The Surge Demo

It’s not difficult to make melee combat look cool, regardless of whether we are talking about swords, axes or huge robots punching each other for some reason. However, the hard part is making the mechanics just as exciting, because it’s very difficult to translate visceral combat moves in key presses and button flicks.

The Surge is a third-person adventure game with a lot of action and melee-based combat, which is about as close to Dark Souls as it gets, except you are using mech suits instead of demonic weapons. Thus, the main idea is to defeat enemies using precise combos and survive level after level filled with enemies, while also getting stronger along the way and improve your character.

Speaking of which, it all starts with the main character waking up after being knocked out on his first day on the job. He wakes up in the middle of total chaos, with robots running all over the place and attacking everyone in sight. Thankfully, he is in a pretty awesome exoskeleton, which allows him to tackle most dangerous situation using brute force and a few special moves.

As mentioned before, The Surge is very similar to Dark Souls, especially in terms of combat. You can strike enemies using horizontal or vertical swipes, as well as dodge and block attacks if you are quick enough. Things get tougher when you get to the bosses, on the other hand, because they can deal a lot of damage if you do not learn their moves and how to counter them.

The controls are very simple and enjoyable, especially since you can use the mouse & keyboard or put your gamepad through a bit of a workout. You can also dismember enemies as you desire, and the best part is that you can loot the resulting body parts and improve your suit. Lastly, the graphics are very nice as well, even if they can be a bit overwhelming every now and again.

The Surge is a very polished action game, even if it borrows most of its elements from Dark Souls and similar games. On the other hand, the setting is new, and you can get a lot of enjoyment out of the formula if you are a fan of the genre.