The Surge Reviews

The Surge is ranked in the 51st percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
9.1 / 10.0
May 15, 2017

As you break into the second act of The Surge, the difficulty spikes but that’s expected. The first boss and the run up to it is just a taste of what’s to come. You have to learn new patterns, how to defeat new enemies, and that means you’re going to die some more. But the beauty of The Surge is that when you die you don’t ever feel like it’s the game being cheap on you. You know it’s something you did or didn’t do, and you’re eager to get back and try again. That’s what Lords of the Fallen was missing, and what The Surge gets just right. When combined with the crafting, gear, and intrigue of the story, The Surge comes into its own as not “just another Souls-like”. This is a great Action RPG and one of the best of the year so far in an already crowded 2017. If you like difficult Action RPGs, The Surge is your next addiction.

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7.5 / 10.0
May 16, 2017

A good Souls-like with an entertaining battle system, interesting crafting elements, but no original soul.

Review in Italian | Read full review

8.8 / 10.0
May 15, 2017

Despite a stylish dystopian setting, the narrative within it flounders a bit, but the brilliantly brutal melee combat and interesting mechanics shine through in this excellent hardcore hack and slash RPG

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7 / 10.0
May 16, 2017

The Surge is great, and I say that with only a single qualifier - It's standing in a genre built by games that did more than great. Which isn't exactly fair to hold against this game, but if you've ended the age of fire, woke from the nightmare and torn through Japan, The Surge is going to scratch, if not satisfy that itch.

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7 / 10.0
May 18, 2017

But The Surge feels like a success, and one that we'll probably end up dying several hundred more times in.

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7 / 10
May 23, 2017

Deck 13 took what they learnt from working on Lords of the Fallen and added their own ideas to allow The Surge to be more than a pure Dark Souls clone.

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NZGamer
Top Critic
8 / 10.0
May 24, 2017

A Souls-like game with its own identity, The Surge deserves merit for its combat and sci-fi setting.

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4 / 5.0
May 23, 2017

The Surge is a whirlwind of action-RPG fun with a fast and frantic melee-focused combat system, addictive loot systems and an immersive sci-fi horror atmosphere.

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7 / 10.0
May 30, 2017

Deck13 has improved their offering since Lords of the Fallen but this action-adventure RPG still fails to dazzle. It works well, but nothing more.

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Unscored
May 29, 2017

When a dude in power armour stabs you dead for the sixth time, it doesn't invoke feelings of despair - or any feelings at all.

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8.5 / 10.0
May 15, 2017

The Surge may be inspired by games like Bloodborne or Dark Souls, but it doesn't rely too much on their mechanics and it is truly greater for it. It shows that the title can stand on its own two feet, and I can see it becoming a truly successful franchise that could potentially fill the ever-devouring hole that Dark Souls has left in most of us. Or for those of you who haven't played any games like this and are looking to pick this up, this game is for you too. The combat feels and plays great, and the change in setting is what the genre really needed.

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Cubed3
Top Critic
7 / 10
May 16, 2017

Unlike Deck13's predecessor, The Surge has personality of its own and introduces lots of new tricks, even if a couple of them are pointless. At its worst, the environments are samey, and the lack of variety of enemies are real noticeable flaws in what could have been a cult classic. The shockingly few boss fights are also a disappointment; since robots and cyborgs are so limitless in possibility for design, it is almost heart-breaking that The Surge is so restrained with what it does have. In spite of its shortcomings, this does come recommended from a user who has been intimate with these kinds of games since Demon's Souls. It gets a lot of things right, and does stand out, thanks to its atmosphere, lack of hand holding and, of course, the brutal action.

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May 15, 2017

There will be some who enjoy The Surge. Sadly, I was not one of them.

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GameSkinny
Top Critic
May 15, 2017

Between severing body parts for upgrades and makeshift hydraulic weapons, The Surge offers a satisfying (if grindy) take on extremely difficult action RPGs.

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May 16, 2017

For all its mechanical competency, The Surge feels as mechanical as its enemies through most of the experience. No where near enough was done with the science fiction theme, and after catching my attention with an intriguing set up, the game then lost me with a generally dull plot that it was never quite able to claw back.

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78 / 100
May 16, 2017

The Surge is a remarkably solid action-RPG that uses its premise to wedge a number of interesting design quirks into a familiar formula. Not terribly deep, but a wrench-swinging, robot-pulverizing good time nonetheless.

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7 / 10.0
May 19, 2017

The Surge is all about tough fights. Battles are the main reason why you should try it, and maybe beat it to the end. But sometimes game becomes ridiculously hard just for the sake of being ridiculously hard, which is more annoying than fun.

Review in Russian | Read full review

90 / 100
May 16, 2017

Deck13 did their homework with The Surge. When compared to Lords of the Fallen, the developer's previous title, this new action-RPG has greater technical quality and is more polished. The game still has some inspiration on games from the SoulsBorne franchise, but it's good to see that the developer has found its own identity, bringing new mechanics that refresh the model created by FromSoftware. Combat is tactical, based not only on beating an enemy, but also on choosing which body part should be hit, being possible to remove pieces of armor that later can be added to your own arsenal. This is an action-RPG with a focus on the action part. The RPG aspects are a little bit simplified, but still detailed and deep enough to offer a personalized experience to the players and their character. Despite still having a generic protagonist and NPCs that you don't really care about, as well as places that can be a real maze to memorize, The Surge is a great game with high difficulty that should be on the radar for players who like real challenges and a sci-fi theme.

Review in Portuguese | Read full review

8 / 10
May 19, 2017

The Surge is a pure adrenaline fueled action RPG that doesn't take a moment to rest and keeps the player engaged throughout their journey. It is packed with a deep experience and customization system but unfortunately lacks in enemy and environment variety that stops it from reaching the height of the Dark Souls series.

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6 / 10.0
May 20, 2017

"The Surge" is basically "Lords of the Fallen" with a different sci fi look. It's got a nice rpg system and environmenta with depth and high playability. But its biggest problem is that it's just a copy cat of eveything Souls did, and not a good one. It's impossibly hard and the combat is not to the high standard of Souls. So across the many great games released this year,I don't recommend  "The Surge" unless you enjoyed "Lords of the Fallen" and the experience it brought

Review in Persian | Read full review