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The Surge Review
TL/DR; Good game, but nothing spectaular. Based off 25 hours of gameplay with the pre-release version.
I'm a huge fan of the Dark Souls series and this sub-genre in general, so I'm fairly qualified to talk (at length) about the pros and cons of The Surge. You can check out a much more in-depth video review of the game on my channel (i'll drop a link to it at the conclusion of this written review).
The Good Things
The Combat: The Surge DOES do a good job of making you feel great while you play. Attacks are meaty, weighty and have good impact. Just like in any Souls game, you lock on to enemies and play the 'cat and mouse' chess game with them. Normal enemies are VERY hard, and The Surge focuses almost exlusively on them - boss battles are few and far between. You can focus armored or non-armored areas, the latter of which giving you access to finishing moves to lop off that armor and take it for yourself as a schematic. The game is harder when you do this, and the gameplay loop that results is fairly unique (albeit...black and white) - focus yellow areas if you want gear, and focus blue areas if you want to live and progress easier.
The Difficulty: This game is very, very hard...for both good and bad reasons. Every enemy can kill you in a few hits, and it's more intense on a moment-to-moment level than let's say Dark Souls. In addition, the maze like level design feels cramped, which makes the gameplay more intense because there are usually very little places to get comfortable and fight in line of sight of other parts of the screen (to see if other enemies are about to jump you). Bosses are challenging, fun and fair...just like in Dark Souls. They are hard but not super hard, usually requiring multiple attemps...I just wish there were more of them. They are all beatable, because the game has prepared you well given how hard the regular enemies are. With that said, if you are a casual or average gamer....I would not recommend The Surge due to the massive difficulty in the game.
Misc. Good Things: Great lightning effects, VERY GOOD PERFORMANCE (never dropped below 60 fps), a unique setting (however, one that the story does a poor job of enhancing and developing), really great animations and execution animations, and one of the best options menus in gaming (everything is explained very well, in detail - and fully customizable).
The Bad Things
The World Design: The Surge is basically...a SCI-FI Dark Souls. However, levels are VERY small, and interconnected through a main hub. This results in a more interconnected experience, at the cost of environmental diversity. Every environment screams 'I'm a Factory' and has a lot of repeat art assets and textures. I grew very tired of the levels by the end of the game. Also, a lack of WOW moments (Borreal Valley in DS3, Dragon Aerie in DS2) - the scale at which the game exists is very small, dense and compact. The levels feel like mazes...for better or worse.
Story and Characters: There is no character creator (which is fine)...it allows the main lead to speak and have good development in a rich story. The problem is...the story takes a back seat and is quickly shoved under the rug. Warren himself (your character) is boring, terribly voice acted and very one-dimensional. He doesn't question much, nor show very much emotion. It defeats the purpose of having a pre-defined lead in the end, because he doesn't get developed. Other NPC's are bland as well, and the voice acting is cringe-worthly.
Enemy Design Issues: I don't like how The Surge focuses so heavily on trash mobs. They are the meat of the game, in addition to navigating said maze levels finding 'switches' or 'consoles' to open new areas or unlock a door leading to the next boss. It gets VERY tiresome grinding trash mobs over, and over, and over...and because they are so hard...it feels very sluggish going through The Surge sometimes. Some people will like that...I did not.
Misc. Bad Things: No FOV slider (not required, but would have been nice given how cramped the game is), too few bosses, a weapon progression system that promotes you to stick to a single weapon class (thwarts experimentation - find a new awesome 2 handed staff but you've been duel wielding +3 weapons all game? Don't even equip it.), and really sub-par music.
Recommendation: If you're desperately looking for more of the same Souls goodness - it's just...barely...worth a buy. If you're new to Souls-Like games - start with Demon/Dark Souls. If you're looking for some real innovation in the sub-genre...I have to say wait for a sale and pick it up around $35.