I saw this game on IGN's E3 stream, and thought it looked pretty cool. It's being made by the Lords of the Fallen people, and appears to be another Dark Souls-esque game, except it's set in a junkyard cyber-future. An interesting twist is that you can target individual limbs of enemies, and your loot is dependent upon which body part you hack off.

If nothing else, it's nice to see what appears to be a revival of mid-tier games at this year's E3.

Looks pretty cool and a lot less like dark souls than the other game as there seems to be no level currency to get back when you die. Targeting specific parts seems like a cool mechanic too, hopefully there will be varied weapons for different play styles.

It's nice to see them making another game. I enjoyed Lords of the Fallen a lot more than I thought I would.

Cool, though I would have been fine with Lords of the Fallen 2, despite good sales (due to being an early PS4 retail release) I guess the IP wasn't that valuable.

Sci-fi souls? I'M IN!

I'm fine with Dark Souls knock-offs if they deviate from the style. Lords of the Fallen just being another medieval Souls-esque was kinda lame; this is more interesting.

Glad to see they're back at it and putting a different spin on it.

On paper this sounds great and (pending decent or above reviews) I'm on board.

Out in under a week. I wonder if review copies have been circulated?

Dunno. They'd need to significantly shake things up for me to be interested. I don't think just changing the setting will be enough. Lords of the Fallen played pretty badly in addition to not having a very fresh take on the Dark Souls-style universe.

I didn't get very far in the Fallen, it seemed derivative (of course) and where it wasn't was kinda meh. But what killed it was a fatal bug.

I am enjoying Nioh a whole lot more, which in itself is surprising me.

We'll see, my preference has always been sci-fi over fantasy.

with all these souls-likes (ugh) i'm hoping from's next game is something very different.

e: also holy shit they seem to be sending this out to die. guess theyre hoping for another sleeper hit and people thirsty for more souls, which i doubt with nioh (and let it die) still being somewhat fresh.

My big problem with Lords of the Fallen was the general movement made you feel like you were walking on Jupiter or something. Everything felt so heavy and swimmy to the point where your normal human character moved slower than the Giant clad in armor twirling around like a ballerina.

It was like they played Dark Souls with fat rolls and figured everyone would like that slow movement.

From what I've seen, Surge looks cool but I'm really hesitant. I'd like to see some gameplay and commentary by lovers of the Souls series first before buying it.

I feel this way too, and I've been trying to figure out exactly what it is about their animation that's so offputing.

I think it's a combination of everything being slow, (movespeed, attack speed) and a lack of any sort of inertia or acceleration in the animations. It's like nothing has any weight, and when it moves, it moves at a consistent speed for the entire animation. The windup of the swing of your weapon is the same speed as the rest of the swing, for example.

I still get that from the Surge's gameplay videos.Though it seems slightly better, nothing about this big heavy dude in a robot suit seems like he's actually a big heavy dude in a robot suit, and all the unnecessary flips and fancy martial arts moves don't match up the premise that you're supposed to be just a construction worker dude using the tools he finds as weapons.

Really disliked Lords of the Fallen. Felt like Dark Souls mimicry that didn't understand what fundamental decisions made Dark Souls so special.

I'm glad the team is getting a second crack at building something cool. Though I do wish they'd get away from the Dark Souls shadow a bit. Perhaps the sci-fi aesthetic will do good things for them.

I saw a video of early game beta gameplay and was really turned off. Seemed real clunky. But I just saw this video of later game combat and I might be back on board.

I want to think this will be cool but hoo boy, Lords of the Fallen was pretty rough.

On console it launched with a bug where sometimes the enemies' animations straight up didn't play when they were attacking you, so you'd just get hit for seemingly no reason. If you've played any Souls style game, you know that's, like, the worst possible bug you could ever imagine. It happened to me multiple times during the first boss fight and I turned it off and never came back.

Holding out for Armored Souls. C'mon FROM, make it happen.

Seems cool, but there is zippo buzz on this game less than a week out. I really want some form of 'Sci-Fi Souls' game, but will wait to see how some guinea pigs, er, brave early adopters fare with it.

Nah, that looks alright. Hopefully they can keep the technical problems at bay.

I had forgot about this game, looks cool. I thought lords of the fallen was alright, although i didn't get past the first boss.

Cautiously postive preview... http://www.trustedreviews.com/the-surge-review

@personandstuff: That looks genuinely better than some of the other trailers I saw. I've gone from "expecting disappointment" to "cautiously interested".

Oh whoa, completely missed this last year.

Wudn't a fan of how clunky Lords of the Fallen felt. This looks a fair bit quicker. Almost closer to character-action by the look of some of it. Visually it's like they saw the end of Elysium and were like "yup, more of this." That's certainly not a bad thing as far as I'm concerned. Also good on them I guess for being the first to dive into sci-fi Dark Souls. It had to happen sooner or later.

Thanks for the heads up!

Seeing this in action with the Quick Look and seeing Brad like it is really turning me on this. I think it might be good? I was a bit miffed at the idea of having to craft all your gear, but it seems like schematics drop pretty frequently according to Brad. I think I'll wait for some more takes on it before buying, but I'm not as negative towards it as I was.

Quick look really sells this game to me, probably have to skip it until a good sale happens though.

I'll be grabbing it. I know where my expectations should lie. They've dropped some of the bloodstain mechanics, by the looks of things. You're still against a timer to retrieve it but it's not diminishing over time. Not sure whether it still heals over time. They look to be focusing more on the combat which is good. Lords of the Fallen had location-based damage but it didn't really play into much.

Now seriously considering getting this game instead of playing the numerous big games in my backlog. Or Binary
Domain, because Waypoint is doing a video game book club thingie with it.

I'm looking forward to playing it next week despite my backlog (trying to finish Prey).

I know LotF was pretty weak, but I really think this looks like an improvement.

Least the character moves better.

As with all souls-likes, I have to ask the important question: Does this game have giant f'n spiders?

The 1+3 souls, bloodborne, lords of the fallen, and nioh all fail the 'giant spider' test.

@seastark: do robot spiders count?

This game looks slightly better than expected, I look forward to playing it on Black Friday with Nier. Injustice same day, mountain of content.

Saw the quicklook. Looks super generic.

@fredchuckdave: yeah, I feel like this is one of those titles you wait on the grab for cheap when it hits a big sale, and enjoy it for what it is, without crazy expectations.

It certainly looks pretty alright. I like the idea of the rage meter into specials, and limb targeting. Can't wait to try it out and hopefully discover a gem.

Reviews have hit.

Summary = Flawed but enjoyable.

I'm going to give this a go.

I've just finished the second area's boss and so far one thing I can say for sure is that it is definitely better then Lords of the Fallen. Not quite up to Souls series standard, but solid enough nonetheless. It's good to see that that studio has improved.

It also really ramps up the difficulty in that second area that Brad was showing in the QL. But I can't say for sure atm if the difficulty is 100% fair or is it more due to the clunkier (or more restrictive) dodging and blocking. But the combat itself feels meaty and physical in a good kind of way.

So now that the game's out, can someone tell me if this is accessible if you've never played / have no interest in playing other souls-likes?

Nope I don't feel like it is. In some ways it explains less, since it expects some familiarity with the genre. And it also feels harder in terms of rote combat and more punishing, whether by design or by stiff/clunky ways you have to avoid damage like dodge/block. If you want to start on soulslikes it's better to just start with DS1. It's also a bit more mazelike in level design since the industrial decor is very one note in any given area, souls games themselves are easier to get your bearings in.

i'm really into this. Actually like it more than a souls game, probably because the setting isn't so damn depressing and gloomy all the damn time. Really enjoying the staff combat. I hope to find a better one soon, still rolling with the one from the first zone and the energy generation is kind of bad on it.

The level design, and the combat is extremely impressive.

And this is coming from a Dark Souls lover. The level design is like Catheral of the Deep, but most areas and not just the one time like in DS3.

Thanks. I suppose I should steer clear then. I guess my interest was mainly piqued because of the sci-fi setting.

I actually think it eases you in better really. I never had the feeling in the first few hours of this i didn't understand a perticular system. Sure there are some stats that don't really explain them selves, but the gameplay is pretty intuitive imo. I don't find the combat that clunky to be honest. The dodge is pretty snappy if you go for a faster moving character, something i felt was never an option in the souls game unless you were very good at the game. I hardly ever block in The surge i just dodge and keep moving and go in with my staff when i get the chance. Plus the whole limb targeting thing with the finishers is pretty fun.

I find the level design extremely cool btw, everything is super connected and it pays to explore. Plus is really like the setting, way more than the dark souls setting.

i don't know, i really like it so far. It's good that there are these type of B-tier games that just do something really good. Plus Deck 13 has really grown since their last game, wich is good to see.

@syndrom: How far into the game are you? I'm asking because first zone doesn't really ask you to block at all, and enemies are pretty easy to dodge as they are not very agile. Things change drasticallythe further along you go, with some very agile enemies that can also be heavily armored and thus not get staggered by your hits, or enemies that if you don't block will take negligible damage in all but very few locations in a short window. It also much much easier to navigate compared to how many routes there are in the second area for example. You know those fast robotic enemies Brad got creamed by in the QL, yeah they're the trash of part of zone 3. I just felt that yeah the combat worked great in the first zone. But as the game stretches what is required of the combat later on, that's when the somewhat awkward parts of it start getting revealed.

As for easing the player in, keep in mind we've played souls games and this is that to a t, so much so that almost all of it is systems are familiar thus doesn't need much explaining to a player experienced with the souls like games. But go to the Steam forums for example and there are new people to the genre that are baffled by respawning enemies.

I do like the game by the way, a lot in fact. I just don't feel like I would ever recommend it as starting point for someone who never played these types of games before, and to whom this type of game style didn't appeal to in the first place, as it's very similar in all but the setting, while keeping the above factors in mind. Unless the setting was the one major deal breaker before and the more modern industrial one is their exact cup of tea, then sure I'd say to give it a shot.

Gotta say I'm with @tennmuerti on this one. The biggest issue I can see for new players is just the complete lack of information on things. I mean this is worse than Dark Souls before they added the help tooltips. What does medium speed mean ? How long does the attack buff last ? What is impact ? etc etc. Sure, some of them aren't that hard to figure out, but if you're not used to the Souls mindset this is just a bunch of non-info. Add in the fact that it doesn't tell you about basic things like backstabs and charge attacks, and as mentioned the over the top maze like level design, and you're left with a very impenetrable game. Ofc for a veteran Souls player this is par for the course, but it's definitely not any more inviting to new players than any of the three Dark Souls games.

@ares42: Sounds like they're either banking on the Souls formula being well known, or they're trying to emulate Demons/Dark Souls' obtuse nature early players had to peel back to find basic mechanics and concepts.

I'm glad it's working out with some people. I bought it on the pre 10 percent sale at steam, but I am too busy with Nioh.

i'm farming the second zone at the moment, can reliably get to the recycler area with the two big dudes (the type that you can find one of in the first zone). Still not blocking really, just taking my time with each fight. Haven't tried on the robotic spiders things actually. Still going strong with the lynx set (ups attack speed) and a one hander. I really really enjoy this combat system actually. I feel you have more options for taking on a fight. If you have difficulty taking down an enemy you can focus on his unarmored parts to take him down faster (ofc. some enemies are fully armored). It rewards some experimentation really, and the grinding is more fun because of it i feel. The only enemy i really struggled with in the second zone so far are the three legged droids, but then i figured out i just need to focus on their rear leg and they go down easy.

Wish i'd find some new weapons to play around with really, upgrading is fun but i'm a sucker for looks haha. Actually managed to down the security dudes and got the staff, but it isn't that great.

i never played that much of the souls games really, i dabbled in all of them but i always found the atmosphere of the game such a downer, always been more of a sci fi nerd, so maybe that's the reason this is much more up my sleeve. I actually really want to find out what happened in this place (it's probably very generic) but still, that feeling is something i never got in the souls games. By the way, how gruesome is that opening cinematic. I really felt for the guy haha.

I made this thread?

@syndrom: Yep the opening cinematic was imo fantastic. Ouch. I cringed and said "oh fuck" a lot. Hell of an opening opening for sure.