Dark Souls light, but it the future. Dark Souls because the combat and level design was clearly inspired by it. The latter is probably the best aspect of the game, it make the exploration more open ended and successfully recreates that feeling of relief when you find a shortcut or a new checkpoint. Also, defeating enemies rewards you with scrap, which work the same as souls; a universal currency for leveling up, upgrading items, etc.
The Surge stands apart from the competition thanks to the ability to target specific enemy body parts during combat so you can selectively slice and dice them for item drops or just to disable them in a specific way.
The reason why I said "light" like The Surge lacks sugar is because it doesn't have nearly the same wealth of content as one would expect from a game in the Souls series. That means fewer enemy types, bosses, equipment, etc. The developers added some new weapons and sets after release to partially alleviate this shortcoming.
The meaning of "in the future" is evident. The game takes place in the near future, I won't spoil the plot, but it's rather mysterious which is its own reward as far as I'm concerned. Also, I like the parallels to real world corporate PR.
In summary, I liked The Surge. It's fun if you have exhausted the Dark Souls series like me and want even more, but slightly different and don't mind the jank.