I Finally beat this game after several years of playing it on and off. This may be the most 7/10 game I have ever played, which I mean mostly as a compliment, but also slightly derogatorily. It has a million ideas and it really goes for all of them, and in many ways it actually does succeed! But it can also feel sloppy and unfair nearly as often.
The combat system, where you can target specific limbs and chop them off after doing enough damage to acquire those gear parts from enemies, is legitimately very cool. Once you get the hang of it, the combat feels pretty good and has an interesting pace and rhythm and set of tactical considerations to it. When you are fighting humans. They put so much work into making this system feel good with humans, the most common enemy type, that fighting anything else can feel very janky and vague. The limb targeting still works on robots and such but only kind of, and their designs can make reading and reacting to their animations very difficult. And of course non-human enemies tend to be the ones that do the most damage and can often kill you in one or two hits. Many of the deaths in this game did not feel like they were my fault, and were instead due to jank, vague animations, weird hitboxes, and things that do way more damage than they look like they should.
The level design is also highly mixed. On the one hand the environment art and attention to detail is fantastic, and I respect how ambitious and complex they can be. On the other hand, they are often incredibly labyrinthine, far more so than anything Fromsoft ever made, and because they are primarily indoors there is a lack of landmarks to aid navigation. Many times I unlocked a shortcut and was extremely confused about if it had actually helped cause I could not for the life of me tell where the fuck i even was in relation to the OPS room. I did eventually learn my way around, sort of, but there was a lot of me wandering around going huh??? and I would say that I am pretty good at navigating and internalizing complex 3D environments.
So the game is a mixed bag, but where it excels, other than the combat against humans, is in its setting, presentation, and worldbuilding. The whole industrial dungeon + techbro horror vibe is super well done and the constant PR interviews and marketing bits playing on screens throughout the CREO facility are pitch perfect. The writing was sharper than I was expecting too. This game has a pretty clear viewpoint on silicon valley, climate change, the exploitation of workers, and it ties it all into the setting and level design pretty well. The NPCs are some dark souls ass NPCs to be sure, but that style of writing transplanted into this sort of setting is surprisingly novel, and they do a good job making them feel distinct. The sad, vaguely inspirational country song that plays in the OPS rooms is also an absolutely inspired choice, its exactly the kind of thing a corporation like CREO would pipe in to breakrooms to try and connect with and motivate its workers. And like, it literally works! I'm humming it to myself right now! I felt relieved every time i heard that song! You are so right The Surge, I was always as free as I wanted to be, always as free, as a bird.... It is true that you cannot miss what you have never seen before. And weren't we all born in a prison? The prison of this modern tech obsessed society???
I think what is the true mark of this game as a 7/10 game (complimentary) though is that I am still thinking about it a week after finishing it. Its a genuinely weird and ambitious little game that truly does go for it in all respects. Its got gumption and you know what I gotta respect that.
The combat system, where you can target specific limbs and chop them off after doing enough damage to acquire those gear parts from enemies, is legitimately very cool. Once you get the hang of it, the combat feels pretty good and has an interesting pace and rhythm and set of tactical considerations to it. When you are fighting humans. They put so much work into making this system feel good with humans, the most common enemy type, that fighting anything else can feel very janky and vague. The limb targeting still works on robots and such but only kind of, and their designs can make reading and reacting to their animations very difficult. And of course non-human enemies tend to be the ones that do the most damage and can often kill you in one or two hits. Many of the deaths in this game did not feel like they were my fault, and were instead due to jank, vague animations, weird hitboxes, and things that do way more damage than they look like they should.
The level design is also highly mixed. On the one hand the environment art and attention to detail is fantastic, and I respect how ambitious and complex they can be. On the other hand, they are often incredibly labyrinthine, far more so than anything Fromsoft ever made, and because they are primarily indoors there is a lack of landmarks to aid navigation. Many times I unlocked a shortcut and was extremely confused about if it had actually helped cause I could not for the life of me tell where the fuck i even was in relation to the OPS room. I did eventually learn my way around, sort of, but there was a lot of me wandering around going huh??? and I would say that I am pretty good at navigating and internalizing complex 3D environments.
So the game is a mixed bag, but where it excels, other than the combat against humans, is in its setting, presentation, and worldbuilding. The whole industrial dungeon + techbro horror vibe is super well done and the constant PR interviews and marketing bits playing on screens throughout the CREO facility are pitch perfect. The writing was sharper than I was expecting too. This game has a pretty clear viewpoint on silicon valley, climate change, the exploitation of workers, and it ties it all into the setting and level design pretty well. The NPCs are some dark souls ass NPCs to be sure, but that style of writing transplanted into this sort of setting is surprisingly novel, and they do a good job making them feel distinct. The sad, vaguely inspirational country song that plays in the OPS rooms is also an absolutely inspired choice, its exactly the kind of thing a corporation like CREO would pipe in to breakrooms to try and connect with and motivate its workers. And like, it literally works! I'm humming it to myself right now! I felt relieved every time i heard that song! You are so right The Surge, I was always as free as I wanted to be, always as free, as a bird.... It is true that you cannot miss what you have never seen before. And weren't we all born in a prison? The prison of this modern tech obsessed society???
I think what is the true mark of this game as a 7/10 game (complimentary) though is that I am still thinking about it a week after finishing it. Its a genuinely weird and ambitious little game that truly does go for it in all respects. Its got gumption and you know what I gotta respect that.