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Why doesn’t Soulsborne Era love The Surge more?

100%TrophyMaster

100%TrophyMaster

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,943
I'm baffled why this game isn't mentioned more on Era. Imagine a Sci-Fi Souls game with fast combat like Bloodborne, intricate connecting level design, slight horror aspects that feel like Dead space, and great graphics.
This is The Surge. This is from the same team that made Lords of the Fallen (which I haven't played) and follows the Soulsborne design very well. It released in 2017.
Combat is really fun—lots of different weapons to play around with and the gameplay feels very much like Bloodborne set in a Sci-Fi setting. Your character has an exoskeleton rig and most of the game you are fighting Mech type characters and robots. There is a dismemberment system where you can target limbs on enemies for attacks or to collect various armor or gear they are carrying. You collect tech scraps (which are essentially Souls) to level up your rig and level up your weapons/armor just like Dark Souls. The twist is when you die you have a set amount of time to retrieve your Souls—killing enemies increases the timer and it adds a good amount of tension to get your Souls back. There is a sequel coming out in September and I'm really baffled why this game isn't mentioned more since most of Era seems obsessed with FROM type games. I think this game nails the Souls formula overall better than Nioh as a Soulsborne clone and I'm all in for The Surge 2 next month. Curious if you guys agree/disagree and are looking forward to the sequel. I highly recommend this to Souls fans who want a different twist on the formula.
 
Admiral Woofington

Admiral Woofington

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
14,892
First game had boring environments and as someone who also plays fashion souls, the games selection wasn't doing it for me. Souls for me is just as much the stunning vistas and environments as the combat and designs.

Second game looks like a massive improvement.
 
Jawmuncher

Jawmuncher

Crisis Dino
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
38,847
Ibis Island
I think most just haven't given it a chance. I was surprised by how often it comes up in talks for those who have.
Really curious to see how The Surge 2 does.
 
Saucycarpdog

Saucycarpdog

Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,600
Boss battles are a big part of why I like Souls games but the bosses in Surge 1 were meh.

The combat did have a lot of potential tho.
 

Deleted member 2229

User requested account closure
Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,740
Speaking for myself: it lacks a lot of what makes From games visually and thematically interesting. Enemies, player character armor, weapons, environments, story. All of that is a non starter for me. It's not really enough to just take the basic gameplay and transplant it into a different setting. There's a lot of work that goes into making From's worlds interesting, unique and individualistic even within their respective settings that I'm just not seeing here. To me it kind of just looks like a lot of other things out there in the industry already that I was never all that interested in in the first place. So it's not really for me, and I've never much been a fan of industrial Sci Fi anyway unless its like, Gundam.

If they ever decided to go in a more futuristic and fantastical sci fi direction I'm sure myself and others would be more willing to give it a chance, provided that it's world and design was well crafted and thought out.
 
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100%TrophyMaster

100%TrophyMaster

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,943
Admiral Woofington said:
First game had boring environments and as someone who also plays fashion souls, the games selection wasn't doing it for me. Souls for me is just as much the stunning vistas and environments as the combat and designs.

Second game looks like a massive improvement.
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Agreed on the environments for the most part—most of the main game is set in a broken down factory setting but the DLC which adds a theme park expansion is really good and different from the base game
 
Chaos2Frozen

Chaos2Frozen

Member
Nov 3, 2017
28,155
To be honest at this point I'm all tapped out of this genre.

I'll still try out Elden Ring and Nioh 2 but I'm no longer hungry for new Souls experience anymore.
 
leon9506

leon9506

Member
Aug 31, 2018
514
Omnipotent said:
Speaking for myself: it lacks a lot of what makes From games visually and thematically interesting. Enemies, player character armor, weapons, environments, story. All of that is a non starter for me. It's not really enough to just take the basic gameplay and transplant it into a different setting. There's a lot of work that goes into making From's worlds interesting, unique and individualistic even within their respective settings that I'm just not seeing here. To me it kind of just looks like a lot of other things out there in the industry already that I was never all that interested in in the first place. So it's not really for me, and I've never much been a fan of industrial Sci Fi anyway unless its like, Gundam.

If they ever decided to go in a more futuristic and fantastical sci fi direction I'm sure myself and others would be more willing to give it a chance, provided that it's world and design was well crafted and thought out.
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this is how I feel
 
Zukuu

Zukuu

Member
Oct 30, 2017
6,809
I do. The game is more fun than it has any right to be.
Looking forward to The Surge 2.
 
KillLaCam

KillLaCam

Prophet of Truth
Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,399
Seoul
Didnt like the visuals and it looked kinda slow. I can't really give things a change if I don't like how they look. Same situation as lords of the fallen
 
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Lant_War

Lant_War

Classic Anus Game
The Fallen
Jul 14, 2018
23,606
I played 30 minutes of it when it was a PS+ game and I thought it was absolutely dreadful. Some mechanics are cool (being able to focus on a part of the body for example), but the combat feels weightless and clunky, the environments are boring, the enemies are ultra basic... I don't like saying it's a bad game because again, my playtime is literally just 30 minutes but unless the game drastically improves later on it's probably pretty bad.

The Surge 2 seems interesting though, hope they ironed the stuff that doesn't work out.
 
NediarPT88

NediarPT88

Member
Oct 29, 2017
15,332
Can't say I like the art direction and some combat animations look off, that's enough for me to skip the game (I did the same for Dark Souls 2 for example, though in that case it was mostly because of the animations and not art direction). Also in all the videos I've watched I haven't seen a single enemy that made me think "that seems really fun to fight".
 
Strings

Strings

Member
Oct 27, 2017
31,620
Didn't like how it felt, and thought it was a pretty boring world. I'd give the Surge 2 more of a shot, but I've already been burned by two of the developers games, so /shrug.
 
Goosenman

Goosenman

Member
Nov 6, 2017
139
Playing it now via PC game pass and really enjoying it. Doesn't reinvent the wheel but I like the time limit to get your scrap back. Plays nicely and the visceral kills look great. It's a good way from Souls, but still good.
 
Rickenslacker

Rickenslacker

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,415
I tried the demo of The Surge. I didn't like the prefab character and the combat was just a tad tedious. Something with Souls is that a lot of the combat is decisive and is over quickly, whether you take out the enemy or they you, but in TS1 I found myself slugging away for long enough that reattempts were more tedious than they were overcoming a challenge.

I look forward to the second game though, a custom character goes a long way with me.
 
Jobbs

Jobbs

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
5,639
Surge 1 was a fun game but it takes someone who REALLY loves the genre in a hardcore way to love it because of some of its limitations, high difficulty, and lack of interesting bosses. There's only one or maybe two bosses in the game that I think are good bosses, and I am saying this as someone who liked the game.

Surge 2 looks so, so good though -- Like, boundary pushingly good. It seems to have fixed every issue with the first game and added some innovative new elements like a directional parry system. It just looks amazing, and it's my most anticipated game of 2019.

 

Deleted member 56752

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
May 15, 2019
8,699
idk. I always felt that there was a risk reward in souls that made sense, felt good, and the world felt interesting. I couldn't get into Surge because it didn't interest me beyond the prologue. The environments didn't beg me to explore them like dark souls. I never felt connected, which is by far the coolest part of the game for me. THey are also so kind as to allow me to beat it super easily through co op which I can't do in surge. And yeah, enemies were bad in surge
 
Mechaplum

Mechaplum

Enlightened
Member
Oct 26, 2017
18,953
JP
Environment design, couldn't be more boring if they tried. I mean it makes sense in the setting and the levels are actually quite well thought out but ultimately it's just warehouses and corridors.
 
gforguava

gforguava

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,740
My favorite aspect of From's work is the mood of them, the way everything about them(gameplay, enemies, locations, etc) meld together into the whole. Taking just the gameplay and changing the rest into something less appealing(to me) is just missing the point, the Soulsborne gameplay isn't the thing that draws me in, I like the gameplay because it helps create the mood and fits the feeling of the rest of the game.

This is why the original Dark Souls is still my favorite game of this mold.
 

Deleted member 56752

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
May 15, 2019
8,699
gforguava said:
My favorite aspect of From's work is the mood of them, the way everything about them(gameplay, enemies, locations, etc) meld together into the whole. Taking just the gameplay and changing the rest into something less appealing(to me) is just missing the point, the Soulsborne gameplay isn't the thing that draws me in, I like the gameplay because it helps create and fits the feeling of the rest.

This is why the original Dark Souls is still my favorite game of this mold.
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Sen's fortress is bar none one of the most wild level designs of all time.
 
Gray clouds

Gray clouds

Member
Nov 7, 2017
465
Atmosphere is what makes Dark Souls for me. It's not the combat or difficulty.

In my opinion, The Surge just looks a bit too generic.
 
nachum00

nachum00

Member
Oct 26, 2017
8,460
The art design and level design is too off-putting to me.

I've tried twice to play it but didn't end up getting very far either time.
 
Viceratops

Viceratops

Banned
Jun 29, 2018
2,570
As a fan of Bloodborne, Nioh, Dark Souls 3, and Sekiro, in that order, I would just say the first Surge had a lot of potential. It just had too many issues like crashing the shit out of my PS4Pro. The level design was also way too constricted. Some fights needed more space and it just wasn't there. I think the world is very interesting though. It leaves a lot for us to look forward to.
 
Jobbs

Jobbs

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
5,639
BoxingIsCool said:
As someone who has never played nioh but tried surge, are you saying that Nioh is a better souls game than surge or surge is a better souls game than nioh
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As someone who has played both, I'd say The Surge is much more of a "Souls game" than Nioh, which strays a bit into other stuff with its mission structure and diablo style loot. Whether that's good or bad is up to you, but if you really like Dark Souls The Surge is more closely patterned after that type of game.

I personally liked The Surge more than Nioh, but I really like the setting and aesthetic of The Surge which contributed to my enjoyment.
 
Res

Res

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,641
I liked it, but the boss fights and environments were lacking. The sequel looks to be better, from what I've seen
 
texhnolyze

texhnolyze

Shinra Employee
Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,342
Indonesia
Because Era still notoriously judge the book by its cover.

People tend to ignore games not coming from their favorite devs.
 
Gush

Gush

Member
Nov 17, 2017
2,096
Wasn't into the Tonka-Souls visual direction and the game still felt a tad too clunky for me compared to Fromsoft games. That said, it's definitely a solid game and a huge improvement on Lords of the Fallen which I found to be just awful, it just wasn't strong enough to convince me to put time into it instead of going back to any of the From games that frankly did it all better.

If Surge 2 improves as much as Surge did over LotF we'll have a really fantastic game on our hands. The first one was on the cusp but never nailed the landing for me.

SneerfulOwl said:
It's certainly a better Souls game than Nioh.
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Surge is more studiously devoted to following From's footsteps pace by pace, but Nioh knocked it out of the park with the blend of Diablo/Fromsoft/Character action so convincingly that I'm glad it wasn't so slavish in its approach. The changes and innovations it made are the reason why I'd put it on par with the Dark Souls games, simply emulating them wouldn't have given nearly as memorable a result.
 
Transistor

Transistor

Outer Wilds Ventures Test Pilot
Administrator
Oct 25, 2017
37,360
Washington, D.C.
The Surge was ok, but so many of the encounters were just large groups that were guaranteed to kill you unless you grinded your level quite a bit. It just felt like a slog.
 
Morrigan

Morrigan

Spear of the Metal Church
Member
Oct 24, 2017
34,504
I agree with what Omnipotent wrote, and I'll add that I simply found it... dreadfully dull.

The environments were thoroughly uninteresting to explore, the enemies boring to fight, the character boring to customize, all which are things that matter to the the most in those games. I wasn't engrossed, I was bored and annoyed, and I eventually just stopped playing it. I finished Lords of the Fallen but The Surge bored me to tears, sadly. I think the setting being unappealing is a large part of that, but it's not just that either.
 
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