The Surge 2 Preview

Deck 13 showed The Surge 2 at Gamescom.  It was a hands-off demo where Adam Hetenyi, head of Game Design, talked us through the game. The Surge 2 is the successor to The Surge, which was released over a year ago. The Surge 2 is an action RPG, with a focus on melee combat, although there is some shooting as well. The games use a body part targeting system that allows the player to target a part of the body of the opponent, to separate that part from the body, so it can be harvested after the fight and used to enhance the equipment of the player.
The first game took place in an industrial facility, the second takes place in Jericho, a more urban environment, a few months after the ending of The Surge. Jericho has been quarantined and is considered to be very dangerous. A huge wall has been built around the city, so nothing can get in or out. In the sky above the city, a big mysterious storm is growing and monsters have taken over the city.

We started in a park where a monster rampaged through it. The goal was to seek out several large propeller devices and activate them, so that the monster would be forced to go to the center of the forest, where we could kill it. However the park also has some very unfriendly mercenaries, who have the same goal and are threatening to kill you if you don't leave. Obviously that 'advice' was ignored.

In The Surge 2, the number of weapon types has been increased from 5 to 10. We were shown a double-duty weapon. It is a heavy-duty two-handed weapon with high impact, high damage swings, but it is a bit on the slow side. However the weapon can be split in two parts, giving you smaller sword-like weapons with which you are able to attack a lot faster, resulting in a very different combat style.

On our way through the park we encounter mercenaries, which leads to a fight. Combat resembles the combat in the first game. The goal is the same, kill the opponent and try to sever its body parts, so you can perhaps use them yourself. At the end of the fight, you are treated to a cut-scene where the last blow is handed to your opponent, if you win. Next to severing body parts that you can use yourself, you might also collect the schematics of the enhancements that were being used, so you can build it yourself later on. This is what you will be doing a lot in The Surge 2: Chop of body parts, kill your opponent, learn about enhancements or re-use the harvested enhancements for yourself. Next to that, killed opponents can also drop consumables, in our example it was a bio-sensor that could be used as an utility item, something that is new in The Surge 2. Also new is that they improved the combat drone companion. It can now be upgraded with enhancements, harvested from the ones you kill. In the example they added a gun to the drone, resulting in a flying gun that would fly away from you and shoot on your enemies, while you are performing other actions. Almost every ranged weapon an enemy uses on your character can be cut from them and attached to your drone to improve it further.

In The Surge you could jump over low attacks and duck for high attacks, The Surge 2 adds to this directional blocks in all four directions. Next to blocking your opponents, you can also perform a powerful counter attack right after the block, but it needs to be timed correctly, so it requires some expertise.
With all this talk about combat we should not forget that in some cases you can also try to sneak past your enemies instead of fighting them, but the essence of the game is to kill your opponents as that is what gets you better equipment and enhancements.
To encourage players to explore more, a large number of optional secret paths and hidden areas have been added, which need to be discovered and where something interesting can be found.

If you liked The Surge, you will certainly like The Surge 2. If you feel The Surge wasn't a game for you, I doubt you will find something in The Surge 2 that will change your mind. They did improve areas of the gameplay, but the essence of the original The Surge remains the same.

The Surge 2 is scheduled to be released in 2019 on PC, PS4 and Xbox One.