decision by Deck13. Trying different ones is thus easier this time: you just need to worry about upgrading the weapons themselves if you take a liking to one. I mainly used sword as well as the new spear and double-duty weapon types. The last one has really fancy animations as the weapon breaks into two pieces when you use horizontal and vertical attack buttons at once.

I was a tad disappointed too that I couldn't grind a weapon skill up to make the game easier for myself. Farming scrap is still a thing in The Surge 2 however. I think I ended up doing that quite a bit as my playthrough took far longer than the global average. The game does a cool thing of showing gameplay statistics at the end of credits. Even cooler would be if the stats were saved as a readable file, not requiring you to screenshot/record them in the rolling credits for later perusing.

I inserted deaths and times of boss defeats into a chart to see if I could learn anything interesting:

The reason players globally beat the (optional) boss Delver Echo Beta so much later (relatively) into the run than I did is most likely because they don't realize you can spawn the boss immediately after killing Delver Echo Alpha by leaving and re-entering the area. Fighting the boss later when the story takes you back there makes the already easy boss even easier and that is reflected on the statistics.

The first real boss, Little Johnny, was the most difficult one for me. I was over global attempts on the second Brother Eli encounter and Delver Echo Gamma as well but in general you can see me learning the ropes and my scrap farming starting to pay off. The final boss appears to be a fair challenge on average but I was so tanky by the end that I would have needed to screw up really badly to die in the fight.

One of the hardest maps on my first run was Cathedral of the Spark. I died there twice more than the average (though I also did spend there twice as much time). Too late I realized that the spear I was using, Brother Truman's Faith, was working against me thanks to its elemental damage. (You can get the spear early if -- after defeating Little Johnny -- you go back to kill the first person you meet outside the starting area.) I guess the enemies in the cathedral are immune to electricity and stun, instead releasing nanite clouds when electrified.

The chart shows zero deaths for me on Captain Cervantes but I did in fact die a couple of times and defeat him more than once too. I was savescumming (backed-up save file) because I had trouble damaging and cutting off his leg for a drone module. That would not have been necessary had I realized then to equip an implant that makes all of your attacks damage targeted body part (75% damage if the attack connects with something else). Sometimes the game also switches targeted limb on its own when you lose line of sight to it. That can be quite annoying. It tends to happen especially with cloaking enemies such as Cervantes.

Like weapon skills, The Surge 2 abandoned jumping and crouching too. I never truly tried using them in the first game anyway; they were very much an unnecessary (and clunky) feature. Instead there is a new defensive maneuver: directional parry. You hold down block button and at the right time flick your mouse/stick to the direction an attack is coming from. Mastering it is difficult -- I never did, although I did get better at it. The main challenge with parrying is that there are so many different enemy attacks with different timings. Some are easier, some very fast, and some bait your parry for so long that it would be better to just keep your assault going.

You don't necessarily need to use parry but against most bosses it is very much intended. Parrying staggers the attacker, giving your next attack a damage boost. There are also powerful gear set bonuses and implants that activate off a parry, allowing you to withstand a prolonged fight even if things are not going perfectly for you. Successful parries also feel satisfying with its sound and slowdown effects.

Deck13 addressed the first game's issue of having to wear a full 6-piece set for any kind of special bonus. In this one sets have 3 and 6-piece set bonuses and there are also special headgear pieces that count as a piece of every set worn. You can mix and match a more varied exoskeleton for yourself.

My wearing of a full VULTR set for most of my first playthrough probably wasn't the smartest idea. It is sort of a scrap and crafting material farming set: increased scrap gain with 3 pieces and finishing moves cost no energy with 6. Its defensive values are from the low end as I discovered hours and hours into the game. I should have made a more protective set earlier for boss fights at least.

In addition to the global stats there are few other optional gameplay affecting online features. You can leave graffiti to warn or mess with other players and get rewarded a small amount of scrap if someone likes your tag. A much larger scrap amount can be gained from leaving a "banner" that shows your character avatar. Anyone finding it within the time it exists gains some scrap but you get a larger amount the fewer do so. Very few if anyone ever found mine: 5k bonus scrap every now and then was a nice bonus. Finally, a revenge enemy can appear when the normal version of it has killed a player. Defeating one will reward you with a bunch of crafting materials and show a message to that player that their death has been avenged.

The Surge 2's graphics aren't better than its predecessor's yet its performance was worse for me. Lowering settings increased framerate somewhat but a stable 60 fps it was not: the game just looked uglier. Holding down scrap-banking button also started freezing up the game at some point. I have no idea what was going on with that but at least the game always recovered from it eventually. Music I ended up muting as it got repetitive and annoying.