The Surge

I really liked the style of this technological hack and slash marvel.
Like all souls-like games, you got to get used to the mechanics so you know the enemies rhythm, you will die a bunch but little by little you will get used to the enemies and breeze through them as you get upgrades and get more knowledgeable with the map... only to do a dumb minor mistake and fall in a pit or get locked in a death combo.
I see that there is plenty of reviews frustrated at the game's difficulty, I can understand that, the game is not that good at telling you what to prioritize on your build and it can take time to figure it on your own in a blind play through, but it gets quite easier once you figure out a good build.
Turns out health implants (upgrades) are very important (otherwise you will often suffer some enemies with one hit kills or full-health combos), second to that, upgrading your weapon as much as you can with the materials available in the level is also needed, I prioritized the twin rigs because they are the fastest weapons and you kind of need that (if like me, you are using heavy armor) so you can hit once or twice before backing out and avoid taking big damage or a full-health combo. You also need to understand the different combos of your weapon, mix vertical and horizontal hits so you know what combos are faster or which ones push the enemy away or stagger them quicker.
Another great tool is the drone with the concussion ability, its great for humanoid and small robot enemies as it can knock them on the floor and open them for a damaging combo without worrying about counterattacks.
It is very important that you know when to stop going ahead (even if the scrap multiplier is tempting after killing lots of enemies) and just go back into the OPS room to upgrade your rig and armor and try new implants found along the way.
I really liked the overall design and story of the game, the level design is superb, if you enjoy exploring and paying a little attention to the level its not that hard to find most of the hidden stuff. In my blind first run I was able to collect all audio logs just by keeping an eye out.
If you feel frustrated when starting the game I STRONGLY recommend you consult a small wiki so you know what to aim for in your build, once you get used to the gameplay it becomes more enjoyable.

A fantastic game. I enjoyed everything from the gameplay, aesthetics, to the combat and even the story. It's very well put together and a big step in the right direction for Deck 13 Interactive (who also made Lords of the Fallen). It's one of those few games that sticks with you....or at least it did with me, and therefore I highly recommend it.
You should pick up this game if....
- you like Dark Souls (or souls-like) games
- you like a BIG challenges and learning from your mistakes and can learn to be patient!
- you like single player.... no multi player ;(
- you do not want your hand held. you learn as you go!! you don't get anything spoon fed to you except for the very basics
- you like dystopian futuristic settings
- you like cutting off limbs in brutal fashion, and using said limbs to craft gear for your awesome character
- you don't have hundreds of hours to play videogames (the game is relatively short, but that's a good thing in my book)
You may not like this game if.....
- you are all about story (i personally like the story, but its one of those things you have to go searching for...and even then it doesn't make the most sense) It's ok, not the best.
- you are looking for a 'chill' game. You HAVE to pay attention in this game or you will Die....A LOT.
- you are looking for multiplayer or PVP.....none here
- you hate dark souls or souls-like games
I hope this has been helpfull.

Game #36 of My Backlog Clearing Journey
Status: Completed

I enjoyed this game! The dismemberment mechanic is fun and unique, though it left me a bit overwhelmed with all the parts I’d gathered from enemies. Unfortunately, the bosses felt lackluster and dull.

The level design was frustrating—I was constantly getting lost, and some so-called "shortcuts" didn’t even feel helpful.

Dark Souls 1 but you decapitate enemies to get their helmet. The best story and world building in the genre by a tremendous margin. Difficult without being overly punishing though gravity is an extremely potent enemy in this one.
One of the very best games in the genre and one of the best action games ever made.

8/10 great souls futuristic game
TLDR at the end.
Difficulty
This game starts very slow and VERY hard but it gradually makes you more powerful with the upgrades you find and unlock, becoming extremely fun and addictive as you feel the power spike with each new upgrade or weapon. And at the end you're just a killing machine and barely ever dying.
I beat all Dark Souls games and Elden Ring, and thought this was going to be easy, but no, the beginning for sure is challenging and you won't make it far if you face-tank every enemy. So take your time in the early game.

The biggest difference is that you have 1 single "bonfire" base where you upgrade and respawn per location, but the good thing that you need to understand early on is that everytime you go somewhere "too far" from your base, there is always a shortcut that leads right into your "bonfire" to reduce backtracking. You can have very big location with a single base but about 5 shortcuts to it from the different areas, so the map design is god tier.
Mid-End Game and DLC
The mid and end game are amazing, progress is very noticeable and cutting off limbs to get the gear pieces is extremely well done and satisfying!
The DLCs complement the game perfectly and I recommend you do them alongside your playthrough as they give you great powerful gear and are well balanced in terms of difficulty. The DLCs won't allow you to progress in them faster than in the main game story because they are meant so that you do them along-side the main game (do not leave them to the end as you won't be able to come back to them if you beat the last boss of the main game).
The only downside
The only possible down side I see here is that you have "weapon proficiency" that levels up the more you use a weapon type, so in the mid-end game, this makes switching to a newly found weapon feel always underwhelming if the weapon is from a different weapon type.
And also expensive weapon/armor upgrades, so whenever you find a new cool weapon that is your same weapon type you can't really test how good it is as it's not upgraded as high as your main weapon, and getting it max level is expensive (and very limiting of resources if going Mk.5).
You can probably upgrade to the very max level about 2 full gear sets and 2 weapons if you find all the Nano Cores which is the only material used for max level up and it's not farmable.
So you have so much cool weapon and gear variety but you rarely switch anything as it's expensive to do so.
Note: Your gear has "gearset bonus" for when you wear all 5 pieces of the same gear type/name that you don't ever know what it is unless you craft the whole gearset, wear it and check the bonus in your stats. So I recommend you google the gearset bonuses before crafting the gear.
Also, the game is very polished and far ahead any early-access titles you see these days.
TLDR
• Game very good. Starts very hard, gets much better as you upgrade your gear and character.
• Your "bonfire" base is only 1 per level and you have multiple shortcuts to it from the whole map.
• DLCs are good and balanced and should be done alongside the game.
• Weapon/gear switching after upgraded is underwhelming because of limited upgrade materials.
• Google Gearset bonuses before crafting the gearsets.
• Game very polished

The Surge, made by German developers Deck13 is a very good game and a worthy entry in the soulslike genre.
This game is the redemption for the atrocious soulslike "Lords of the Fallen (2014)", Deck13 proved that they are capable of making a great AA game! (only to ruin it all with their newest "Atlas Fallen" ew but oh well..)
I love Sci-Fi more than medieval fantasy and the Surge is the ONLY good Sci-Fi soulslike out there!!
The weapons were nice, staff weapons MVP. The bosses were fine, especially as you could change gear/weapons mid-fight.
What I loved was how you can dismember body parts to get that specific armor piece, but what I disliked is how the complete set bonus was miles better than wearing random parts. I wanted to mix and mesh to experiment and create an ugly but powerful mecha-monstrosity, yet my arm was twisted into playing with set based builds.
I understand soulslike games have no minimap or even menu map, but the games are designed in a way to always lead you to your destination somehow. I get it. But we can finds maps of Dark Souls and other games online.
For "The Surge" this is harder as the levels are vertically expanding and it is easy to get lost.
Also I wish the story was told to us in a more direct way, gathering it from logs and piecing together did not really work that well in this game. I had to watch a video explaining the story in a coherent manner.
But all that is not taking away from the whole. The gameplay is what matters the most and it was a lot of fun.
The exploration was one of the highlights, even without a map, we had to use our brains and create a map in our minds.
Very good game, the best by Deck13.
Don't be a wuss, play it.

The game has some quirks but when you get used to them (or learn to ignore some of them outright) it becomes an interesting sci-fi souls-like that is more similar to Dark Souls 1 than to modern entries.

You have only one "bonefire" per area which sounds weird at first because navigating the levels with only one checkpoint seems like a chore and you might think that you will have to traverse the same rooms again and again. But the game compensates for it with a lot of shortcuts. On the one hand those shortcuts do the job; but on the other hand this system with one checkpoint and many shortcuts turns the areas into mazes. Sometimes those shortcuts are just a bunch of service tunnels that sprawl though the level, which feels like a lazy design choice that had to be done because of this self-imposed limitation. Some shortcuts are smarter and tie nicely together like a locked door to a previous section or a lift. But most of them are just service tunnels, especially in the second half of the game.

Combat is focused on hit-and-run - dodge, wait for an enemy to finish their combo, hitting them after that, repeat. The limb targeting ties in nicely with that process. The main point is figuring out your weapon - when to hit, how many times to hit and when to fall back. Weapons variety is good so if one doesn't work for you you can always try another.
Blocking feels useful only for countering. If you try to block every attack you will run out of stamina very quickly.
You can also jump and duck while dodging but I almost never found it useful apart from fighting one specific enemy. It seems like this mechanic was developed specifically for this enemy.

The quirks with the combat:
1) wonky hitboxes - sometimes you get hit when you think you are clear which can cost you a lot of HP (see next point);
2) the amount of damage seems somewhat unbalanced. You can die from 2-3 attacks even when you HP is at max which can lead to frustrating deaths;
3) the game can ignore your input when you press heal; combined with previous points this can also lead to deaths that feel unfair; on the flip side, the healing is instant so it can also sometimes save you.

The game has only 6 areas (plus 2 more with DLCs) which seems like a small number but it turns out to be just enough considering low enemy variety and the fact that you can return to some areas later in the game to explore. So it doesn't overstay its welcome which is good.