Developer Deck 13 have now announced that they are working on The Surge 2, but what can we expect from the upcoming title?
The development of The Surge 2 shouldn’t come as a surprise, given the massive success of the first title. While the developers haven’t gotten far enough along in development to show us any significant gameplay footage, we do have some information about the upcoming game and can make some educated guesses as to what we can expect from the title given the success of the first entry as well as the trends in the current gaming arena.
The Surge 2 Release Date
Before we dive into the specifics of what we can expect from The Surge 2, let’s talk about the release date. It’s unclear at this point as to when the game will launch, but we can safely say that it probably won’t release this year given how early along it is in development.
We feel that a 2019 release date is much more likely. As to when exactly it will release in 2019, it’s anyone’s guess, but it’s safe to say that it will be a little while before we get our hands on the finished title due to the fact that it’s not even quite at the point where they can show us any gameplay.
With that said, that doesn’t mean that we won’t receive more information on the title before the release. The developers have stated that the team will “be at the major game shows this year, E3, Gamescom, all that stuff and we’ll have some pretty cool things to show.” As we get closer to these events, we should have far more information about the title, but until then we’re largely left guessing as to what and when we’ll see with the full release.
The Surge 2 Story
The most important part of any game is the gameplay, and the Surge 2 likely won’t disappoint. You’ll see yourself return to the dystopian future of an Earth going through ecological collapse. Just as before, you’ll slip on your exosuit and fight your way through rage-filled survivors – combining well-executed gameplay with a setting that, while definitely explored before, The Surge 2 has managed to achieve nearly flawlessly.
Originally, the Surge takes place in a world that is destroying itself through ecological collapse. The environmental disasters are unprecedented, with rivers drying out and all sorts of wildlife dying out due to pollution. Humanity is concentrated in large cities that are struggling to sustain itself, and a large corporation named CREO’s efforts to restore the planet by firing rockets full of nanobots into the atmosphere didn’t turn out as expected. Unfortunately, those nanobots drove the city’s inhabitants into a rage – causing them to go crazy and start killing each other.
According to Deck13’s managing director in an interview with Pcgamesn, “Once again, this is a story about survival but this time we’re not in the aftermath finding out what happened, we’re right in the middle of events trying to survive…The play area is much more alive.”
The Surge 2 Gameplay
This statement leads us to believe that the gameplay with The Surge 2 will be even more hectic than the first, with more to do and explore as you’re working your way through this post-apocalyptic world. Given the critical and financial success of the original The Surge, we expect the studio to go above and beyond the original by releasing more engaging and extensive gameplay
“The levels are built in [a] very different way with many more layers and many more connections,” the director says. “The whole setup is very different. To the extent that we had to redesign our engine a bit.”
Although The Surge 2 development is generally going well, there were some issues with developing the “layered” environments in the original The Surge that the team had to overcome in order to make sure they delivered a cohesive gameplay experience.
“there were bits where you didn’t really know what your mission was…So you might go off the beaten path and find more things that you’re not really meant to do now but you want to take them on anyway.” In The Surge 2, you should always have a clear idea of what your mission is – adding more guidance to the gameplay that should keep gamers on the right track. This is just one example of how the developers are taking steps to improve on what was already an excellent title.
The new layered environments will also allow the enemy AI to take advantage of the more fleshed-out environments. Pcgamesn reports that “they can do really interesting things in terms of changing height levels to avoid and ambush you…it’s not just them spawning behind a corner to jump out at you, they’re reacting to your movement through the world…Robot enemies aren’t just going to fall over dead when you chop something off them, they’re going to change their behavior…Remove a cannon from their body, they won’t use the cannon anymore. Maybe you smash some armor plating and expose a weak point on them but [they respond by going] berserk.”
In a departure from The Surge, The Surge 2 will feature a character creator rather than forcing you to play as Warren. You’ll be able to choose your gender as well as the sort of style you’d like to start the game with. “Do you want to play more stealthy, sneaky for the first parts of the game?,” the developers ask. “Or do you want to go more tanky, bulky? You’re not bound to that but you can start the game with the playstyle you like most when you play such games. Then you can mix and match all that stuff with things you find later.”
The Surge 2 doesn’t currently have a release date, but is expected sometime in 2019 or 2020.
