The Surge

Welcome back fellow Steemians, this week I review this month's PlayStation Plus free monthly game.

One of the great added benefits of opting to go with PlayStation when I switched to console and being a PS Plus subscriber, is that each month you get some really awesome games, usually one good game and then another indie or old school platform game. It's not always the best games but it's a great way of getting exposed to games you probably wouldn't have bought, because these days they cost a pretty penny.

Nothing like a good classic science-fiction style game set far in the future, only here with an epic exo-suit which very much reminded me of the one Matt Damon had in the Elysium film. There were actually quite a few similarities between this game and that movie, it's like they decided to make a game of the movie. There is no official connection between the two, but the Surge is like Elysium and Dark Souls got together and had a child. Story is very much in line with the film and game play feels very much like Dark Souls. The Surge’s gameplay follows the now very popular formula of letting you collect as much experience points and scrap as you can while battling enemy robots, and bosses before you cash it all in and level up, but if you get killed you’ll lose whatever resources you had on you and you'll need to redo it all. This is both challenging and very frustrating at times.

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Our story begins somewhere in a dystopian future where the human race have exhausted the entire world's resources, which then led to environmental diseases and a crumbling society.

The unfathomable increase in producing of drones and working robots has created mass unemployment, and the humans are forced to resort to augmentations and powered rigs to keep up with a far more efficient equivalent.

Our protagonist in this tale is named Warren, a new employee on his first day on the job on board a bullet train heading towards the company headquarters of CREO. This is one of the largest tech conglomerates now controlling most of planet earth, and they are famous for their revolutionary breakthroughs in a multitude of fields, from common household items to advanced exoskeletons and robotics. The company however started a new project called "Project reSOLVE" which was the brain child of the company's founder Jonah Guttenberg, which involves a complex chemical formula which is dispersed via rockets to slowly reseed the Earth. This will then repair Earth's damaged atmosphere and as well as boost the growth of flora and vegetation worldwide.

Warren, who is wheelchair bound, is prepared for his surgical implantation of an advanced exoskeleton, gone horribly wrong when the automated system fails to sedate him, then painfully grafting each component to him until he passes out during neurosurgery. Warren wakes up to find the facility in ruins, with drones attacking personnel and fellow workers for unknown reasons. Guided by an executive known only as "Sally", he is forced to explore the entire complex, in order to find out what exactly happened or what went wrong.

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"Battle is the Great Redeemer. It is the fiery crucible in which true heroes are forged. The one place where all men truly share the same rank, regardless of what kind of parasitic scum they were going in. " - Master Sergeant Farell

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Where The Surge really excels is when it comes the the combat, they aren't the most challenging I've experienced, but taking down enemies is very satisfying.

One of the really weird and interesting parts of this game is the dismemberment system, which not only finishes off opponents in grisly cinematic fashion but also allows you to harvest new gear for your exo-suit for specific parts that get dismembered. The game is all about the gear, each piece of armor grants buffs against various types of damage, as well as improving your overall stats in the game so you can face bigger and badder bad guys as you progress.

All in all The Surge is a fun all round sci-fi game that takes you on a thirty plus hour campaign journey, and with all the customization that you could ask for. The unfortunate part is that the story kind of takes a back seat to the combat, and I would have preferred a more story driven game, or at least find a better balance between the two. The other downside was that I upgraded most of my gear, weapons and armor about just past half way through the game, which meant is was just combat from there on out. The Surge 2 is scheduled for release sometime this year, and I hope they address some of these minor issues.

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The Surge is a science fiction action role-playing video game developed by the good people at Deck13 Interactive and published by Focus Home Interactive.

They were the great minds behind the 2014 game, Lords of the Fallen as well a few unknown games which I have personally never played, this would be their second major commercial game. The Surge was released in May 2017 for all the usual suspects, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. The developers at Deck13 Interactive have described this game as inspired by Rise of the Robots, and consider this a spiritual successor to Lords of the Fallen.

You will most definitely be able to find this on a good deal somewhere, or if you're a PlayStation Plus subscriber like myself, you can get this for free during the month of April, just pop on over to the PSN Store and get your free monthly games.

If you happen to find yourself really enjoying this game, then you're in luck because the sequel for this game will be dropping later this year, and we will most likely be seeing an announcement at E3 in June.